The mass drowning of emperor penguin chicks as sea ice is melted by the climate crisis has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to declare the species officially in danger of extinction.<\/p>\n
Emperor penguins rely on \u201cfast\u201d ice \u2013 sea ice that is firmly attached to the coast \u2013 for nine months of the year. It is where their fluffy chicks are hatched and grow until they have their waterproof feathers. Adults moult every year and also need a safe haven while their swimming feathers regrow.<\/p>\n
However, global heating has led to record lows in Antarctic sea ice since 2016. When sea ice breaks up early, entire colonies can fall into the ocean, leaving the chicks to drown. Even if some penguins escape the water, they are soaked and will freeze to death.<\/p>\n
Four of the five known emperor penguin breeding sites in the Bellingshausen Sea collapsed in 2022, with the loss of thousands of chicks. Another colony in the Weddell Sea collapsed<\/a> in 2016. Researchers called the catastrophes \u201cgrim\u201d and \u201cextraordinarily distressing\u201d.<\/p>\n The IUCN assessment projects that the emperor penguin population will halve by the 2080s owing to sea ice loss. The current emperor penguin population is estimated at 595,000 adults, having already fallen by 10% between 2009 and 2018.<\/p>\n Emperors are the largest penguin species and jumped two categories, from \u201cnear threatened\u201d to \u201cendangered\u201d in the new IUCN analysis.<\/p>\n The assessment also found the climate crisis had driven a halving of the Antarctic fur seal population since 2000, owing to a reduction in the krill that the animals rely on for food. The seal has jumped three categories from least concern to endangered in the latest red list of threatened species.<\/p>\n \u201cThe emperor penguin\u2019s move to endangered is a stark warning: climate change is accelerating the extinction crisis before our eyes,\u201d said Martin Harper, the chief executive of BirdLife International, which coordinated the IUCN assessment. \u201cGovernments must act now to urgently decarbonise our economies.\u201d<\/p>\n Emperor penguin chicks take their first swim in Atka Bay, Antarctica in 2025. Photograph: National Geographic\/Bertie Gregory\/Reuters<\/p>\n The marine ecologist Dr Philip Trathan, who worked on the emperor penguin red list analysis, said: \u201cHuman-induced climate change poses the most significant threat. Early sea ice breakup is already affecting colonies around the Antarctic, and further changes in sea ice will continue to affect their breeding, feeding and moulting habitat. Emperor penguins are a sentinel species that tell us about our changing world and how well we are controlling greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Peter Fretwell, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, was part of the team that reported the colony collapses<\/a> in the Bellingshausen Sea in 2022. \u201cIt\u2019s a grim story,\u201d he told the Guardian then. \u201cI was shocked. It\u2019s very hard to think of these cute fluffy chicks dying in large numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Barbara Wienecke, of the Australian Antarctic Division, said of the same colony collapses: \u201cIt\u2019s horrendous and I find it extraordinarily distressing to think of this happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Rod Downie, chief advisor, polar and oceans at WWF-UK, said: \u201cWith the shocking decline in Antarctic sea ice we are currently witnessing, these icons on ice may well be heading down the slippery slope towards extinction by the end of this century \u2013 unless we act now. The fate of these magnificent birds is in our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Cutting the carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels to zero is the only way to halt global heating. WWF is also calling for emperor penguins to be listed as a \u201cspecially protected species\u201d at the next Antarctic treaty meeting in May in Japan<\/a>, which would help reduce other pressures on their habitat such as tourism and shipping.<\/p>\n