Penguins face global warming threat

Warming is occurring five times faster in the Antarctic Peninsula than on average around the globe and threatening the survival of four penguin species - emperor, gentoo, chinstrap and Adelie - that breed on the continent, a report by conservation charity WWF said.

Melting sea ice is destroying the nesting sites in which some of the continent's penguins raise their young and, alongside overfishing, is also reducing the amount of food available to some of the birds.

The Emperor penguin, the largest in the world, has seen some of its colonies halved in the past century as warmer temperatures and stronger winds force them to rear their young on increasingly thin ice, the report published at the UN conference on climate change in Bali said. WWF said in recent years sea ice had broken off early and many eggs and chicks had been blown away when they were too young to survive on their own.

The charity warned the emperor penguin was the most vulnerable of Antarctic bird and mammal species in the face of climate change, as it needs stable, land-locked sea ice on which to breed because it is too clumsy to climb over icy coastal slopes.

The melting sea ice - which covers 40% less area than it did 26 years ago off the West Antarctic Peninsula - has also led to reduced numbers of krill, the main source of food for chinstrap penguins. Some colonies of chinstraps have seen reductions in numbers of up to two thirds because reduced food has made it more difficult for youngsters to survive, the Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change report said.

The gentoo penguin has also seen numbers shrinking because they are increasingly dependent on the krill as their usual food sources have been depleted by overfishing, the report said. And on the northwestern coast of the Antarctic peninsula, populations of Adelie penguins have dropped by 65% in the past quarter of a century.

The report said the penguins had been suffering from scarcer food supplies and encroachment by gentoo and chinstrap penguins who were taking advantage of higher temperatures where warming has been most dramatic.

Scientists are concerned for the Adelie, which lives on sea ice but needs the ice-free land to breed, where they line their nests with pebbles which they often steal from their neighbours.

WWF is calling for the Bali summit to agree a process which will lead to comprehensive and fair emissions reductions after phase one of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. The charity also wants to see international action to protect Antarctica from other pressures such as fisheries and tourism.