It is not new to us that global warming and the serious and rapid effects of global warming are a constant threat to dainty penguins. Emperor penguins depend on the sea ice that rings the continent of Antarctic, so it's no surprise that global warming, which is soon melting the ice, is bad news for these flightless birds. But under strange circumstances and with the help of a new research, it has been confirmed that a huge 9,000-strong colony of emperor penguins have been discovered in Antarctica. This happened after scientists spotted the poo trails of penguins in the satellite images. Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey noticed the trail in 2009 while studying satellite images of Antarctica but it was not until December last year when the three researchers from the International Polar Foundation actually found the colony.
Earlier in 2012, other studies by biologists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution had stated that the colony of emperor penguins is likely to decline from 3,000 breeding pairs to 575 by 2100, which could be a potentially ‘huge decline’. But this new finding has come as a happy news for many scientists who have been keenly studying climate change and global warming in the world. Alain Hubert, founder of the International Polar Foundation, describes how the penguins reacted when they faced humans, “these penguins have never encountered humans before and therefore were curious than being scared. They came pretty close to us than running away.”
It is after they encountered a number of emperor penguins, that they were convinced that a colony must be close by. A treacherous 48 km trip to east of the sea ice, led to 9000 or more penguins and an entire colony. It is appalling that in the last 50 years half of the population of penguins in the Antarctic region has been depleted due to climate change.
While there is research to indicate many species of penguins are making changes so they can adapt to climate change, but whether this will continue or not, no one knows yet. They are doing what they must in order to survive. Yet these changes can easily upset their natural balance of things. What the future holds for the penguins out there depends on our efforts since there are still too many people that don’t see global warming and climate change as something they need to be concerned about!
Photo by xrayspx.
