Emperor penguins at risk of extinction due to melting ice
Experts predict the emperor penguin population will halve by the 2080s owing to sea ice loss
The mass drowning of emperor penguin chicks, after melting sea ice caused by the climate crisis, has prompted the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to declare the species officially at risk of extinction.
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Emperor penguins rely on “fast ice” — sea ice fixed to the coast — for nine month of the year. It provides a vital platform for chicks to hatch and grow until their feathers become waterproof, and a refuge for adults during their annual moult.
But Antarctic sea ice has hit record lows since 2016 because of global heating. When the ice breaks up too soon, whole colonies can be lost to the sea – chicks can drown, and those that survive the water may still freeze to death.
The IUCN assessment projects that the emperor penguin population will halve by the 2080s owing to sea ice loss.
The current emperor penguin population is estimated at 595,000 adults, having already fallen by 10% between 2009 and 2018.
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The species, the largest of all penguins, has jumped two categories from near threatened as scientists warn climate change is rapidly destroying the sea ice they rely on to breed, feed and moult.
Martin Harper, chief executive of BirdLife International, said: “The emperor penguin’s move to endangered is a stark warning: climate change is accelerating the extinction crisis before our eyes.
“Governments must act now to urgently decarbonise our economies.”
It comes after an IUCN assessment in October 2025 revealed an estimated 61 per cent of bird species worldwide are experiencing declining populations, an increase from 44 per cent in 2016.
Dr Philip Trathan, a marine ecologist involved in the penguin assessment, said human-induced climate change poses the biggest threat, with early sea ice break-up already affecting colonies across Antarctica.
He said: "Emperor penguins are a sentinel species that tell us about our changing world and how well we are controlling greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change.”
Scientists have linked recent breeding disasters to shrinking ice.
In 2022, four of the five known emperor penguin breeding sites in the Bellingshausen Sea collapsed, killing thousands of chicks. Another colony in the Weddell Sea was lost in 2016.
Dr Peter Fretwell, one of the scientists who reported the colony collapse in 2022, said: “It’s a grim story. I was shocked. It’s very hard to think of these cute fluffy chicks dying in large numbers.”
Conservation groups say cutting fossil fuel emissions is the only way to halt global heating, while WWF is also calling for emperor penguins to be given specially protected species status at the next Antarctic treaty meeting in May in Japan.
The latest IUCN assessment also found Antarctic fur seals have fallen by more than half since 2000, dropping to about 944,000 mature animals and moving from least concern to endangered.
Researchers say warming seas are pushing krill, a key food source, into deeper waters, leaving seals struggling to feed.
The IUCN also said southern elephant seals are now at risk after bird flu outbreaks hit four of their five major subpopulations, killing more than 90% of newborn pups in some colonies.