Emperors in distress

Emperors in distress

-Agnes V Philip
SY BSc (2022-25)
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

We all love penguins. Well, who doesn’t? I can be 100% sure that no one can possibly get angry while looking at a penguin. Penguins put a smile on our faces. These cute fluffy creatures, with the beautiful waddle that they do while walking paired with its goofy clumsiness on land— everything about it is adorable and mesmerizing. When I first watched the movie Frozen I remember thinking that if I ever had the power of Elsa I would run to Antarctica and drop ice over the places where the glaciers were melting. Even though I didn’t know much about melting glaciers and their effects I knew some species needed ice shelves to survive. Penguins are a direct indicator of climate change. If Penguins are in danger, then the world is in danger.

 As the years go by the number of species of penguins becoming vulnerable to climate change is increasing. The Emperor Penguins are the most affected due to climate change. The U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized the protection of these flightless penguins, under the Endangered Species Act(ESA). They are the tallest, toughest, heaviest, largest of their kind. They are the only penguins that spend most of their time living in Antarctica. They have an astonishing ability to withstand the aggressive winter of Antarctica while carrying their young. 

The breeding methods of Emperor penguins are risky, unique, and incredible. They are the only species that breed on the ice shelves during the dark winter months. Emperor penguins lay only one egg. The entire process of egg-laying to fledging takes approximately 8 to 9 months and it takes time for the chicks to grow their waterproof plumage without which they cannot swim therefore, ice shelves play a salient role in the growing stage of the chicks.

After the female emperor penguin lays her egg, she passes it to the male penguin and goes hunting. The male keeps the egg under his feet and warms it. He has to rely on his fat reserves to insulate the egg and sustain himself as he has to fast for 4 months till the egg hatches. If the fishing goes well and if the female emperor penguin is not attacked by any predators she will come on time when the chick emerges from the egg. The growing period of the chicks is their hardest period as they are the target of predators.

There are sixty-six known colonies and the penguins go to the same colonies every year to breed. They make their colonies far from the sea, safe from the melting ice. These colonies are starting to disappear due to the melting of ice shelves. If the ice breaks, the colonies will start to disappear, and then there will be an enormous breeding failure which will lead to high mortality in the early stages of breeding.

The Dion Islets penguin colony disappeared in 2009. “In 1948 and the 1970s, scientists recorded more than 150 breeding pairs there. By 1999, the population was down to just 20 pairs, and in 2009, it had vanished entirely.”  Says Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute(WHOI) biologist, Stephanie Jenouvirier. In 2016, a particularly low sea ice year drowned roughly 10,000 chicks from a colony in Antarctica’s Halley Bay. Parts of the Antarctic Peninsula have seen their sea ice coverage decline by more than 60 percent in three decades, which has virtually erased one emperor penguin colony.

Climate change not only affects their breeding cycle but also affects their food. Emperor penguins mainly depend on krill, squid, and small fishes which in turn feed on organisms that grow underside of the ice. If the ice melts so do the organisms, which will cause a ripple effect through the food web. If there is no food for penguins during breeding seasons then the chicks will starve to death. Emperor penguin’s lives primarily depend on ice shelves.

In the present world conditions, predators are not only the problem, climate change has been a big challenge for them. As it takes time for the chicks to develop their waterproof plumage they would be in immense danger when the ice shelves melt as the chicks drown to death. All the hard work the parent penguins do would go in vain. Mother comes back from the sea with loads of food and expectation, to just see the colony from where she left her partner and the egg has disappeared(melted). During the 2022 breeding season, satellite images showed parts of Bellingshausen Sea had lost 100% of its sea ice, which killed almost all chicks. Out of 5 colonies, 4 of them melted. If there is no improvement in climate change then yes, within a century EMPEROR PENGUINS will be extinct and will be history.

How many more breeding failures and the disappearance of colonies in the year 2024 because of our selfishness? How many animals and birds should go extinct because of our doings? Why are we indirectly hurting those voiceless beings? Change has to begin with us. Well, it can only begin with us because we have the solutions to it and what we have to do is get up and make the change. The world is in our palms and it is left for us to decide how to pass it to our coming generations so they can enjoy the beauty of the world.

WE ARE THE FIRST GENERATION TO FEEL THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE LAST GENERATION THAT CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

-Barack Obama