Samantha Krahenbuhl - Penguins Move to Endangered List
Samantha Krahenbuhl - One of the animals that inhabit Antarctica is the biggest penguin around, the Emperor Penguin. They are the tallest and fattest of the penguins, but their greatness may also be part of the reason for their demise. Emperor penguin’s are predicted to be one of the first varieties of penguins to starve as the ice melts due to climate change. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution predict that the species will be extinct by 2100. This prediction comes from many trips to the continent and after 50 years of research at the South Pole that indicates this shocking and saddening fact. Biologist Stephanie Jenouvrier writes in a press release for the WHOI that of all the 45 colonies of the large penguins on Antarctica, “at least two-thirds of the colonies are projected to have declined by greater than 50 percent from their current size by 2100…None of the colonies, even the southern-most locations in the Ross Sea, will provide a viable refuge by the end of the 21st century.” The study that Jenouvrier worked on along with other institutions around the world was published in the Nature Climate Change journal. Their research is added to the research that has been conducted since the 1960s, confirming data that suggests that the emperor penguins will be extinct by the end of this century if no action is taken. The population is already rapidly declining and the project future progression is very bleak. The reason that the ice melting affects the penguins so drastically is that they depend on the ice for food. There are krill that the penguins eat that live in the ice for the algae that they primarily eat. Without ice there is no algae and therefore no krill for the penguins to survive. The study aims to upgrade the emperor penguin to full endangered status so that all measures will be taken to slow the decline of the penguins.
