So penguins are cute, photogenic, and have amazing biological adaptations, but they are also very important to scientists. They are an “indicator” species that ecologists monitor to determine the health of the environment at the bottom of the world.
And what are the penguins telling us? Overall the news is not good. Penguins face serious population decreases. The latest word from penguin scientists is that ten of the seventeen species are threatened, or vulnerable, based on the World Conservation Union’s Red List. Two of these species have relatively stable population numbers, but the other eight species are declining rapidly.
Researchers cite global warming and the resulting rise in ocean temperatures as affecting the birds’ food supplies. Warm water holds less oxygen, and oxygen is necessary for the krill, penguins’ shrimplike prey, to reproduce. The seas around Antarctica freeze over every southern winter, providing the critical spawning and nursery grounds for krill, which feed on the algae that grow on the underside of the ice. This pack ice has shrunk 20 percent during the past fifty years. Krill numbers are difficult to measure, but the breeding success of penguins that feed on krill is way down, especially in many Antarctic colonies. This tells us the krill are also in trouble, as potentially are the other species that feed on krill.
While climate change may be the biggest threat to penguins, it is not the only one. Introduced predators such as dogs, foxes, or cats; human encroachment on breeding areas; marine pollution, especially oil spills; overfishing; and even tourism are having a dramatic impact on many species of penguin, especially the Galapagos, the yellow-eyed, and the other more northerly species.
While our penguin friends mostly live a long way from humans, what we do even at the other end of the earth is having a significant impact on their well-being. To quote leading researchers at the sixth world Penguin Conference in Australia: “Unless scientists, governments, conservation groups, and the public take immediate action to reverse the trend, penguin populations will plummet. Many species face extinction.”
We have to hope penguins don’t go from being the “Antarctic canaries” to the way of that other metaphoric bird, the dodo. You can help by contacting one of the following organizations:
Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC)
OCEANITES
World Wildlife Fund
Sierra Club