{"id":47250,"date":"2026-04-11T03:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T03:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=47250"},"modified":"2026-04-11T03:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T03:03:31","slug":"emperor-penguins-endangered-drowning-due-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=47250","title":{"rendered":"Emperor penguins &#8216;endangered,&#8217; drowning due to climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>These birds are on a wing and a prayer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Emperor penguins, indigenous to Antarctica, are now at a frighteningly high risk of death by drowning due to drastic climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The prognosis for the black-and-white avians \u2014 the largest of their species, growing up to 4 feet in height \u2014 has moved from \u201cNear Threatened\u201d to \u201cEndangered\u201d on the International Union for Conservation of Nature\u2019s (IUCN) red list.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Emperor Penguins have been upgraded as an \u201cEndangered\u201d species, per the IUCN, owing to rising climate changes that are causing drowning deaths.  <span class=\"credit\">BernardBreton \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s an alarming upgrade, for both penguins and people, based on projections that its population will drop 50% by the 2080s, per a new report.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe decline of the emperor penguin\u2026[is] a wake-up call on the realities of climate change,\u201d Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Director General, said in a statement, noting that the Antarctic fur seal has, too, become an endangered species.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Echoing the doc\u2019s distress, Martin Harper, CEO of BirdLife International, deemed the emperor penguin\u2019s grim status a \u201cstark warning,\u201d saying, \u201cPenguins are already among the most threatened birds on Earth. Climate change is accelerating the extinction crisis before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Climate change alarmists say the decline in the penguin population is a \u201cwarning\u201d that the Earth is suffering from drastic temperature shifts. <span class=\"credit\">John Yunker \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While staunch skeptics insist that global warming and climate change doomsayers are merely\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/20\/opinion\/hot-air-climate-change-and-wildfires\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blowing hot air<\/a>, confident that long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/28\/us-news\/bill-gates-makes-major-climate-change-reversal-after-years-of-doomerism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cwill not lead to humanity\u2019s demise,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0ecology experts for the IUCN say the plight of the emperor penguin serves as a weathervane for potential dangers ahead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAntarctica\u2019s role as our planet\u2019s \u2018frozen guardian\u2019 is irreplaceable,\u201d said Aguilar, \u201coffering untold benefits to humans, stabilizing the climate and providing refuge to unique wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But as it\u2019s rapidly melting away, emperor penguins are wasting away to watery graves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Without adequate sea-ice \u2014 which is steadily dwindling thanks to rising ocean temperatures \u2014 baby emperor penguins are drowning at startling rates, according to the report. <span class=\"credit\">Gabrielle \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The birds require fast ice \u2014 sea-ice that\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0\u201cfastened\u201d to either the coastline, ocean floor or grounded icebergs \u2014 as habitat for their chicks and during their moulting season, when they\u2019re not waterproof, per the authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the early break-up and loss of sea ice, due to global warming, has contributed to the loss of approximately 10% of the population between 2009 and 2018 alone, equating to more than 20,000 adult penguins.<\/p>\n<p>Breeding colonies, buxom with baby penguins, or chicks, have also met untimely demises to drowning, en masse, as sea-ice structures are liquifying before the little ones are able to swim.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an unkind end \u2014 and mankind is to blame, said Philip Trathan, a member of the IUCN SSC Penguin Specialist Group.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Insiders for IUCN warn that the recurring deaths could indicate trouble  for all living creatures in the future.  <span class=\"credit\">BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cHuman-induced climate change poses the most significant threat to emperor penguins,\u201d confirmed the specialist. \u201cEarly sea-ice break-up in spring is already affecting colonies around the Antarctic, and further changes in sea-ice will continue to affect their breeding, feeding and moulting habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEmperor penguins are a sentinel species that tell us about our changing world and how well we are controlling greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change,\u201d added Tratuan, a contributor on the emperor penguin red list assessment.<\/p>\n<p>Being in the red, for both the emperor penguin and the Antarctic fur seal \u2014 a species that\u2019s decreased from an estimated 2.1 million in 1999 to 944,000 in 2025 due to rising ocean temps \u2014 can have damaging impacts Earth\u2019s biospheres, cautioned Kathleen Flower, Vice President of Biodiversity Science at Conservation International.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The Antarctic fur seal population has decreased by more than 50% over the past decades as climate change has worsened.  <span class=\"credit\">Sunil Singh \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThese listings are not only sobering for two iconic animals; they reflect what is happening to penguins and seals globally,\u201d said Flower.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cTheir decline underscores how quickly ecosystems are being degraded and how the compounding impacts of warming accelerate food scarcity, emerging disease, and habitat loss,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe result is rapidly increasing extinction risk for many species.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Red List is an essential tool, but it must be adequately resourced and strengthened with climate\u2011informed science to identify risks and help reduce climate\u2011driven extinctions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/10\/science\/emperor-penguins-endangered-drowning-due-to-climate-change\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These birds are on a wing and a prayer.\u00a0 Emperor penguins, indigenous to Antarctica, are now at a frighteningly high risk of death by drowning due&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}