A new study predicts a bleak future for these iconic birds, which experienced an unprecedented breeding failure last year due to record-low sea ice levels.
For emperor penguins, sea ice is essential to survival. The iconic birds, found only in Antarctica, breed, lay their eggs, and raise their chicks on fast sea ice . They arrive at their breeding sites in late March. In May and June, they lay their eggs, which hatch after 65 days during the brutal Antarctic winter. The chicks then remain on the ice until their fluffy down is replaced by waterproof feathers, finally fledging in the summer months of December and January.
“We have never seen emperor penguins fail to breed at this scale in a single season,” the study’s lead author,of the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement. “The loss of sea ice in this region during the Antarctic summer made it very unlikely that displaced chicks would survive.” of emperor penguin colonies will be quasi-extinct, meaning they have too few individuals to support a population, by 2100., sea ice in Antarctica was increasing. But since then, the continent has experienced four years of the lowest sea ice extent in 45 years of satellite records. Between 2018 and 2022, 30 percent of the continent’s 62 known emperor penguin colonies were affected by partial or total sea ice loss.
Emperor penguins not only rely on stable sea ice for breeding and raising chicks, but also for molting and protection from predators.
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