Penguins awash - sea ice loss impacts another species

Emperor Penguin - Antarctica

Most people are familiar with the image of an Emperor Penguin even if they are not altogether sure which species of penguin they are looking at. Made famous by the 2005 blockbuster documentary, March of the Penguins, based on the  Dumont d'Urville colony of 2,500 birds, the Emperor Penguin is a native of Antarctica and like polar bears in the Northern Hemisphere, faces a bleak future through the loss of sea ice due to global warming. Sea ice is critical for the Emperor Penguin as all but two of the 46 surveyed colonies in Antarctica are located on the ice and the birds are not agile enough to scale the continent's steep rocky shoreline and ice precipices. Stable sea ice is essential for the birds to moult and their stable diet of krill, which also is dependent on sea ice for survival. The little current evidence of the future for Emperor Penguins is not positive with sea ice declining, on average 1 to 2 % per annum. A small colony of Emperor Penguins located on the Dion Islands has already disappeared. In 1948 there were 300 adults, in 1999 it had reduced to just 40 and a decade later there were none. Other Antarctic native penguin populations, such as the Adelie and chinstrap are also trending downwards for presumably similar reasons.