Emperor penguin at critical danger of extinction due to climate change

The emperor penguin is at severe threat of extinction within the subsequent 30 to 40 years on account of climate change, in line with research by the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA).

The emperor, the world's largest penguin and certainly one of only two penguin species endemic to Antarctica, provides beginning during the Antarctic winter and requires solid sea ice from April by to December to nest fledgling chicks.

If the sea freezes later or melts prematurely, the emperor family cannot complete its reproductive cycle.

"If the water reaches the new child penguins, which aren't ready to swim and should not have waterproof plumage, they die of the cold and drown," said biologist Marcela Libertelli, who has studied 15,000 penguins throughout two colonies in Antarctica at the IAA.

This has occurred on the Halley Bay colony in the Weddell Sea, the second-largest Emperor penguin colony, where for 3 years all of the chicks died.

Every August, in the middle of the southern hemisphere winter, Dr Libertelli and different scientists at Argentina's Marambio Base in Antarctica journey 65 km each day by motorcycle in temperatures as little as -40 degrees Celsius to reach the closest Emperor penguin colony.

Once there, they rely, weigh, and measure the chicks, collect geographical coordinates, and take blood samples. They also conduct aerial analysis.

The scientists' findings level to a grim future for the species if climate change is just not mitigated.

"[Climate] projections counsel that the colonies which might be situated between latitudes 60 and 70 degrees [south] will disappear in the next few a long time; that's, in the next 30, 40 years," Dr Libertelli stated.

The emperor's unique options include the longest reproductive cycle among penguins.

After a chick is born, one father or mother continues carrying it between its legs for heat till it develops its remaining plumage.

"The disappearance of any species is a tragedy for the planet. Whether small or giant, plant or animal — it would not matter. It is a loss for biodiversity," Dr Libertelli mentioned.

The emperor penguin's disappearance might have a dramatic impact all through Antarctica, an excessive environment where food chains have fewer members and fewer links, Dr Libertelli said.

In early April, the World Meteorological Organization warned of "increasingly excessive temperatures coupled with uncommon rainfall and ice melting in Antarctica" — a "worrying development", stated Dr Libertelli, with Antarctic ice sheets depleting since at the least 1999.

The rise of tourism and fishing in Antarctica have also put the emperor's future in danger by affecting krill, one of many principal sources of food for penguins and other species.

"Tourist boats usually have various destructive effects on Antarctica, as do the fisheries," Dr Libertelli stated.

"It's important that there is better control and that we take into consideration the longer term."

Reuters