Science: Twenty Million Pets

On Peru’s rainless, guano (dung)covered Chincha Islands, Director Carlos Llosa Belaunde of the semi-official Compañia Administradora del Guano fondly examined a guano sample. His 20 million birds were performing magnificently, producing more & more fertilizer for Peru’s irrigated fields. Recently Señor Llosa announced that this year the national guano harvest would be 170,000 tons, up from the 1942 low of 79,000 tons. Chief reasons: a scientific pampering of the guano birds, and the fact that the Peruvian (Humboldt) Current, which sometimes falters, was flowing strong and cold from the Antarctic, enriching the sea off Peru with marine life.

Most important guano bird is the guanay (a kind of cormorant), a highly efficient mechanism for catching the fish that swarm in Peruvian waters and turning them into fertilizer. Each guanay eats about 60 small fish a day and deposits annually some five kilos (11 Ibs.) of guano. Steamers passing the Chincha Islands are forbidden to blow their whistles lest the birds take off, fertilizing the sea. The guanayes have a bad habit of flying low after their takeoff, and their tailfeathers brush guano off the cliffs. Señor Llosa is ringing the steep-sided islands with walls, to force the birds to gain altitude more quickly.

The Chincha Islands are already playing host to almost all the birds they can hold. What the guano birds need now, says Señor Llosa, is more staging areas. The climate of southern Peru is favorable; the sea is full of fish. But there are virtually no islands there, and when the birds try to nest on the mainland, foxes eat their eggs. So Señor Llosa is building ten-foot walls across the peninsulas, making artificial islands for the birds to use as bases. He even dreams of parking the birds some day far at sea on anchored, floating islands.