Emperor penguins rely on stable sea ice throughout their breeding season, which lasts from April to January. When an egg hatches, the newborn chick must fledge, losing its downy feathers to gain its waterproof coat.
Adult emperor penguins gather with youngsters — distinguishable by their gray, downy feathers — on Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. The colony there suffered three years of breeding failure from 2016 to 2018.Penguin colonies can recover from a single failed breeding season, says Annie Schmidt, a seabird ecologist at Blue Point Conservation Science in Petaluma, Calif., who wasn’t involved in the new study.
from 2016 to 2018 after storms broke up sea ice there, Fretwell and a colleague previously reported. Between breeding failure and mass emigration to another site, the colony all but disappeared.
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