Project Earth: Emperor penguins threatened by climate change
Melbourne, Australia — An emperor penguin found malnourished far from its Antarctic home on the Australian south coast is being cared for by a wildlife expert, a government department said Monday.
The adult male was found on Nov. 1 on a popular tourist beach in the town of Denmark in temperate southwest Australia — about 2,200 miles north of the icy waters off the Antarctic coast, according to a statement from the Western Australia state's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
The largest penguin species has never been reported in Australia before, University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell said, though some had reached New Zealand, Australia's neighbor almost entirely south of Denmark. It is believed to be the furthest north — and thus the furthest from their natural habitat — that a wild emperor penguin has ever been spotted.
A photo provided by Western Australia's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions shows a male emperor penguin, dubbed Gus, standing on a beach near Denmark, Australia, Nov. 1, 2024, more than 2,000 miles from its normal habitat in Antarctica.
DBCA via AP
"The furthest north they go from Antarctica is about 50 degrees south [latitude] from my readings and Ocean Beach is 35 degrees south," Cannell told Australia's national broadcaster ABC last week. "So, a lot further north than what they've ever tracked emperor penguins from Antarctica before."
Cannell said she had no idea why the penguin traveled to Australia's coast. She's advising seabird rehabilitator Carol Biddulph, who's caring for the penguin, spraying him with a chilled water mist to help him cope with his alien climate.
The penguin is 39 inches tall and initially weighed 51 pounds. A healthy male emperor penguin can weigh more than 100 pounds.
The Western Australia biodiversity department said its efforts were focused on rehabilitating the animal. Asked if the penguin could potentially be returned to Antarctica, the department replied that "options are still being worked through."
In this undated photo provided by the Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, a male emperor penguin dubbed Gus stands on a scale after being discovered on a beach near Denmark, Australia, Nov. 1, 2024, thousands of miles from its normal habitat in Antarctica.
Miles Brotherson/AP
ABC said last week that the errant animal was first spotted by a local surfer from Denmark, Aaron Fowler, who told the network he and some friends were baffled when they first saw it coming out of the water.
"It stood up in the waves and just waddled straight up to us, an emperor penguin, he was probably about a meter high, and he was not shy at all," Fowler told ABC.
"There is always a bit of wildlife in the water but never a penguin," he said. "He tried to do like, a slide on his on his belly, thinking it was snow I guess, and just face-planted in the sand and stood up and shook all the sand off."
Emperor penguins are among the species directly threatened by the rising temperature of the oceans and seas across the world. According to The World Wildlife Foundation, about three-quarters of the world's breeding colonies of emperor penguins are vulnerable to fluctuations in the annual sea ice cover in the Antarctic, which have become far more erratic due to climate change.
The penguins breed and live on sea ice, but the Antarctic Sea ice is disappearing as our planet warms up.
"They show up at the breeding season and the ice isn't there, so they have nowhere to breed," Dr. Birgitte McDonald, an ecologist at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, which is funded and administered by San Jose State University, told CBS San Francisco last year.
An analysis by scientists at Cambridge University, published last year in the journal Science News found that "ice in one area was melting especially early in the year," putting emperor chicks at extreme risk.
"Emperor penguins - their survival, their ability to reproduce - is 100% tied to having appropriate sea ice," McDonald told CBS San Francisco.
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