Emperor Penguin now Endangered due to climate change

Rob Martin, Red List Team Manager at BirdLife International, who co-ordinated this reassessment, says: “The Emperor Penguin’s shift from Near Threatened to Endangered is a worrying signal of the reach of climate change impacts into the most remote parts of the globe. Future projections for the species robustly point to severe reductions over the rest of this century.

Emperor Penguins are completely dependent on the Antarctic habitat for breeding, moulting and feeding, but it will become harder for them to survive as ice patterns become less predictable and this crucial habitat keeps decreasing.”

Satellite images indicate a loss of around 10% of the population between 2009 and 2018 alone, equating to more than 20,000 adult penguins. The primary driver is the early break-up and loss of sea-ice, which has reached record lows since 2016.

Emperor Penguins require fast ice – sea-ice that is ‘fastened’ to the coastline, ocean floor or grounded icebergs – as habitat for their chicks and during their moulting season, when they are not waterproof. If the ice breaks up too early, the result can be deadly.