Thousands of emperor penguin chicks drowned when the sea-ice on which they were being raised was destroyed in severe weather.Scientists say the colony at the edge of the Brunt Ice Shelf has collapsed with adult birds showing no sign of trying to re-establish the population.The dramatic loss of the young emperor birds is reported by a team from the British Antarctic Survey .Drs Peter Fretwell and Phil Trathan noticed the disappearance of the so-called Halley Bay colony in satellite pictures.
But the Brunt population, which had sustained an average of 14,000 to 25,000 breeding pairs for several decades , essentially disappeared overnight.Emperors are the tallest and heaviest of the penguin species and need reliable patches of sea-ice on which to breed, and this icy platform must persist from April, when the birds arrive, until December, when their chicks fledge.
Dr Fretwell told BBC News:"The sea-ice that's formed since 2016 hasn't been as strong. Storm events that occur in October and November will now blow it out early. So there's been some sort of regime change. Sea-ice that was previously stable and reliable is now just untenable." But the sensitivity of this colony to shifting sea-ice trends does illustrate, says the team, the impact that future warming in Antarctica could have on emperor penguins in particular.
💔 very sad I love emperor penguins ☹️
tom_h_pearson a sad day
so this is FACT or just speculation ?
your tweet should mention that this happened in 2016. your website headline doesn't mention it either clickbait BBCclickbait
Nature can be harsh. Sad, but true.
😱😱
Very sad.
Nooooo :-(
Stop giving them pills.
That's nature. It happens.
Another consequence of global warming? WWF wwf_uk TheGreenParty scotgp GreenJennyJones Greenpeace greenpeaceusa foe_us
Beautiful 💕
You had to go back three years couldn't say something in 2016
gorjeda mira qué terrible.
So sad 😪
Don’t tell Greta.😢