Penguins are Taking Antidepressants to Cope with Harsh Winter

The harsh winter has been a bummer for more than just humans. Constant wind and rain in Scarborough, England has gotten penguins at the Sea Life Centre so down that their trainers are feeding them "uppers" in order to brighten their mood, reported The Guardian via the Guzelian news agency.

"Humboldt [penguins] in the wild on the coast of Peru and Chile can be subjected to some pretty wild extremes of weather. What they don't get though is weeks of almost daily downpours and high winds," display curator Lyndsey Crawford reportedly told Guzelian. "After the first week out birds were just a bit subdued, but after over a month now, they are thoroughly fed-up and miserable, much like the rest of us."

The weather is no laughing matter, as depression and stress can lower the penguins natural defenses.

A stress-inducing trespassing into their enclosure three years ago cause the penguins to become frightened and delayed their reproduction.

Anecdotal evidence of the winter weather's effect on penguins is supported by recent studies into the effects of climate change on wildlife.

As reported by The New York Times, a study conducted last month by P. Dee Boersma, a University of Washington scientist, found that intense storms are increasingly taking a toll on Magellanic penguins. "Between 1983 and 2010 we followed 3496 known-age Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) chicks at Punta Tombo to determine how weather impacted their survival. In two years, rain was the most common cause of death killing 50 percent and 43 percent of chicks."

The penguins at Sea Life Centre are responding to the treatment, and hopefully will make a full recovery.

"[The antidepressants are] doing the trick so far, but we are all praying for the weather to change and at least a few successive days of sunshine to give the penguins the tonic they really need," Crawford told The Guardian.