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Penguin population decline may be worse than “worst-case projections”

Penguin Emperor Population The scientists said after analyzing satellite images of a major part of the continent.

The photos, which extend from 2009 to 2024, indicate a 22 % decrease in the peninsula in Antarctica, Bahr Widel and Bildingsin Sea, according to researchers from British Antarctic Survey And the University of Southampton, which published their studies In nature Tuesday.

Pencil colonies represent the 16 Empire in that part of Antartica a third of the world’s population. The estimated decrease is compared to a previous estimate of a 9.5 % reduction throughout the Antarctic continent as a whole between 2009 and 2018.

Researchers now have to know if their evaluation in that region of Antartica is correct for the rest of the continent.

“There is a great deal of uncertainty in this type of work and what we saw in this new number is not necessarily symbolic for the rest of the continent,” said Dr. Peter Fritreel, the main author of the study. “But if that is-this is concerned because the decline is worse than the worst expectations that we have for the emperors of this century.”

While more analysis is needed, Agence-Presse told that the colonies that have been studied are an actress.

The researchers know this Climate It leads the losses, but the speed of the declines is a specific cause of warning.

Warming relieves and destabilizes ice under the feet of penguins in their proliferation lands.

Penguin Empero (Aptenodytes Forsteri) is a pair of marine ice, Larsen with ice ice, and the South Antarctica Sea. /Credit: Sergio Pitamitz/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In recent years, some colonies have lost all their chicks because the ice has given the road under it, as hatching in the sea was drowned before they were older to deal with the frozen ocean.

Fritelel said that the new research indicates that the number of penguins decreased since the start of the observation in 2009. Before global warming had a significant impact on marine ice, which is formed on the open waters adjacent to the landing in the region.

But he said that the perpetrator is still likely to be climate change, as warming leads other challenges in penguins, such as high rains or increased infringement of predators.

“The Emperor Penguins may be a more clear example of the place where climate change appears,” said Freituweel. “There is no hunting. There is no destruction in habitats. There is no pollution that causes a decrease in their population. It is just the temperatures in the ice that they multiply and live, and this is really climate change.”

The number of Emperor Penguins is about a quarter of a million husbands, all in the Antarctica, according to a study conducted in 2020.

The Emperor Penguin Birds come out of an egg that kept warm in the winter by a male, while the female begins to reproduce on a two -month fishing journey. When she returns to the colony, it nourishes the missing by hesitation and then alternates both parents to the feed. To survive on their own, chicks must develop a waterproof feathers, a process usually begins in mid -December.

The new search uses high -resolution satellite images during the months of October and November, before the area drops to the winter darkness.

Fritrever said future research can use other types of satellite monitoring, such as radar or thermal imaging, to capture the population in the dark months, as well as expansion of other colonies.

He said that there is hope that the penguins will go south to more cold areas in the future, but added that it is not clear, “How long will they continue there.”

Computer models have expected that the species would be near extinction by the end of the century if people do not cut their heating emissions. The recent study indicates that the image can be worse.

“We may have to rethink these models now with this new data,” said Friteller.

But he stressed that there is still time to reduce the threat of penguins.

“We got this truly frustrated image of climate change and the fall of the population faster than we thought, but it was not too late,” he said. “We will likely lose many emperor penguins along the way, but if people change, and if we reduce or run climate emissions, we will save the emperor penguin.”

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