Temperatures hit penguin numbers

The number of penguins in the Antarctic is declining rapidly because of global warming, the WWF charity has warned.World leaders, officials and environmentalists are marking the tenth anniversary of the Kyoto agreement at a climate change conference on the Indonesian island of Bali.Launching its report at the summit, the WWF said the Antarctic peninsula is warming five times faster than the average in the rest of the world and is affecting four penguin species.The emperor penguin - the largest in the world - the gentoo, chinstrap and adelie are struggling to survive as melting ice destroys nesting sites and reduces their food sources.Warmer temperatures and stronger winds mean penguins are raising chicks on increasingly thinner sea ice which can break off early while many eggs and chicks have been blown away before they are able to survive on their own.WWF's Anna Reynolds said: "The Antarctic penguins already have a long march behind them. Now it seems these icons of the Antarctic will have to face an extremely tough battle to adapt to the unprecedented rate of climate change."The WWF's report, "Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change", said sea ice covered 40 per cent less area than it did 26 years ago off the West Antarctic Peninsula.This has lead to a fall in stocks of krill, the main source of food for the chinstrap and gentoo species.Warming is fastest in the northwestern coast of the Antarctic peninsula and the WWF said populations of adelie penguins have dropped by 65 per cent over the past 25 years.The number of chinstraps decreased by 30 to 66 per cent in some colonies, as less food makes it more difficult for the young to survive while the emperor penguin has seen some of its colonies halve in size over the past 50 years.The pact requires 36 industrialised nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5 per cent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

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ITN | December 11, 2007

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