POSSESSION ISLAND, France - Once hunted to the brink of extinction, the thousands of king penguins that densely congregate on the remote Possession Island each year now face a new threat: climate change.
“This species was not very far from extinction” after being massacred by seal hunters from the end of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th, he said. He was the lead author of a 2018 study that found that global warming was on track to wipe out 70 per cent of the world’s king penguins by the end of the century.
But with the polar front drifting southwards as human-driven climate change warms the world, the Crozet Islands could soon become uninhabitable for king penguins. They typically arrive in early November, selecting and mating with the partner with whom they will stay faithful for a year. The parent not caring for the egg or chick heads out to sea in search of food. Their partner back on land can go a month without eating.