by M E Skeel

Created on: August 02, 2009   Last Updated: August 03, 2009

The greatest danger to the survival of Antarctic penguins is human interference in the Antarctic ecosystem. From pollution to overfishing to climate change, humans are impacting every ecosystem on earth, including the Antarctic. Climate change is probably the biggest of those three threats to penguins. Penguins need ice, especially the Emperor penguins. They have to have ice solid enough to support them and their chicks for the long winter months. If the ice melts, there is less area for them to nest.

The Antarctic continent is actually two islands covered in and joined together by giant ice sheets. In addition there are vast areas of ocean covered by ice sheets. The size of the Antarctic doubles each winter as the ice spreads outwards in the freezing darkness. Abnormal melting began to occur back in the late 20th century due to the development of holes in the ozone layer because of the pollution of the atmosphere with CFC's. Although the production of CFCs has been cut, the damage from existing CFCs in the atmosphere continues and the hole over the Antarctic still develops each summer. Because of this, there has been a loss of a lot of ice. If we continue to burn fossil fuels and cause global warming by contributing to the Greenhouse Effect, we could see catastrophic melting of Antarctic ice. As well as raising sea levels, Antarctic penguin numbers couid be adversely affected and extinctions are possible.

Penguins are both tough and vulnerable. They have chosen to live in some of the most extreme climates in the world. They can survive in the cold southern ocean and on the even colder climates of subantarctic islands and the coastal zones of the Antarctic continent. Emperor penguins take journeys that would kill all but the toughest humans and then survive without shelter in the sub-sub-sub-zero temperatures and howling winds of an Antarctic winter. They survive what would kill us in minutes through a combination of thick fat layers, thick feather layers and huddling together in large groups. Each generation of emperor penguins thus survives on a knife edge. Extinction could occur in a single worst-case winter. Nature or humans could tip the balance and we could lose these amazing animals forever.

Besides the climate, Antarctic penguins have a formidable number of predators to contend with too but predator-prey relationships being what they are, extinction is not likely to be caused by predators. Leopard seals, killer whales and sharks are all threats to

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