Thai PM visits injured victims of train-bus collision at hospital

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Sunday visited a hospital hosting the injured victims of Saturday's train-bus collision in Bangkok, which has caused eight deaths and 32 injuries.

The accident occurred at around 15:40 on Saturday, when a train traveling from Chachoengsao Province to Bang Sue in Bangkok collided with a bus at a railway crossing in the center of Bangkok, triggering a fire accompanied by popping sounds. Several other cars and motorcycles were also involved.

Anutin visited the scene of the collision in the Saturday evening, pledging thorough investigations into the accident and assistance to the injured.

He said at the site that the accident was primarily triggered by the failure of relevant personnel to comply with safety regulations, adding the government will provide compensation to the deceased and the injured in accordance with relevant policies.

Scientists in Peru and Chile are racing to reverse the sharp decline of Humboldt Penguins, a warm-climate species uniquely adapted to the Pacific coast, as climate change and avian influenza threaten its survival.

Peru and Chile are home to the Humboldt penguin, named after the cold water current which flows from Antarctica up the Pacific coast of both countries. It is one of the very few penguin species in the world that lives in a warm climate. Scientists call them a sentinel species -- thermometers of the overall health of the ecosystem.

The penguins nest in Punta San Juan, a small national reserve in southern Peru. They are one species among many marine predators that rest and reproduce here in huge numbers. Biologist Susana Cardenas leads a team that is monitoring and researching these animals and birds. What the researchers have seen in recent years is a dramatic population decline in all species, but particularly penguins, and they are trying to find out why.

"In the last few years, we've seen a decline in the Humboldt penguin population. So, we can go back to 2022 in Punta San Juan, there were about 2,500 Penguins -- that was the size of our colony. And then, well, we had avian influenza that has hit wildlife really hard in Peru and in different places of the world," said Cardenas.

But the impacts didn't stop there for the penguins, which are classed as having vulnerable conservation status, Cardenas explained.

"After that, unfortunately, an El Nino in March of 2023 started and the marine conditions changed and the food availability was not the same. And the penguins, they were getting ready for their breeding season and that's when the marine conditions changed and they did not come back to breed," she said.

In Punta San Juan, penguin numbers dropped from 2,500 to 400 just as Peru's population plummeted from 15,600 to 5,000 all across the birds' range in Peru and Chile, according to Cardenas. That's why continuous data collection is key to maintain the decades of research.

Interns like Sandra Alcantara keep a daily count of the number of nesting penguins and chicks.

"I come here at 6 a.m. to conduct a penguin census. I count all the penguins in a specific age group: adults, juveniles, fledglings, and chicks. Right now, we're in the breeding season, so most of them are adults. So far, I've only seen two juveniles. As the weeks go by, I'll be able to see chicks and then, later on, fledglings," said Alcantara.

The penguins naturally make burrows in the guano, sea bird droppings which build up over decades. Field coordinator Kevin Farfan checks to see if there are any birds in the burrows.

"We are now observing in real time a gradual increase in the number of adult individuals resulting from successful reproduction -- a rise that is slow but steady -- and that gives us great cause for celebration," he said.

These animal populations, while apparently abundant in Punta San Juan, are also highly sensitive to change. Without the tireless dedication of these scientists and volunteers, Peru and the world could lose one of its iconic birds.