Emperor penguin population faces alarming decline due to global warming

Global warming is causing a rapid decline in the population of emperor penguins, the largest of the 18 penguin species.

It is projected that by 2050, the population of emperor penguins in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica could decrease by 26-47 percent.

This year, the observations made by Turkish scientists who traveled from Türkiye to Antarctica as part of the 7th National Antarctic Science Expedition on Emperor penguins on Horseshoe Island provided valuable data to the world scientific literature.

As a result of the research, the most up-to-date map of penguin colonies was also published.

Prof. Dr. Burcu Özsoy, the President of TÜBİTAK MAM (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye - Marmara Research Center) and the Director of the Institute of Polar Research, stated, "In the images of the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellite for 2022, it was observed that tens of thousands of emperor penguin chicks from the colony on Smyley Island in the Bellingshausen Sea fell into the water and died due to the melting ice. These observations by Turkish and British scientists indicate that in the future, we will face greater climate and extinction threats."