The Loss Of Ice In One Region Of Antarctica Last Year Likely Resulted In None Of The Emperor Penguin

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Antarctic ice melt may have killed thousands of emperor penguin chicks | CBC News

The loss of ice in one region of Antarctica last year likely resulted in none of the emperor penguin chicks surviving in four colonies, rese

The loss of ice in one region of Antarctica last year likely resulted in none of the emperor penguin chicks surviving in four colonies, researchers reported Thursday. Emperor penguins hatch their eggs and raise their chicks on the ice that forms around the continent each Antarctic winter and melts in the summer months. Researchers used satellite imagery to look at breeding colonies in a region near Antarctica's Bellingshausen Sea. The images showed no ice was left there in December during the Southern Hemisphere's summer, as had occurred in 2021. "Overall, the five colonies have around 10,000 pairs of adults, so there would have been around 10,000 chicks. We think that 820 — the ones counted at Rothschild Island — may have survived, which means the death toll would have been over 9,000 chicks," said Peter Fretwell in a statement. Fretwell is a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey and co-author of the study published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

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