The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Iceberg The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Iceberg
Showing posts with label Iceberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iceberg. Show all posts

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Heartbreaking Story: 150,000 Adelie Penguins Dead, as Iceberg Dooms Rest of Colony


An Antarctic iceberg the size of a major city that's blocked access to the sea since 2010 for thousands of Adelie penguins threatens to completely wipe out the colony.

Once 160,000 strong, the flightless birds now number only 10,000 after being forced to waddle some 40 miles in search of food, according to new research from the Climate Change Research Center at Australia’s University of New South Wales.

Scientists predict the colony will vanish in 20 years unless the ice breaks up or the giant iceberg, which measures 1,000 square miles, is somehow dislodged.

The penguins of Cape Denison traditionally have relied on easy access to the ocean for feeding. But an ice floe that gradually increased in size pressed in on the bay. Six years ago, it made contact with the land and effectively sealed off the bird's traditional route to the sea. Many penguins could not successfully complete the long trek to another sea outlet now required for feeding.

“The arrival of iceberg B09B in Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica, and subsequent fast ice expansion has dramatically increased the distance Adélie penguins breeding at Cape Denison must travel in search of food,” the researchers wrote in an article in Antarctic Science.

"It's eerily silent now," Chris Turney, a climate change professor with the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, which has been tracking the penguins' decline, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The ones that we saw at Cape Denison were incredibly docile, lethargic, almost unaware of your existence," he said. "The ones that are surviving are clearly struggling. They can barely survive themselves, let alone hatch the next generation. We saw lots of dead birds on the ground ... it's just heartbreaking to see."

The birds will not migrate, he added. "They're stuck there," he said. "They're dying."


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