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STORY: Experts are warning a penguin population along Chile's central coast is on the path to extinction after a survey found a dramatic decrease in numbers.

A survey of two islands in the area last year detected 842 Humboldt penguin breeding pairs or active nests.

This year they found just one breeding pair.

Veterinarian Paulina Arce specializes in penguins.

She says island surveys over the past decades have either shown a decrease or the same level of penguin and nest populations. None has seen an increase.

ARCE: “Therefore, we believe that this decreasing trend will continue and can reach a more drastic scenario which would be the extinction of this species.”

Javiera Meza is the head of biodiversity conservation at the national forestry office Conaf.

She says a “perfect storm” of threats has wreaked havoc on penguin populations and other wildlife.

MEZA: “… there was the avian flu plus the El Nino phenomenon that shifted all the food towards the southern zone, and therefore, in the entire northern Chile, reproduction dropped to almost zero levels, and on top of that, many penguins died due to these two causes – bird flu plus the El Nino phenomenon.”

Anthropic causes – like sea pollution and habitat destruction or disturbance - are also among the penguin's main threats, says president of the Safari Conservation Foundation, Diego Penaloza.

Looking at an x-ray, he sees a hook inside a penguin’s throat.

And a fishing line inside this penguin’s mouth.

“In this case, it was a hook,” he says. “But tomorrow it may be plastic that kills a species.”