Magellanic penguins on southern Chile's Isla Magdalena, off the coast of Punta Arenas.
Marine experts in Chile were baffled as to what caused the deaths of about 1,200 penguins that washed up on two beaches in the south of the country over several days.
The dead birds were of the Magellanic and Humboldt species, which live in extreme southern South America and migrate to northern Chile and beyond during the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Penguin deaths are common, but "the strange thing is the number" of dead birds, fisheries official Bernardo Pardo told Chile’s Radio Cooperativa.
The government says it has ruled out pollution as the cause of the fatalities, and is awaiting results of tests on some of the dead birds being conducted by two universities.
Photo: Isla Magdalena National Park