Antarctic Penguins Cope
with Climate Change
Jean Pennycook
www.penguinscience.com
Antarctica
Ross Island
All penguins live south of the equator, but only two species are
the true Antarctic penguins requiring waters that are covered
with ice most of the year. The small Adélie Penguin (10 pounds)
and the large Emperor Penguin (50 pounds) are being affected
by changes in the Earth’s climate patterns.
Adélies are quick, strong walkers
and climbers, and build their nests
on land out of small rocks. They lay
2 eggs.
Just as song birds need
trees to live in, Adélie
Penguins need ice. They
spend most of their lives at
sea or on ice floes such as
this one.
The Emperor Penguin is large, slow and clumsy. Emperors raise
chicks on flat frozen ocean, rarely come on shore and nestle the
one large egg in a pouch just above their feet.
Adélie Penguins
are at home on
ice with plenty of
open areas
between the floes.
They live on top of the
ice, their food is
underneath the ice
and in the surrounding
ocean.
When there is too much solid ice, the penguins have to
walk a long way to their breeding colony and then return
to open water for food. This may take several days each
way and many nests will fail.
Adélie Penguins are good swimmers, but do not like to live in open ocean
with no ice floes to rest on. When sea ice disappears, Adélies disappear.
A small breeding
group within a large
colony. Adélie
Penguins build their
nests in groups to help
protect the eggs and
chicks from the Skuas.
Global climate change is affecting the penguins
habitat in these ways:
1. Summer storms are becoming more severe.
2. Sea ice coverage is changing.
3. Summer melt from glaciers alters the breeding
colony.
1. Summer storms are becoming more severe.
With warming temperatures, more moisture
enters the atmosphere creating larger storms
with more snow.
Summer storms
bringing a few
inches of snow
are common
during the
breeding season.
Adélie chicks are tough and can
withstand these storms.
With global climate
change, storms are
bringing more snow. The
adult penguins will not
leave their nests, even
when the snow piles up.
If the snow is
too heavy, the
adults and their
chicks become
buried.
This breeding group returned to the colony to find a four foot snow drift covering
their nesting sites. Adélie Penguins need open ground free of snow and do not
know how to deal with this much. The pairs built their nest on the drift, but their
warm bodies melted the snow causing the eggs to sit in cold water. Very few eggs
hatched in this group.
2. Sea ice coverage is changing.
In some Antarctic locations, sea ice coverage is
becoming reduced or disappearing, in others it is
increasing and lasting longer.
With global climate change there are winners
and losers.
As ice cover in some areas of Antarctica is reduced, Adélie
Penguin colonies are becoming smaller or disappearing.
Antarctic Peninsula
An abandon nesting colony. These penguins had to move
to another location in Antarctica where the sea ice
conditions were more favorable.
In other Antarctic locations
greater winds and cooler
temperatures increase the ice
suitability for the Adélie
Penguins. These colonies are
growing in numbers.
Ross Island
Location of the
“March of the
Penguins”
Emperor Penguin
colony.
Emperor chicks can not swim until they obtain their full adult plumage.
These birds are on several inches of ice over several hundred feet of
water. If the sea ice melts before the chicks can swim, they will not survive.
3. Summer melt from glaciers alters the
breeding colony.
.
The eggs on
these nests will
not hatch as
they are sitting
in very cold
water.
With warming
temperatures
glaciers retreat and
more land opens
up for nesting
sites. The penguin
colony on this
island is
increasing.
Beaufort Island
Global climate change is altering the habitat of Antarctic
penguins. For more information go to:
www.penguinscience.com
Other Powerpoint presentations for you classroom:
Introduction to the Polar regions, Why is Antarctica so cold?
Introduction to Adélie Penguins, Adélie Penguins march into the classroom
Penguin Adaptations, This is a harsh continent
Adélie Penguin Behavior, Good manners are always in style
Penguin Predation and Competition, Life is tough for an Adélie Penguin
Adélie Penguins Cope with Global Climate Change
Did You Know, How researchers know what they know
Penguin Quandaries, Can you answer these mysteries
Fun pictures about Adélie Penguin
Go to www.penguinscience.com The education page.