The emperor penguin, which roams the frozen tundra and icy seas of Antarctica, is in serious danger of extinction in the next 30 to 40 years as a result of climate change, warned an expert from the IAA (Instituto Antártico Argentino).
The emperor, the world’s largest penguin (up to 1.22 meters) and one of only two penguin species endemic to Antarctica, gives birth during the Antarctic winter and needs solid sea ice from April to December to nest.
If the sea later freezes or melts prematurely, the emperor’s family will not be able to complete the reproductive cycle.
“If the water hits the newborn penguins, which aren’t ready to swim and don’t have waterproof plumage, they freeze to death and drown,” said biologist Marcela Libertelli, who studied 15,000 penguins in two colonies. at the IAA in Antarctica.
This happened in the colony of Halley Bay in the Weddell Sea, the second largest colony of emperor penguins, where for three years all the chicks died.
Every August, in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere, Libertelli and other scientists from Argentina’s Marambio Base in Antarctica travel 65 km a day by motorcycle in temperatures as low as -40°C to reach the emperor penguin colony. nearest.
Once there, they count, weigh and measure the pups, collect geographic coordinates and blood samples. They also perform aerial analysis.
The scientists’ findings point to a bleak future for the species if climate change is not mitigated.
“The projections [climáticas] suggest that colonies located between latitudes 60 and 70 degrees [sul] will disappear in the next decades, that is, in the next 30 to 40 years,” Libertelli told Reuters.
The emperor’s unique characteristics include the longest reproductive cycle among penguins. After a chick is born, one parent continues to carry it between its legs to keep warm until it develops its final plumage.
“The disappearance of any species is a tragedy for the planet,” Libertelli said. “Whether it’s small or big, plant or animal, it doesn’t matter. It’s a loss for biodiversity.”
The disappearance of the emperor penguin could have a drastic impact across Antarctica, an extreme environment where food chains have fewer members and fewer links, Libertelli said.
In early April, the World Meteorological Organization warned of “increasingly extreme temperatures, along with unusual rainfall and melting ice in Antarctica”—a worrying trend, Libertelli said, as Antarctica’s ice sheets have been depleting for at least least 1999.
Increased tourism and fishing in Antarctica has also put the Emperor’s future at risk by affecting krill, a major food source for penguins and other species.
“Tourist boats often have a number of negative effects in Antarctica, as does fishing,” Libertelli said. “It is important that there is greater control and that we think about the future.”
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
