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FLICKR, CHRISTOPHER MICHEL
n emperor penguin population in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea that used to be tens of thousands of birds strong is on the brink of collapse, according to a study published today (April 25) in Antarctic Science. Satellite images of the area show that, while the colony consisted of up to 25,000 animals prior to 2016, in the last three years those numbers have dropped to almost zero.
“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, tells the Associated Press. “It’s unusual to have a complete breeding failure in such a big colony.”
“Since we know little about the population trends of emperor penguins in most colonies, this is not good news,” Dee Boersma, a penguin ecologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who was not involved in ...
