Melting ice caused by climate change is leading to the extinction of emperor penguins in Antarctica. All chicks from four of the five surveyed colonies in the area died Due to the lack of sea ice, as published in the journal Nature in a study conducted during the reproductive period of these oviparous eggs.
Scientists monitored five colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Antarctica via satellite. Four of them lost all their chicks. It is estimated that about 10,000 birds have died.
puppies drowned or died of hypothermia from having to be dunked in water without their plumage growing. Since they were not mature enough to swim and withstand cold water, they were abandoned by the adults. The emperor penguins They need ice attached to the ground to reproduce. The chicks must spend several weeks on this surface to grow their feathers.
9 out of 10 emperor penguins could disappear
The researcher-led study by Peter T. Fretwell warns that at this rate and with continued global warming, emperor penguins face a serious risk of extinction.
“The development of the emperor penguin population based on sea ice loss projections has painted a bleak picture, which this shows.” If current warming continues, more than 90% of imperial colonies will be nearly extinct by the end of this century,” the study warns.
One egg per pair
Emperor penguins are creatures of habit. They return to the same areas every year. Each pair hatches from only one egg. They do this in June, in the southern winter, when temperatures are harsher. The chicks are born in September, but they are already autonomous only in January and February, in the Antarctic summer.
Melting ice before juvenile maturity has resulted in an Environmental disaster that killed more than 10,000 chicks in the waters of the South Pole. Despite their ability to seek alternative breeding grounds, the record-breaking melting of polar ice since 2016 is threatening their ability to adapt, scientists say.
The population of emperor penguins is distributed over half a million individuals 250,000 breeding pairsall in Antarctica, according to a 2020 study. The Bellingshausen Sea colonies account for less than 5% of that total, but “in the global census, 30% of all colonies were affected by the thaw in the past year. “So there will be a lot of chicks that don’t survive,” Fretwell said.
