Emperor Penguins, can they be saved?

King penguins
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Ville Miettinen via Compfight

Emperor penguins are known for their cool climate loving behaviors and swimming in icy waters. But with the climate changes that are occurring, it is unknown what will happen to these unique animals. Climates in many parts of the world, including the ice caps in the north and south are slowly melting. These changes are incoherently hurting the penguins in more ways than one. With the climate and air getting warmer, this causes the ice to melt, leaving the penguins with fewer places to be on land, and making them easier targets for predators in the water. This causes their numbers to decline, and with that, less mates, and less penguins overall.

Other ways this affects penguins, is the fact that they must cope with these changes, which forces them to migrate to different locations. The penguins are not familiar with these areas, and because of this, they are confused and open to predators, as well as not knowing how to catch food. These changes will affect their breeding as well. Penguins mate and breed their babies only on sea ice, if the ice melts then breeding failure may occur. They tend to breed on the sea ice, as it gives them relatively easy access to waters where they hunt food. But if the sea ice is reduced to lower levels, some trouble could occur. As well as their food source. Emperor penguins feed on shrimp, fish and krill. Krill feeds on different plankton that grow on the underside of ice. If the ice melts, the plankton will die, and then the krill will die and so on. This may be the most dangerous threat to the emperor penguins over everything else.

The only thing we can hope is that somehow we can stop the ice caps from melting, and help these species of wonderful creatures continue to survive. It’s not just only penguins either, other animal species in Antarctica and the north and south poles. Polar bears, seals, species of fish and other sea dwellers, If we ever have a chance of keeping these exclusive creatures alive, something must be done to preserve the ice caps and the natural habitats of the emperor penguins, and all other animals of these areas.

The melting of these frozen areas of the world is continually tied to global warming. The constant warming of the earth is the blame for many things and natural differences and changes, and this is one of them. As this is a relatively bad thing, this is also a ways to fix this particular problem as others as well. If we can fix global warming, this will most likely fix this problem and others as well. Although we don’t know how we would, if we can find a way, we can cause a major breakthrough in preserving these creatures and their natural habitats.

Whatever there is to fix this problem of a warming earth, we should find it soon, over the last century, and we have already seen the disappearance of the Dion Islets penguin colony, close to the west Antarctic Peninsula. And around 1948 to 1970 there were more than 150 breeding pairs observed there. By 1999 there were only about 20 pairs, and in 2009, it vanished altogether. This was most likely caused by the simultaneous decline in Antarctica sea ice due to the warming temperatures in the area. If we wish to preserve these animals something must be done, and fast. Will we be able to save these animals from ultimate extinction? Or will the Emperor penguins become another mass disappearance like the Dion Islet colony? Also could the key to their survival be global warming? Who knows, hopefully we will find out in time. If we don’t, we may see a sad disappearance of fascinating creatures that have been involved in stories, media, and other sorts of entertainment, as well as the wildlife circle. Without emperor penguins, other forms of wildlife such as seals, and polar bears will be in trouble. So in saving penguins we may save more species as well. This is a situation that must be dealt with immediately.

7 thoughts on “Emperor Penguins, can they be saved?

  1. I find this blog post very interesting. I think that penguins are interesting. It is sad that the stuff that we do affects and kills other animals because of global warming or affected water sources. This article that I found says that the penguins might not be dying as much as we think they are, they might just be moving. They will move once their environment becomes too inhabitable.
    http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/7688/20140620/penguins-dying-moving.htm

  2. This is a very important topic. If they become extinct there could be a huge chain effect on the whole food chain. it is very hard to adapt to a different environment, and so it makes sense why they are dying off. Their environment is going away, and melting, and this will be a big problem in the future for multiple reasons. By year 2100, at least two-thirds of the emperor penguin colonies will dramatically decline. By the end of the century, half of the emperor penguin colonies were lost. In conclusion, we should help save these penguins, and there environment to keep drastic extremes from happening.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/climatechange/10933964/Emperor-Penguins-are-now-endangered-warn-biologists.html

  3. I think that this is a great topic and very important to learn about. Penguins are starting to disappearing due to all the climate changes due to global warming. Penguins are dying off due to all the sea ice melting. Researchers say that the whole emperor penguins species could fall by a third by the end of this century. Due to all the sea ice melting, the population of krill is decreases causing a shortage of food for the penguins. Overall, we should try and reduce global warming so that will help keep penguins alive.
    Source:http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/29/emperor-penguins-at-risk-of-extinction-scientists-warn

  4. I think that this topic is very important. I did not realize that global warming is causing the emperor penguins to disappear. They live in an extreme climate that could change at any moment. I believe that we do need to make a change tho help disrupting the penguins. They have been there along time and that is the only place that they could live if it was destroyed rather than a man-made facility. Here is more information on the emperor penguin that might help you.
    http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/emperor-penguin/

  5. I think is a very important topic to think about and act on. I agree that the Emperor penguin population is decreasing. I believe this is all happening from climate change, since there is a hole in the ozone layer. In a article I found that by 2100 95% of emperor penguins will die off meaning only 600 breeding pairs would be left to repopulate. Here is a quote explaining “They are long-lived organisms so they adapt slowly. This is a problem because the climate is changing very fast.” Emperor penguins are the biggest breed of penguins meaning if they died off it would cause a major blow to the penguin population.

    Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4355800/Emperor-penguins-could-be-virtually-extinct-by-2100-scientists-say.html

  6. I also agree that the population of penguins is decreasing. This tragic event is happening due to global climate change. I learned from this post that it is important for the ice to stay frozen so they can mate and reproduce. I is also important that they have a place to live; with no ice there is no home. From the research I have done myself, I have now learned that parts of Antarctica have warmed 6 degrees Fahrenheit in recent decades. This definitely proves that there is global climate change happening and it is effecting the population of emperor penguins.

    Source:
    http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/58/7/571.full

  7. I think this is a very interesting and crucial topic. I agree that penguins are disappearing, that it is due to global warming, and that it needs to stop. I learned that the mid to late 70’s was the hardest on emperor penguins. Also penguins mate in late autumn when the ice freezes, so it is incredibly important that the ice remains for them. Although penguins are able to swim in the cold ocean, they are mammals who need to rest on land. There was a colony of these penguins living on an island near the West Antarctic Peninsula that have disappeared. According to the site posted at the end of this comment, wild penguin populations could decrease up to 95% by 2100 because of the lack of ice. Penguins along with many other species are built to handle a certain environment. If that habitat disappears so will the species, so let’s preserve the Antarctic for these amazing penguins.

    Source:
    http://www.livescience.com/13092-emperor-penguin-colony-antarctic-climate-change-ice.html

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