It is alarm in Antarctica where from a colony of over 18 thousand pairs of penguins, only two survived, while the others died of starvation. This was denounced by the WWF, according to which climate change is to blame.
It is alarm in Antarctica where from a colony consisting of over 18 thousand pairs of penguins, only two survived, while the others died of starvation. This was denounced by the WWF, according to which climate change is to blame.
On the small Petrel Island in Antarctica there was a disastrous breeding season for Adélie penguins. The cause for the French researchers is to be found in weather conditions, in particular of a particularly large and too thick sea ice, which forced the parents to extend their migration by over 100 km in search of food.
To reach the sea and find the krill (small shrimp), the penguins had to leave the young in the cold and rain and almost all of them died.
Last summer, in fact, Antarctica recorded a record for the extent of sea ice, an event that had already happened in 2013, when no small penguin had survived.
As we said, Adélie penguins live on a diet consisting mainly of krill, the small shrimps that are the basis of the diet of many Antarctic animals.
Until now this colony was in better condition than the area of the western Antarctic peninsula, but the serious reproductive failure now casts a veil of shadow over the whole area, over which it has hovered for some time, also the will that it be opened to exploratory fishing of krill, creating significant competition with Adélie penguins for food resources.
"The whole region is undergoing significant environmental changes that are linked to the reduction of the Mertz glacier since 2010. Unfortunately, a marine protected area will not be able to remedy these changes, but it can prevent the further impacts deriving from direct anthropogenic pressures, such as tourism and the proposal to open up to fishing ”, he explains in a note Yan Ropert-Coudert, senior scientist for penguins of the French National Research Council.
For its part, the WWF has announced that it will ask the international community to establish a specification protected sea area in East Antarctic waters during the meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Resources scheduled today in Hobart, Tasmania.
Unfortunately, penguins aren't the only animals affected by climate change:
- 10 WAYS AND REASONS TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE AND SAVE ANIMALS
- CLIMATE CHANGE IS REDUCING THE SIZE OF FISH
- CLIMATE CHANGE: GLOBAL WARMING SHAKES ANIMALS AND PLANTS
"It is crucial that the Commission act now, establishing a new marine protected area for the waters of the East Antarctic and thereby protecting the penguin home," writes the WWF in a statement.
Dominella Trunfio
Photo: Y. Ropert_Couder WWF
