Last year, thousands of penguin chicks died in Antarctica due to increasing ice melt. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice in late 2023 led to breeding failures in a fifth of the continent’s emperor penguin colonies, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said.
If the sea ice on which a colony breeds disintegrates before the chicks grow waterproof feathers, they have little chance of survival. They don’t even thrive on a remaining ice floe because the parents have difficulty finding and feeding the offspring.
14 of 66 colonies affected
According to the analysis presented in the journal ‘Antarctic Science’, 14 out of 66 colonies were affected in 2023, compared to 19 the year before.
The breeding losses are a direct result of the region’s unprecedented loss of sea ice in recent years due to climate change. Extremely low summer sea ice amounts were recorded in both 2022 and 2023.
Emperor penguins could become extinct
It is estimated that there are currently several hundred thousand emperor penguins left in the wild. Predictions suggest that the charismatic species could be virtually extinct by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at current levels. But BAS expert Peter Fretwell also sees reason for hope: there are signs of adaptation, especially in the most affected colonies, and the birds may be moving to other areas.
Penguins depend on ice
Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) grow to over a meter in height and are the southernmost penguin species. They rely on stable sea ice connected to the mainland for most of the year, from April to January. They lay their eggs between May and June. It takes about 65 days for the chicks to hatch and they do not fledge until December and January, the Antarctic summer.
The BAS analyzes are based on satellite data from “Sentinel-2” of the Copernicus programme. “Sentinel-2” flies over the Antarctic coast about once a week and its archive dates back to 2018.
Source: Krone
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