Chinstrap Penguin Numbers In Freefall In Antarctic Islands; Down Nearly 60% In 50 Years [View all]

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Colonies of chinstrap penguins have fallen by more than half across islands in Antarctica, prompting scientific concern that “something is broken” in the world’s wildest ecosystem. After more than a month counting chicks in the South Shetland Islands, researchers suspect global heating is behind the sharp fall in numbers of the distinctive birds, which get their name from a black line that runs below the beak from cheek to cheek.

Using drones and handheld clickers, the team of four scientists from Stony Brook University in the US found only 52,786 breeding pairs on Elephant Island, 58% fewer in the last survey in 1971. Travelling on a Greenpeace expedition, the scientists also conducted a penguin census in the snow, fog and freezing rain of Low island, where preliminary figures indicated a similar scale of decline in what is believed to be the largest chinstrap population in Antarctica.

It was the same story on Livingston island, where the team braved choppy seas to land by the rocks of Hannah Point and conduct a count that was far down from previous estimates.

The full tally from each island will not be released until the expedition is completed, but the researchers said the trend was clear and disturbing; chinstrap colonies are shrinking, leaving space for another species of penguin, the gentoo, to move in.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/antarctic-alarm-collapse-chinstrap-penguin-numbers-global-heating