ANTARTIC EMPEROR PENGUINS ARE ADAPTING TO WARMER TEMPERATURES by María Sanz Mendioroz

 Los chicos de Gemma se están poniendo las pilas y nos escriben en perfecto inglés.

Emperors are the largest of all penguin. An average bird stands some 45 inches (115 centimeters) tall. Penguins employ physiological adaptations and cooperative behaviours in order to deal with an incredibly harsh environment, where wind chills can reach -76°F (-60°C).

 

Anew study of Emperor penguins reveals that his breeding behaviour is a sign that these birds are living in a changing environment. A team of scientists from British Antartic Survey is investigating their change of behaviour.

 

The satellite reveals that the thin layer of ice is being formed later than usual compared to the much thicker ice shelves that surround the continent, these penguin colonies have changed their traditional breeding ground during years.

Until now it was considered that most of these animals were living in the thin layer of ice. Only two colonies – the smallest ones (about 400 penguins) – were living in a lake and behind a rock.

 

These penguins had to climb 30 m just to go to the thick ice shelves, this is really hard for them because they cannot fly ,they swim really well but they are not agile. Moreover, they don’t land where they have to hunt to feed their offspring.

 

EMPEROR REPRODUCTION.

 

The Emperor penguin is the biggest specie of penguin, and also it is the only one that stays more in the southern part during reproduction.

 

These flightless animals live on the Antarctic ice and in the frigid surrounding waters.

 

But what really makes them special is that they reproduce during the Antartic winter and do not do it in firm land, they do it into the marine ice!

 

While other species of penguins reproduce in the antartic summer (between December and March approximately) the Emperor prefers the winter. Normally it is in April when they come to these zones covered by marine ice that are frozen until December, when nestlings have their own pens grown. His vulnerability before the increase of temperatures is, therefore, so high that if the ice fractures soon during the reproduction there is a high mortality among the newborn children of the colony.

 

After putting his only egg, the female leaves immediately to hunt for several months. Meanwhile the male keeps the egg warm, holding it with his legs and sheltering it with his pens. This work makes them exhausted and lose weight. When the female returns the male goes to the sea to hunt crustaceans and cephalopods to recover weight.

 

CLIMATE

 

Climate changes not only affect the species that depend on the ice, affirm a group of scientists of Basilea University. This change is affecting the distribution of plants and animals in the whole world.

 

María Sanz Mendioroz 2C

 

Bibliography:

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/press/press_releases/press_release.php?id=2459

 

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/emperor-penguin/

Note: If you are studying “Infantil” or “EPO” and you’d like to know more things about this animal (Learn about the size, diet, population, range, behavior and other fascinating facts) this is a book we recommend: