Last year, scientists studying emperor penguins in the Bellingshausen Sea region of Antarctica were alarmed when satellite images revealed that many of the birds had abandoned their colonies.
The ice that the penguins nested on had melted away — creating a disaster for their chicks.
Fretwell: “Of the five colonies there, we think that we lost all of the chicks in four of them.”
Peter Fretwell is a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey.
Normally, emperor penguins lay their eggs on the sea ice that grows out from the Antarctic coast during the winter and then raise their chicks on the ice until it recedes in midsummer.
Fretwell: “The chicks will … lose their downy little fluffy feathers and get their waterproof sleek black feathers and go into the water.”
But last year, the ice covering the Bellingshausen Sea melted much earlier than normal.
This forced the penguins to leave their colonies before the chicks had time to grow their waterproof feathers.
So Fretwell says these emperor penguin chicks must have either drowned or frozen to death.
Fretwell: “It was shocking, really. … And it’s very, very concerning and rather saddening, really, to see what’s happening.”
As the climate changes, Antarctica’s sea ice is expected to continue shrinking, so scientists fear for the future of emperor penguins in a warmer world.
Reporting Credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media