It’s only by changing our behaviour and the amounts of fossil fuels we use will we reverse the trajectory for these emperor penguins, and many other species. It’s a record that seems likely to fall once again this year. The extent of Antarctica’s winter sea ice is smaller than it has ever been, with an area the size of Greenland simply missing from the coverage scientists expected. With less ice to start with, it’s very possible there will be less in the summer. Forcada J, Trathan PN (2009) Penguin responses to climate change in the Southern Ocean Glob Change Biol. 15: 1618–1630

They might look a bit clumsy on land, but penguins are brilliant swimmers. Emperor penguins have the deepest and longest dives for any bird, often reaching depths of over 200 metres. One bird has been recorded at a depth of 565 metres. Penguins that either live or breed in Oceania are the little penguin, erect-crested penguin, Fiordland-crested penguin, Snares Island penguin, yellow-eyed penguin, and royal penguin. The Fiordland, Snares Island, and yellow-eyed are all native to New Zealand.

The third breeding location on top of an ice shelf is near the Jason Peninsula, at the northern limit of the Larsen C Ice Shelf. In 1893, the explorer and sealer Carl Anton Larsen was the first to visit this area [18], [19]. He reported on 4 December 1893 that “The kongepenguinerne (king penguin) are very numerous in those (ice) fjords” (ice creeks are a favoured breeding location of emperor penguin colonies). When recording this, his ship was located on the northern side of what became known as the Larsen C Ice Shelf (noon position of 67.00°S, 60°.00W). At the time of this discovery little was known about emperor penguins and they were often confused with the similar, but smaller king penguin ( A. patagonicus), a species which Larsen would have been familiar with from his sealing trips to South Georgia. It is likely that Larsen’s sighting late in the breeding season indicated a colony in the vicinity. Although exhaustive satellite searches of the sea-ice in the area during previous studies [14], [15] were conducted, no colony was found. For the study, Fretwell looked at satellite images of five known emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea region, which saw a particularly stark decline in sea ice last year. About 30% of the known 62 emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica have been affected by partial or total sea ice loss since 2018.

Most penguin species of penguins are monogamous, where one male breeds only with one female during a mating season. Some female penguins may have one to three partners in one season and some males may have one or two partners. It’s if you forget that penguins can swim perfectly,” scoffed one critic of the bird’s alleged lifesaving leap.A 1,500km region in length has lost almost all its sea ice. We have no real idea what happens if there’s no ice.” While only the emperor and Adélie penguins live in Antarctica, many other species reside near the continent on subantarctic islands. That’s why this regional failure is so difficult [for the penguins] because they can’t just go to the nearest colony,” he said. Barbraud C, Rolland V, Jenouvrier S, Nevoux M, Delord K, et al. (2012) Effects of climate change and fisheries bycatch on Southern Ocean seabirds: a review. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 454, 285–307. Barbraud C, Gavrilo M, Mizin Y, Weimerskirch H (2011) Comparison of emperor penguin declines between Pointe Géologie and Haswell Island over the past 50 years. Antarc. Sci. 23, 461–468.