Penguin ‘toxicologists’ find forever chemicals in remote Patagonia

Penguins living along the Patagonian coast of Argentina can serve as living monitors of their environment by using small, chemical-detecting leg bands, according to a study from UB and the University of California, Davis.

For the proof-of-concept study, published in the journal Earth: Environmental Sustainability, UC Davis scientists outfitted 54 Magellanic penguins with silicone passive samplers placed gently around their legs for a few days during the 2022-24 breeding seasons. The sensors safely absorbed chemicals from the water, air and surfaces the penguins encountered while the unwitting “toxicologists” foraged to feed their chicks.

Once retrieved, the samplers were sent to UB for testing, which revealed that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — often called “forever chemicals” — were detected in more than 90% of the bands, even in this remote region. 

Testing revealed a mixture of older legacy pollutants as well as chemicals that replaced phased-out PFAS.

“By using a non‑invasive sampling approach, we were able to detect a shift from legacy PFAS to newer replacement chemicals in the penguins’ environment over time,” says lead author Diana Aga, director of the UB RENEW Institute and SUNY Distinguished Professor and Henry M. Woodburn Professor in the Department of Chemistry. “The presence of GenX and other replacement PFAS — chemicals typically associated with nearby industrial sources — shows that these compounds are not staying local but are reaching even the most remote ecosystems. This raises important concerns that newer PFAS, despite being designed as safer alternatives, are still persistent enough to spread globally and pose exposure risks to wildlife.”

“The only way we’ve had of measuring pollutant exposure in the past is by getting blood samples or feathers,” adds co-corresponding author Ralph Vanstreels, a wildlife veterinarian with the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center in the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine. “It’s exciting to have something that is only minimally invasive. The penguins are choosing the sample sites for us and letting us know where it’s important to monitor more deeply. As the animals go about their business, they’re telling us a lot about the environment they’re experiencing.”

The study provides an efficient, practical means of tracking the locations and times of chemical exposure, particularly in hard-to-sample aquatic environments. The authors envision the method being used to identify pollution exposure from oil spills, shipwrecks and other industrial sources.

“Moving forward, we’d like to increase our environmental detectives by expanding to different species,” says Vanstreels, adding that they next plan to test the method on cormorants, which can dive to depths of more than 250 feet.

“By turning penguins into sentinels of their environment, we have a powerful new way to communicate issues relevant for wildlife health and, more broadly, for the conservation of marine species and our oceans,” says co-author Marcela Uhart, director of the Latin America Program in the Drayer Wildlife Health Center.

Additional authors from UB include Paige Montgomery, a PhD student in Aga’s lab and first author of the study, and Katarzyna Kordas, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health. Other contributors include Luciana Gallo, Gabriela Blanco and Flavio Quintana from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas in Argentina (CONICET).

The study was funded by the Houston Zoo.