Antarctica’s Adélie penguins could be decimated by climate change, with 60 per cent of colonies in peril

For millions of years, fluctuating climates have impacted Adélie penguins, which breed on ice-free, rocky ground.

Colder climates and expanding glaciers led penguins to abandon ice-covered breeding habitats. Warming climates and melting glaciers meant more breeding territory for these penguins, one of only two true Antarctic penguin species. (Emperor penguins are the other.)

But warming may have reached a tipping point - and the Adélie penguin population could be decimated.

That’s according to a study published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, which estimates that colonies of the little Adélie’s which stand about 50-60cm tall, could decline by as much as 60 per cent by the end of the century.

“It is only in recent decades that we know Adélie penguins population declines are associated with warming, which suggests that many regions of Antarctica have warmed too much and that further warming is no longer positive for the species,” the paper’s lead author, University of Delaware researcher Megan Cimino, said in a release.

These penguins breed on the entire Antarctic continent.