This is horrific.
A penguin colony home to 18,000 penguins in Antarctica has suffered a massive breeding fail causing thousands of the animals to starve to death.
According to CNN, who spoke to the World Wildlife Fund, said the devastation was caused due to extensive amounts of sea ice around the colony which forced the adult penguins to travel further than normal to find food and heartbreakingly, the babies did not survive being away from their parents.
“This devastating event contrasts with the image that many people might have of penguins,” said Rod Downie, Head of Polar Programmes at WWF.
He continued…
“The impact of this catastrophic event is confined to this specific colony of Adélie penguins, predictions are that the Antarctic will get warmer and this may pose different challenges in the longer term.”
Aside from this climate change, the penguin population in Adélie Land, Antarctica could be under further threat as proposals to open the area to the krill fishing industry are underway, which would cause more devastation as penguins survive on krill.
But it is not all bad news, in light of this tragedy, scientists, environmental groups, and goverment officials will meet next week in Australia to discuss the hopes of creating a new Marine Protected Area (MPA) for the waters off eastern Antarctica, which would help protect the penguins.
