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Climate Change

Though Hadoram Shirihai in A Complete Guide to Antarctic Life notes an increase in the total population of King penguins across the globe in 2002 (insert wikipedia citation), 70% of king penguins are expected to abruptly disappear in less than eighty years (https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-70-per-cent-king-penguins-could-abruptly-relocate-disappear-by-2100). Considered sensitive indicators of changes in marine ecosystems, King penguins serve as a key species for understanding the effects of climate change on the marine biome, especially throughout the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic areas (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/26/antarcticas-king-penguins-could-disappear-by-the-end-of-the-century). As a result of a population decline and possible extinction of King penguins, global biodiversity will decrease and lessen the productivity of the earth’s ecosystems.

King penguins rely on fish as their primary source of food. In order to provide fish for their young, King penguins swim to the Antarctic Polar Front, “where cold Antarctic waters meet and sink beneath warmer waters from mid-latitude regions,” which contains 80% of their food (https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/02/26/climate-change-bores-down-on-king-penguin-habitats). Gathered here are large numbers of Antarctic fish species. The Antarctic Polar Front is a prime feeding ground for King penguins because predators, such as seals, are kept at bay due to above freezing temperatures. King penguins currently travel 300-500 km over a course of over a week to complete the journey. However, ocean warming could easily move these fronts further away from King penguin breeding grounds (https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-70-per-cent-king-penguins-could-abruptly-relocate-disappear-by-2100).

As more heat trapping gases--such as carbon dioxide--are added to the atmosphere, the Earth’s temperature increases. Ocean warming accounts for 90% of the Earth’s total warming that has occured since the mid-twentieth century (https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/new-evidence-warming-ocean). A study published in Nature Climate Change states that continuous ocean warming could cause the Antarctic Polar Front to move polewards, away from King penguin breeding sites like the Falklands and the Crozet Islands. The study concluded that if carbon emissions continue to rise at their current rate, King penguins will need to travel an additional 200 km in order to reach their feeding areas (https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-70-per-cent-king-penguins-could-abruptly-relocate-disappear-by-2100).

In addition to a greater distance needed to travel in order to obtain food, King penguin breeding grounds will also suffer with the rise of emissions. The study shows that nearly half of the total population will likely lose their breeding grounds by the year 2100 (https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-70-per-cent-king-penguins-could-abruptly-relocate-disappear-by-2100. The loss of breeding grounds will greatly contribute to a steep population decline, thus weakening the influence King penguins have on marine and land ecosystems.

In addition to climate change, King Penguins are also threatened by large-scale commercial fishing that could deplete their main source of food: myctophid fish. Over 200,000 tons of myctophid fish were commercially exploited by the beginning of the 1990s in the South Georgia region. Researchers state the following: Several attempts to develop new commercial ﬁsheries on a limited scale within the Southern Ocean are ongoing. A large, uncontrolled development of myctophid ﬁsheries close to key foraging areas, especially in the southern Indian Ocean sector (Kerguelen) or in the Scotia Sea (South Georgia) may have deleterious eﬀects on the foraging success and populations of the king.” (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250305098_The_King_Penguin_Life_History_current_status_and_priority_conservation_actions_In_Penguins_Book)

Penguins serve as a key part of the diets of predators such as leopard seals and seabirds. Additionally, King penguins control the populations of fish, squid, and krill wherever they hunt. Throughout their hunting routes, King penguins enrich both the land and sea with the nutrients carried in their feces and some even “modify the landscape as they dig nests into the ground,” (

https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/seabirds/penguin-health-equals-ocean-health). Ultimately, their existence greatly contributes to the planet’s sustainment of biodiversity.

Research and Conservation Efforts

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, King Penguins were often targeted and killed for their oil. Additionally, many King Penguin colonies were killed by seal hunters. Today, King Penguins are less vulnerable to direct human interference and more susceptible to the effects of climate change.

The Pew Charitable Trust recommends the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) implement “large-scale, fully protected marine reserves in the waters surrounding Antarctica.” The Trust also recommends precautionary management of the Antarctic krill fishery in order to protect King Penguins’ main source of food. The CCAMLR is made up of 24 countries (plus the European Union), among those are the United States and China, that withhold the authority to enact such protective measures. https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets/2014/10/ccamlr/protecting_king_penguins_fact_sheet.pdf?la=en

Additional research and conservation recommendations from scientists and researchers includes the following:

1) When modeling foraging habitats of King Penguins, pay special attention to the southernmost breeding locations given the predicted rise in water temperature in the Southern Ocean. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250305098_The_King_Penguin_Life_History_current_status_and_priority_conservation_actions_In_Penguins_Book

2) Complete regular censuses of breeding populations in order to detect temporal trends and environmental changes. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250305098_The_King_Penguin_Life_History_current_status_and_priority_conservation_actions_In_Penguins_Book

Though seal and oil hunters do not present nearly as great of a threat to King Penguins as they did in past centuries, the King Penguin population still faces decline. Additionally, the CCAMLR has not taken any concrete steps to accommodate the conservation recommendations of the Pew Charitable Trust and other groups alike. And despite ongoing “attempts to develop new commercial fisheries on a limited scale,” (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250305098_The_King_Penguin_Life_History_current_status_and_priority_conservation_actions_In_Penguins_Book) one King Penguin colony has dropped in substantial numbers. Since the 1980s, the largest colony of King Penguins on earth shrank by 90% in an island colony off the coast of France.

The rest of the world’s King Penguin populations, despite climate change and a lack a of large-scale conservation efforts, remain in the Least Concern category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Since 2004, the IUCN has reported that the population size is large and has increased breeding rates. Additionally, researchers note adult King Penguins have maintained high survival rates since the 1970s. https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/to-do/wildlife/king-penguin

The steady population of King Penguins is due largely to current conservation efforts to protect their land habitats. Ecotourism and public access to all King Penguin breeding sites are heavily restricted in order to prevent outbreaks of disease and general disturbance. All of the colonies in Crozet and Kerguelen Islands are protected under the oversight of the Reserve Naturelle Nationales des Terres australes et Antarctiques Francaises (natural reserve). Additonally, South Georgie penguins reside in a “special protected area within the Environmental Management Plan for South Georgia.” And in the Falklands, all wildlife—including the King Penguin—is protected under the Conservation of Wildlife and Nature Bill of 1999. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250305098_The_King_Penguin_Life_History_current_status_and_priority_conservation_actions_In_Penguins_Book