Antarctic Ice Collapsed, Penguin Colony Wiped Out in One Night

The world's second-largest emperor penguin colony perished in one night after the Antarctic iceberg collapsed. The incident caused thousands of penguins to drown.

According to scientists, since the catastrophic collapse of the Halley Bay ice sheet in 2016, no more breeding sites have been detected in the area. In fact, there are usually around 15-24 thousand pairs of emperor penguins that flock to the breeding grounds.

Meanwhile, the Weddell Sea, which was previously considered a penguin sanctuary, was also not found.

"We haven't seen a case of breeding failure on such a scale in 60 years," said Phil Trathan, a biologist with the British Antarctic Survey who used high-resolution satellite photos to detect penguin droppings to determine the population.

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Emperor penguins need stable sea ice to breed. And this ice platform must be in place from April to December, when the chicks start to grow up.

The emperor penguin itself is the largest of the species, weighing up to 40 kilograms and able to survive up to 20 years. They often hatch their eggs in the ice. Then, after breeding, penguins move to the open sea.

Over the past 60 years, the ice conditions in Halley Bay have been fairly stable and reliable. However, in October 2016, due to an abnormal thunderstorm, the ice in the region broke before the emperor penguin chicks matured. The impact? The penguin colony was almost completely wiped out.

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While the colony in Halley Bay is gone, the penguin colony nearby, at Dawson-Lambton, has grown. It is suspected that some of the emperor penguins from Halley may have moved there in search of a new breeding site.

However, the increase in penguin numbers at Dawson-Lambton does not account for all that has been lost from Halley Bay. "Not all penguins go to Dawson-Lambton," said Dr Trathan.

He added that the number of emperor penguins would drop dramatically if the ice in Antarctica continued to disappear.

"We will lose 50-70% of their total number before the end of this century because sea ice conditions change as a result of climate change," he concluded.


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