1. Antarctic Penguins Cope with Climate Change
Jean Pennycook
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2. Antarctica Ross Island
The continent of Antarctica. The most northern area, the Antarctic Peninsula, is the site of very active warming and breeding colonies of Adelie Penguins have decreased in numbers, some have disappeared. Ross Island is the southern most breeding area of Penguins and the colonies here are increasing in number.
Ross Island

3. These two species do not breed in the same location or at the same time. Adélies find ice free land with small rocks to build nests, Emperors raise their chicks on the frozen sea ice. Emperor eggs are laid in June and July and the chicks fledge in early December. Adélie eggs are laid in November, the chicks fledge in February.
All penguins live south of the equator, but only two species are the true Antarctic penguins requiring waters that are covered with ice most of the year. The small Adélie Penguin (10 pounds) and the large Emperor Penguin (50 pounds) are being affected by changes in the Earth’s climate patterns.

4. Adélies are quick, strong walkers and climbers, and build their nests on land out of small rocks. They lay 2 eggs.
Just as song birds need trees to live in, Adélie Penguins need ice. They spend most of their lives at sea or on ice floes such as this one.
Adélie Penguins do not mate until they are 4 – 5years old, so they spend the first few years of their lives almost exclusively at sea, living on the ice floes around Antarctica.

5. The Emperor Penguin is large, slow and clumsy
The Emperor Penguin is large, slow and clumsy. Emperors raise chicks on flat frozen ocean, rarely come on shore and nestle the one large egg in a pouch just above their feet.
Emperor Penguins stay on the frozen ocean all of their lives as they are too big and clumsy to climb over ridges of ice or up the rocky shore to get to the land.

6. Adélie Penguins are at home on ice with plenty of open areas between the floes.
The primary food source for Adélie Penguins is krill, which is frequently found on the undersurface of the ice. They also eat small fish and squid.
They live on top of the ice, their food is underneath the ice and in the surrounding ocean.

7. Penguins out on the sea ice making there way to the breeding colony
Penguins out on the sea ice making there way to the breeding colony. There is no way to get food from ice like this. They must walk back to the open ocean or hope for a crack. From here these penguins have almost 30 more miles to walk before getting to their breeding colony at Cape Royds. This was a difficult year for them as it took several days to walk each direction, and several days to fill up with food. Many nests were lost as the adult on the nest could not wait for its mate to return, they became too hungry, abandoned the eggs and went in search of food.
When there is too much solid ice, the penguins have to walk a long way to their breeding colony and then return to open water for food. This may take several days each way and many nests will fail.

8. Other species of penguins prefer open ocean environments, Gentoos and Chinstraps replace Adélies in areas where the sea ice is retreating.
Adélie Penguins are good swimmers, but do not like to live in open ocean with no ice floes to rest on. When sea ice disappears, Adélies disappear.

9. Nests are built about 1m apart (center to center)
Nests are built about 1m apart (center to center). These birds are very territorial about their nesting site, any closer and they would peck at each other. Any further apart and the Skuas would have an easier time stealing the egg or small chick. Nests near the edge of the colony are more vulnerable to Skua attack, near the center is safer. Skuas are large predatory birds who live near the penguin colony during the breeding season. They prey on the eggs and small chicks of penguins to feed their own young.
A small breeding group within a large colony. Adélie Penguins build their nests in groups to help protect the eggs and chicks from the Skuas.

10. Global climate change is affecting the penguins habitat in these ways:
Summer storms are becoming more severe.
Sea ice coverage is changing.
Summer melt from glaciers alters the breeding colony.

11. 1. Summer storms are becoming more severe.
With warming temperatures, more moisture enters the atmosphere creating larger storms with more snow.

12. Adélie chicks are tough and can withstand these storms.
Summer storms bringing a few inches of snow are common during the breeding season.
No problem for the adults, but these storm sometimes are too much for small chicks. These two larger chicks sat still during the entire storm and let the snow create an insolating blanket. When the storm was over they shook it off and went on their way.
Adélie chicks are tough and can withstand these storms.

13. If the snow is too heavy, the adults and their chicks become buried.
With global climate change, storms are bringing more snow. The adult penguins will not leave their nests, even when the snow piles up.
If the snow is too heavy, the adults and their chicks become buried.
In the top picture the adult would probably be able to get out, but the chick would not. In the bottom picture the adult is not able to get out of the hole, the small chick in the nest is completely helpless. In both these cases we dug out the nests to free the birds.

14. This breeding group returned to the colony to find a four foot snow drift covering their nesting sites. Adélie Penguins need open ground free of snow and do not know how to deal with this much. The pairs built their nest on the drift, but their warm bodies melted the snow causing the eggs to sit in cold water. Very few eggs hatched in this group.
The birds could have moved over several feet to a place off the snow drift to build their nests, but their internal guiding system brought them to the exact same spot as last years nest and nothing else will do. Except this year it was under four feet of snow. This entire breeding group failed to raise even one chick this season.

15. 2. Sea ice coverage is changing.
In some Antarctic locations, sea ice coverage is becoming reduced or disappearing, in others it is increasing and lasting longer.
With global climate change there are winners and losers.

16. As ice cover in some areas of Antarctica is reduced, Adélie Penguin colonies are becoming smaller or disappearing.
Antarctic Peninsula

17. In areas around the Antarctic Peninsula, many Adélie nesting colonies have been abandoned like this one. Gentoos and Chinstrap Penguins who prefer open ocean conditions have moved in.
An abandon nesting colony. These penguins had to move to another location in Antarctica where the sea ice conditions were more favorable.

18. In other Antarctic locations greater winds and cooler temperatures increase the ice suitability for the Adélie Penguins. These colonies are growing in numbers.
Ross Island

19. Location of the “March of the Penguins” Emperor Penguin colony.
The March of the Penguins is a wonderful movie showing the life cycle of the Emperor Penguins and what they endure to raise their chicks.

20. As global temperature increase, the sea ice coverage is reduced and break out occurs earlier.
Emperor chicks can not swim until they obtain their full adult plumage. These birds are on several inches of ice over several hundred feet of water. If the sea ice melts before the chicks can swim, they will not survive.

21. Temperature increases have caused the sea ice to break out at Pt Geologie before Emperor chicks are ready to swim. The can not survive. This graph shows the decline in the numbers of Emperor Penguins at this colony.

22. 3. Summer melt from glaciers alters the breeding colony. .
Every summer there is a small amount of melt from the glacier behind this Adélie colony. In recent years the melt waters have become too much for the penguins to handle and many nests have been washed away from breeding sites that have been there for a very long time.

23. The eggs on these nests will not hatch as they are sitting in very cold water.
Adelie Penguins return to their nesting site year after year. These sites used to be on the banks of the small melt stream, now they are in the middle of the river.

24. With warming temperatures glaciers retreat and more land opens up for nesting sites. The penguin colony on this island is increasing.
Beaufort Island
Beaufort Island is a small island near Ross Island. As the glacier on the left side of the picture above has retreated, more shore land with small rocks has become available for the penguins to build their nests. In the bottom pictures, any place where you see light brown is a breeding group of penguins.

25. Global climate change is altering the habitat of Antarctic penguins
Global climate change is altering the habitat of Antarctic penguins. For more information go to:

26. Other Powerpoint presentations for you classroom:
Introduction to the Polar regions, Why is Antarctica so cold?
Introduction to Adélie Penguins, Adélie Penguins march into the classroom
Penguin Adaptations, This is a harsh continent
Adélie Penguin Behavior, Good manners are always in style
Penguin Predation and Competition, Life is tough for an Adélie Penguin
Adélie Penguins Cope with Global Climate Change
Did You Know, How researchers know what they know
Penguin Quandaries, Can you answer these mysteries
Fun pictures about Adélie Penguin
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