An Army Needed To Fight Against

The article, “Zoos Try to Ward Off a Penguin Killer”, written on October 6th, 2013 by Donald G. McNeil Jr. can be found in the environmental portion of the science section on The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/science/earth/zoos-aim-to-ward-off-a-penguin-killer.html?_r=0

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infection caused by parasitic protozoans. Although mostly infecting humans, it can also infect many animals, including penguins. Malaria is one of the top causing mortality’s for penguins exposed outdoors. If the disease  were to be left untreated, it would probably kill at least half the birds infected.

The threat of a penguin getting malaria is so great many zoos will dose their birds in the summer with pills for malaria, confirmed Dr. Richard Feachem the director of global health at the University of California, San Francisco. Most zoos are taking some type of action, in the effort to help battle this disease e for cute, easy going penguins. The London Zoo, birds have been given lavender for nesting material, as well as their pens being sprayed with lavender oil, to keep away mosquitoes. Lavender is a repellent to mosquitoes.

 The natural, first reaction to a killer disease is to find a cure. Dr. Wack, from the Maryland Zoo believes in letting the birds build a natural immunity. But Christine Sheppard, a former chief of ornithology at the Bronx Zoo, says penguins can’t because there aren’t exposed to mosquitoes in their habitat.

 After reading this article, I have a lot of sympathy for the innocent penguins, battling the horrible disease. There are many disease in the world today. Cancer, the terrible thing, touches so many of Americans and beyond. We know the pain people are in and we try so much to help them with all of power but we just can’t, just like the zoos know the pain of the penguins. One can sense the hope in the many doctors and zookeepers quoted in the article.

 Mr. McNeil helped me learn something very important that I hadn’t known before and sparked many questions in my mind. Is the population of penguins with malaria increasing? Will zoos team up, form a foundation or something similar to help raise money to try to cure this disease for penguins? Malaria is a deadly and very dangerous disease for penguins and attention must be called to combat it just like any other sickness.