Penguins in Chile don copper vests to heal wounds

Researchers in Chile have designed snug red vests threaded with copper and zinc for injured Humboldt penguins, hoping the garments will help the aquatic birds heal faster. The vests aim to protect wounds from the penguins’ pecking while delivering antimicrobial and tissue-repairing properties from the metals woven into the fabric.

Veterinarians have used such suits in the past to treat injured dogs and cats. Researchers at the Buin Zoo, a wildlife park on the outskirts of Santiago where measurements of penguins were taken to develop the first bodysuits, are now trying the technology on the vulnerable species.

“For years, vests with microfibers containing elements like copper and zinc have been tested on pets, particularly dogs and cats, and have greatly helped in the recovery of skin wounds,” said Ignacio Idalsoaga, director of the Buin Zoo.

“We began to wonder , why can’t this be used on penguins?” he told The Associated Press from the zoo on Wednesday.

The experiment comes as Chile’s Humboldt penguin population declines sharply. Chilean and international researchers surveying the country’s major breeding colonies in 2024 and 2025 found a 63% drop in active nests compared to the same sites three years earlier. The birds face threats including entanglement in fishing nets, plastic pollution, disease outbreaks and competition with fisheries for food.

Humboldt penguins also find themselves in the cross hairs of El Niño, which brings unusually warm waters to parts of the Pacific Ocean and makes cold-water fish harder to find. Hunger forces penguin parents to travel farther for food and leave nests behind.

“Especially now, with all the problems caused by El Niño, we’re likely to see many abandoned chicks in the coming weeks, with injuries they suffer in the environment,” Idalsoaga said.

Wildlife clinics across Chile receive distressed penguins stranded along Chile’s coast, some cut by fishing nets or boat propellers, others weakened by a lack of food, said Tomás Pino, a veterinarian who runs Conservación Humboldt, a nonprofit that rehabilitates injured marine animals in Chile’s north.

Penguins often twist their long necks to peck at gashes and pull out their own stitches, Pino said. The vests prevent that while putting copper , of which Chile is the world’s top producer , to work as a salve. Copper and zinc woven into the fabric inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi. Zinc also stimulates the formation of new blood vessels, helping damaged tissue heal faster.

“We’ve seen that the penguins tolerate it quite well,” Pino said. “We noticed that from one day to the next, the wounds were in better condition with the vest.”