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.

Saving endangered species - do choices have to be made?

White Tiger Cub

A question which often arises with ecology and the protection of endangered species is whether it's actually possible to save all the species now at risk or rather only focus on those where there is a better than even chance of success of preservation. It is only since 2004 that the full extent of the potential level of extinctions has been quantified with the figure of 15,589 total of plants, birds and mammals (a quarter of all the existing mammal species) being ascertained at risk by major environmental and science organisations. This is an extraordinary figure and it's almost certainly impossible to determine the number of species for whom conservation and protection will succeed. Despite international agreement on the importance and value of conservation and mechanisms such as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the stark reality is that the very existence of human activity (loss of habitat, mining, agriculture, economic development and so on) is driving extinction despite the best efforts of governments, communities and scientists. The uncomfortable option therefore may now be one of selecting which endangered species has the best chances of survival. This is an almost unthinkable proposition for many in the environmental movement but time is not on anyones' side.