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Emperor Penguins are the largest species of penguins and are identified by their black-and-white color with yellow ears and breasts. The species weighs about 40 kilograms and has a life span of 20 years.
A new study indicates that Antarctica’s second-largest breeding ground for the Emperor Penguin species have been virtually unproductive since 2016 and looks to continue on that trend in 2019.
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An Antarctic Science study discloses that the favored Halley Bay site normally hosts between 15,000 to 24,000 breeding pairs of penguins annually and is now virtually empty.
The scientists have blamed the disappearance of the breeding pairs on the significant break apart of the "fast ice," sea ice that is connected to the land, where the Emperor Penguins stay to breed.
Emperor Penguins are the largest species of penguins and are identified by their black-and-white color with yellow ears and breasts. The species weighs about 40 kilograms and has a life span of 20 years. Following the breeding period, which is usually in the harshest winter conditions, the male penguin incubates the egg.
In 2016 and 2017, there was no breeding in Halley Bay and last year there was a very small number, the study revealed.
Nearby Dawson-Lambton site has experienced an increase in breeding pairs but, according to the author of the study, the numbers are disproportionately low when compared to the number of penguins which have been missing from the Halley Bay site.
"We've never seen a breeding failure on a scale like this in 60 years," study author Phil Trathan, head of conservation biology at the British Antarctic Survey, explained.
Dawson-Lambton, which has been home to a couple of thousand pairs of penguins, increased to 11,117 pairs in 2017 and 14,612 pairs in 2018, the Antarctic Science study found.
"It's unusual to have a complete breeding failure in such a big colony," Trathan said and added that about 8% of the world's Emperor Penguin population breeds at Halley Bay. "Not everybody has gone to Dawson Lambton yet.”
Meanwhile, David Ainley, a marine ecologist and penguin expert, said people are more alarmed than they need to be because many of the penguins did not disappear, but simply moved.
But Trathan believes the abandonment of the Halley Bay site "is a warning of things that might become important in the future."
Trathan added: "It is impossible to say whether the changes in sea-ice conditions at Halley Bay are specifically related to climate change, but such a complete failure to breed successfully is unprecedented at this site.
"Even taking into account levels of ecological uncertainty, published models suggest that emperor penguins numbers are set to fall dramatically, losing 50-70% of their numbers before the end of this century as sea-ice conditions change as a result of climate change."
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