Study: Emperor Penguins Could Face Extinction

Articles — By forcechange on January 28, 2009 9:35 am

Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts have released a study warning that climate change could cause a major emperor penguin colony to approach extinction by the end of this century.  The study applied mathematical models to climate data from the IPCC to predict how much climate change and melting sea ice would affect a specific colony of emperor penguins in Terre Adelie, Antarctica. 

The models predict, on average, that this colony’s current size of 3,000 breeding pairs would most likely shrink by 87% to 400 pairs by the end of the century.  However, the data indicated that there is a very real probability of a “drastic” population decline (of 95% or more) that would put the population at risk of extinction.

Emperor penguins, which were featured in the Oscar winning documentary, March of the Penguins, are the largest of all penguin species and breed and feed from the Antarctic sea ice.  In December, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a preliminary ruling declining to list the emperor penguin as an endangered species, however this ruling is still being evaluated and researcher Hal Caswell said the research presented in this study should be considered.

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