Anyone who’s watched the documentary “March of the Penguins” knows that emperor penguins have evolved to live and breed under remarkably harsh conditions.
These stately birds are the tallest and largest-bodied of the penguin species, measuring up to four feet in height and weighing between 50-100 pounds. They’re only found in Antarctica, and they’re the only penguins that breed during Antarctic winters.
During the breeding season, emperor penguins take a remarkable journey – trekking for miles on the ice to breeding colonies that can contain thousands of birds. Flat, stable sea ice is essential; while emperor penguins are champion swimmers they don’t maneuver well on uneven land.
After laying a single egg, females return to the sea to forage, leaving the egg in the care of their partners. Transferring the egg from female-to-male is risky business. Dropped eggs freeze solid within moments. Males that are successful spend several months balancing their egg on the tops on their feet, fasting, and waiting for their mates to return.
And if this was not difficult enough, now emperor penguins have to contend with melting sea ice. Last year, in the journal PLOS ONE, Philip Trathanof the British Antarctic Survey reported the first documented decline of an emperor penguin breeding colony in response to regional warming and the loss of sea ice.
And now a more recent study in the journal Global Change Biology reports that, under anticipated future conditions, climate models predict that Emperor Penguins living in Terre Adélie, Antarctica could decline by 81% by the year 2100.
This is sad news and yet another reminder of our need to stem the warming trend.
Web Links
New Scientist
Global Change Biology
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2012.02744.x/full
PLOS One
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014738
Photo, taken on January 15, 2011, courtesy of Eli Duke via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, with partial support from the Field Day Foundation.