JoNova

Young King Penguins are big and brown. Photo by Paul Carroll on Unsplash

By Jo Nova

Scientists had so much money they were able to follow 17,000 penguins for, wow, 24 years. They discovered they were breeding 19 days earlier now than they were then. It all sounds rather dramatic — with penguins “bringing forward their mating cycles” in an “unbelievably big change”.

It’s like penguins have been forced into teenage pregnancy or something.

Photo by Bob Brewer on Unsplash

But then there’s the quiet line slipped in there: “….with greater success rates for chick survival.” which seems rather important, or perhaps, even the whole point? Is there any better marker to measure penguin health and happiness than seeing their baby penguins frolic? There can’t be too many penguins who enjoy watching the babies die?

So the ABC writes the catchy headline:

“King penguins successfully changing breeding habits in face of climate change”

But they could have said:

“Climate change saves baby penguins”

And we all know why they didn’t.

Their first line lays it on thick:

Climate change is putting pressure on many animals and their food chains at […]

Adelie Penguins would probably benefit from a bit of global warming. When 175 were tagged and tracked it turned out that they ate more krill when there was less sea ice. This is not so surprising given that they swim better than they waddle, so long stretches of sea ice make it harder to get to the supermarket and back.

And Krill (dinner) apparently like less sea ice too. Phytoplankton bloomed when the sea ice was gone.

Penguins on sea ice. Photo by Danielle Barnes on Unsplash

Penguins may be an unlikely winner from climate change

Tom Whipple, The Australian

“Counterintuitively for this ice-dependent species, body conditions and breeding success ­improved in the ice-free environment,” wrote researchers from the Japanese National Institute of Polar Research, in the journal Science Advances.

The scientists used accelerometers, video cameras and tracking devices to plot each hunt. They found that when there was no ice the penguins did a lot more swimming — and this was a good thing.

“For penguins, swimming is a whopping four times faster than walking.

For the first three seasons the sea ice was large, then it shrank and the […]