Hatched Too Soon: Penguin Chicks Miss Vital Birth Window Due to Climate Change

Like so many relationships in nature, the birth of a penguin chick is timed to the Antarctic environment in which it will grow. A new study shows, though, that climate change may be tampering with that rhythm. It is putting entire species of the flightless birds in danger.

Biologists at Oxford University in the UK studied three species of penguins. They found that the penguins have begun their breeding cycles early in recent years. That lines up with the earlier arrival of warm temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere. The average temperature in the penguins’ breeding grounds has risen 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 2012. The earlier breeding season results in early hatching of chicks. They are often born before there is enough food to sustain them. 

“Penguins are changing the time at which they’re breeding at a record speed, faster than any other vertebrate,” Ignacio Juarez Martinez told The Associated Press (AP). He is the lead author of the study.

Martinez tracked the habits of Adélie, chinstrap, and gentoo penguins. His team studied the penguins over the course of 10 years. They filmed the penguins. They used remote cameras. They found that gentoo chicks in particular are hatching early. As a result, they are competing with Adélie and chinstrap penguins for supplies of krill. Krill are tiny shrimplike animals. Adélies and chinstraps depend on them. The competition is threatening those species. They are smaller than gentoos. They are also less aggressive. 

“Chinstraps are declining globally,” Martinez told the AP. “(And) Adélies are doing very poorly."

"It’s very likely," Martinez added, "that they go extinct from the Antarctic Peninsula before the end of the century.”

Reflect: When natural patterns that animals rely on begin to change, how might that affect their chances of survival?

Photos of Adélie penguins from Wikimedia Commons courtesy of Jerzy Strzelecki.