Earth

Emperor penguins added to ‘threatened’ list

Group of emperor penguins including parents and two young standing on ice.
Emperor penguin males are awesome dads. They gather in colonies near Antarctica’s coast, tightly huddling together to stay warm in temperatures that can dip as low as -40 F (-40 C), and strong winds up to 90 miles per hour (144 km/ hour). Each penguin dad will incubate a single egg and care for the chick when it first hatches. They do all this while surviving only on fat reserves from the previous summer. Read more about penguin dads. Now the fragile balance that lets these animals survive in Antarctica is threatened, and penguins have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Image via Pexels/ Pixabay.

Stephanie Jenouvrier, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Emperor penguins thrive on Antarctica’s coastlines in icy conditions any human would find extreme. Yet, like Goldilocks, they have a narrow comfort zone. If there’s too much sea ice, trips to bring food from the ocean become long and arduous, and their chicks may starve. With too little sea ice, the chicks are at risk of drowning.

Climate change is now putting that delicate balance and potentially the entire species at risk.

In a recent study, my colleagues and I showed that if current global warming trends and government policies continue, Antarctica’s sea ice will decline at a rate that would dramatically reduce emperor penguin numbers to the point that almost all colonies would become quasi-extinct by 2100, with little chance of recovering.

That’s why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule on October 26, 2022, listing the emperor penguin as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, effective November 25, 2022. The director of the service said the listing:

reflects the growing extinction crisis.

The threat to emperor penguins

The greatest threat emperor penguins face is climate change. It will disrupt the sea ice cover they rely on unless governments adopt policies that reduce the greenhouse gases driving global warming.

The U.S. Endangered Species Act has been used before to protect other species that are primarily at risk from climate change. These include the polar bear, ringed seal and several species of coral, which are all listed as threatened.

U.S. laws and Antarctic penguins

Emperor penguins don’t live on U.S. territory. So, some of the Endangered Species Act’s measures meant to protect species’ habitats and prevent hunting them don’t directly apply. Being listed under the Endangered Species Act could still bring benefits, though.

It could provide a way to reduce harm from U.S. fishing fleets that might operate in the region. And, with expected actions from the Biden administration, the listing could eventually pressure U.S. agencies to take actions to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the Bureau of Land Management has never acknowledged that emissions from oil and gas extraction on public lands and waters could harm climate-imperiled species. It issued more than 3,500 oil and gas drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming on public land during the first 16 months of the Biden administration.

Marching toward extinction

I first saw an emperor penguin when I visited Pointe Géologie, Antarctica, during my Ph.D. studies. As soon as I set foot on the island, before our team unpacked our gear, my colleagues and I went to visit the emperor penguin colony located only a couple of hundred meters from the French research station. It was the same colony featured in the movie March of the Penguins.

We sat far away to observe them through binoculars, but after 15 minutes, a few penguins approached us.

People think that they are awkward, almost comical, with their hobbling gait, but emperors walk with a peaceful and serene grace across the sea ice. I can still feel them tugging on my shoelaces, their eyes flickering with curiosity. I hope my children and future generations have a chance to meet these masters of the frozen world.

A history of research on emperor penguins

Researchers have studied the emperor penguins around Pointe Géologie, in Terre Adélie, since the 1960s. Those decades of data are now helping scientists gauge the effects of anthropogenic climate change on the penguins, their sea ice habitat and their food sources.

The penguins breed on fast ice, which is sea ice attached to land. But they hunt for food within the pack ice. Pack ice includes sea ice floes that move with the wind or ocean currents and may merge. Sea ice is also important for resting, during their annual molt and to escape from predators.

The penguin population at Pointe Géologie declined by half in the late 1970s when sea ice declined and more male emperor penguins died. The population never fully recovered from massive breeding failures. And that’s something that has been occurring more frequently.

To assess whether the emperor penguin could qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service encouraged an international team of scientists, policy experts, climate scientists and ecologists to provide research and projections of the threats posed by climate change to emperor penguins and their future survival.

Chart with red line going from high at left to very low at right.
Scientists project the number of breeding pairs of emperor penguins at Pointe Géologie to decline significantly in a world with high greenhouse gas emissions. The chart uses the RCP 8.5 climate scenario of high-emissions future. Image via Jenouvrier et al., 2020, CC BY-ND.

Every colony will be in decline by 2100

Emperor penguins are adapted to their current environment. But the species has not evolved to survive the rapid effects of climate change that threaten to reshape its world.

Decades of studies by an international team of researchers have been instrumental in establishing the need for protection.

In 2009, I was involved in seminal research that warned that the colony of Pointe Géologie will be marching toward extinction by the end of the century. And it won’t just be that colony. In 2012, my colleagues and I looked at all known emperor penguin colonies identified in images from space. We determined that every colony will be declining by the end of the century if greenhouse gases continue their current course. We found that penguin behaviors that might help them adapt to changing environmental conditions couldn’t reverse the anticipated global decline.

Collapsing sea ice

Major environmental shifts, such as the late formation and early loss of the sea ice on which colonies are located, are already raising the risk.

A dramatic example is the recent collapse of Halley Bay, the second-largest emperor penguin colony in Antarctica. More than 10,000 chicks died in 2016 when sea ice broke up early. The colony has not yet recovered.

By including those extreme events, we projected that 98% of colonies will be extinct by 2100. That’s if greenhouse gas emissions continue their present course. In addition, the global population will decline by 99% compared with its historical size.

Two panels with animated loss of sea ice, labeled 1.5 C and 4.3 C.

The projected status of emperor penguin colonies by 2100 and annual mean change of sea ice concentration. Image via Natalie Renier/ WHOI, Jenouvrier et al. 2021/ The Conversation.

Meeting the Paris goal could save emperor penguins

The results of the new study showed that if the world meets the Paris climate agreement targets, keeping warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) compared with preindustrial temperatures, that could protect sufficient habitat to halt the emperor penguins’ decline.

But the world isn’t on track to meet the Paris Agreement. In a report released October 27, 2022, the United Nations Environment Program said current policies have the world headed for 2.8 C (5 F) of warming by the end of the century. And if countries meet their current pledges to cut emissions, that will still mean warming of at least 2.4 C (4.3 F).

So it appears that the emperor penguin is the proverbial “canary in the coal mine.” The future of emperor penguins, and much of life on Earth, including humanity, ultimately depends upon the decisions made today.

Marine ecologist Philip Trathan of the British Antarctic Survey contributed to this article.

This updates an article originally published on August 31, 2021.The Conversation

Stephanie Jenouvrier, Associate Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: The emperor penguin is joining the list of threatened species on the Endangered Species Act. Will humanity be able to keep emissions low enough to save them?

Read more: Emperor penguins are good dads

Posted 
November 7, 2022
 in 
Earth

Like what you read?
Subscribe and receive daily news delivered to your inbox.

Your email address will only be used for EarthSky content. Privacy Policy
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

More from 

EarthSky Voices

View All