Climate change comes for emperor penguins

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Emperor penguins have been classified as endangered due to mass drownings caused by melting sea ice. The animals require “fast ice” fixed to coastlines during their mating seasons so that chicks can develop waterproof feathers and adults can moult. As temperatures rise, this ice is breaking up early, causing whole colonies to fall into the sea and drown. No chicks from four of five colonies survived in the Bellinghausen sea off Antarctica in 2022. Record-low levels of ice the following year resulted in breeding failures in a fifth of the continent’s emperor penguin colonies. According to the British Antarctic Survey, if greenhouse gas emissions persist at current levels, the species is expected to decline by 99% by 2100. This would have a devastating impact on the predators who depend on them as a source of food.