by Lucila Sigal
(Reuters) – The emperor penguin, which roams the frozen tundra and cold seas of Antarctica, is critically at risk of extinction within the next 30 to 40 years due to climate change, an Antarctic Institute expert has warned. Argentinian (IAA).
The emperor, the world’s largest penguin and one of only two penguin species endemic to Antarctica, gives birth during the winter and needs solid sea ice from April to December to brood.
If the sea freezes later or melts prematurely, the emperor family cannot complete its reproductive cycle, which is the longest among penguins. After the birth of a chick, one of the parents continues to carry it between its paws to warm it until it develops its definitive plumage.
“If the water reaches newborn penguins, which are not ready to swim and have no waterproof plumage, they freeze to death and drown,” said biologist Marcela Libertelli, who studied 15,000 penguins in two colonies in Antarctica at the IAA.
This is what happened to the colony of Halley Bay in the Weddell Sea, the second largest colony of emperor penguins, where for three years all the chicks died.
The scientists’ findings point to a bleak future for the species if climate change is not mitigated.
“The screenings [climatiques] suggest that colonies located between latitudes 60 and 70 degrees [sud] will disappear in the coming decades,” Marcela Libertelli told Reuters.
“The disappearance of any species is a tragedy for the planet,” said the biologist. “It’s a loss for biodiversity”.
The disappearance of the emperor penguin could have a dramatic impact throughout Antarctica, an extreme environment where food chains have fewer members and connections, she added.
In early April, the World Meteorological Organization warned of “increasingly extreme temperatures, associated with unusual rainfall and melting ice in Antarctica” – a “worrying trend”, said Marcela Libertelli, as Antarctic ice sheets have been depleting since at least 1999.
The boom in tourism and fishing in Antarctica has also endangered the future of the emperor by affecting krill, one of the main food sources for penguins and other species.
(Reporting by Lucila Sigal, writing by Isabel Woodford and Brendan O’Boyle; French version Elena Vardon, editing by Kate Entringer)