New research has found that the number of emperor penguins in Antarctica has fallen sharply. Scientists say the population has dropped by about 22 percent in the last 15 years. This is because global warming is melting the icy land where these penguins live and raise their babies.

Researchers used satellite images to study sixteen penguin colonies in three parts of Antarctica — the Antarctic Peninsula, the Weddell Sea, and the Bellingshausen Sea. These colonies make up nearly one-third of the total emperor penguin population. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications: Earth & Environment.

Peter Fretwell, a scientist from the British Antarctic Survey who helped lead the study, said what they found was “probably about 50-percent worse” than even the most negative earlier estimates. “Emperor penguins are probably the most clear-cut example of where climate change is really showing its effect,” he said. “There’s no fishing. There’s no habitat destruction. There’s no pollution which is causing their populations to decline. It’s just the temperatures in the ice on which they breed and live, and that’s really climate change.”

Climate change is breaking the ice under their feet

Penguins need stable sea ice to lay their eggs and raise their chicks. But due to global warming, this sea ice is becoming thinner and breaking apart. In some places, the ice has collapsed completely, and many chicks have died after falling into the freezing sea before they were old enough to survive on their own.

Normally, baby emperor penguins begin to grow waterproof feathers in mid-December. These feathers help them stay warm in the cold water. Without these feathers, the chicks cannot swim or survive if the ice breaks early.

Fretwell explained that the problem started back in 2009, when scientists began monitoring these birds. This means penguin numbers have been falling for over a decade. What’s even more worrying is that these early losses happened before global warming had reached its current levels. He said, “There is hope that the penguins may go further south in the future, but it’s not clear how long they’re going to last out there.”

The future of emperor penguins looks grim, but not hopeless

At present, there are around 250,000 breeding pairs of emperor penguins in Antarctica. These penguins are known for their unique way of raising chicks. The male keeps the egg warm during the harsh winter while the female goes on a long fishing trip. When the mother returns, she feeds the chick by regurgitating food.

Sadly, many colonies have already lost all their chicks in recent years. Climate change is also bringing new problems, such as more rain and new predators coming into penguin areas. These extra threats make life even harder for emperor penguins.

Fretwell warned that if humans do not stop releasing gases that heat up the Earth, emperor penguins could be nearly extinct by the end of the century. “We may have to rethink those models now with this new data,” he said. “We really do need to look at the rest of the population to see if this worrying result transfers around the continent.”

Still, there is hope. “It’s not too late,” Fretwell said. “We’re probably going to lose a lot of emperor penguins along the way, but if people do change, and if we do reduce or turn around our climate emissions, then we will save the emperor penguin.”

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