Climate change is pushing two iconic Antarctic species toward the brink of extinction — the emperor penguin and the Antarctic fur seal, a new assessment finds. The new listings, published Wednesday by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, cite factors such as warming ocean waters, melting sea ice and declining availability of food to sustain such species.The IUCN Red List of at-risk species is an authoritative census of species most at peril, as well as the causes of their decline. It is separate from classifications under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which listed the emperor penguin as “threatened” in 2022. The Antarctic fur seal is not currently listed under ESA classifications.Both species are highly charismatic megafauna. The emperor penguin is the largest of all penguin species, reaching upwards of 3 feet in height and 100 pounds in weight. These birds — and their huge, fluffy feathered babies — were featured prominently in the classic March of the Penguins documentary. The fur seals, in contrast, are the smallest of the Antarctic seal species and live primarily on sub-Antarctic islands. They were hunted nearly to extinction in the 19th century, but legal intervention and conservation projects had brought them back. Now, they’re in danger again.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe emperor penguin is moving from “Near Threatened” to “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List, based on new projections that its population will be cut in half by the 2080s. Satellite data show that emperor penguins lost about 10% of their population between 2009 and 2018, totaling a loss of more than 20,000 adult penguins.The main factor that is driving populations down is climate change-related early breakup and losses of sea ice, said Philip Trathan, a member of the IUCN working group that completed the penguin Red List assessment.“For emperor penguins, sea ice is their primary habitat,” Trathan told CNN. “They breed on fast ice,” which is sea ice connected to the coastline. “They molt on fast ice or on ice floes. They feed within the sea ice in polynyas, leads and cracks in the ice.”“As sea ice decreases, their …
