Once hunted to the brink of extinction, the thousands of king penguins that densely congregate on the remote Possession Island each year now face a new threat: climate change. The birds spend most of their life at sea, but come breeding time in December half the world’s population flock to the islands in the southern […]
Tag: penguins
Will shipping noise nudge Africa’s only penguin toward extinction?
CAPE TOWN — Seabird ranger Eduard Drost was busy with a routine inspection in an African penguin colony off the South African coast in 2021 when he noticed a troubling number of sickly birds. “Some were emaciated, especially the chicks,” he recalls. “Their chest and hip bones were sticking out. Their bellies were flat, not […]
Emperor penguins listed as endangered by US because of climate crisis
The emperor penguin, the tallest and bulkiest of all the world’s penguins, has been officially declared a threatened species by the US government due to the existential risk posed to the birds by the climate crisis. The penguins, which are endemic to Antarctica, face almost complete annihilation from the loss of sea ice over the […]
What Will Happen to the Penguin Population as Climate Change Worsens?
The effects of climate change are seemingly infinite. It feels like every day brings news of another dwindling population or wiped out plant species. When times get tough, watching videos of dawdling penguins can make the earth seem a little kinder. Unfortunately, penguins are not immune to climate change, and their population numbers and food supplies […]
The Effects of Climate Change on Sea Turtles
On December 12, 2015, over 90 countries adopted an international agreement called “the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.” This agreement required all signing countries to make significant commitments to resolving climate change. Participants were intended to re-evaluate their pledges in the year 2020 and then strengthen their emissions reductions by 2030. The goal of this […]
Fish-feed industry turns to krill, with unknown effects on the Antarctic ecosystem
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay/PUNTA ARENAS, Chile/PORDENONE, Italy — A mountain of krill meal has been packed inside a huge warehouse: divided into bags and stacked in hundreds of piles that stretch almost to the ceiling. The warehouse is near the port of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, inside the main logistics center of Aker BioMarine, a Norwegian […]
Australian scientists observe ‘rapid’ decline in Adélie penguin numbers off Antarctic coast
Scientists at the Australian Antarctic Division have recorded a severe decline in a population of Adélie penguins off the east Antarctic coast. Long-term monitoring has revealed a 43% drop over a decade in the number of birds that breed across 52 islands near the Mawson research station. The scientists say the decline is a stark […]
Study: Woodpecker Drumming is Neurologically Similar to Songbird Vocalization
A team of scientists from the United States and Denmark has found specialized pecking-related regions in the woodpecker forebrain that show characteristics that until now have only been associated with vocal learning in animals and language in humans; instead of being related to vocalization, activity in these brain regions is related to the characteristic tree […]