According to new satellite imagery studied by the British Antarctic Survey, melting sea ice caused a “total breeding failure” for emperor penguins in the Antarctic during the 2022 breeding
season.
The images reportedly showed the region’s ice had melted long before the penguins’ chicks would have developed their waterproof feathers, making the broods unviable.
“We have never seen emperor penguins fail to breed, at this scale, in a single season,” said British Antarctic Survey Peter Fretwell.
If sea ice loss and global warming continues at its current rate, 90% of emperor penguin colonies could be close to extinct by the end of the century.
