In April, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classified the emperor penguin as endangered due to Antarctica’s warming since 2016, which has led to record-low sea ice levels. Emperor penguins need about nine months of stable sea ice for mating, raising chicks and molting. Without it, chicks risk freezing or drowning before developing waterproof feathers. The adults face similar dangers during their annual molting season when they regrow swimming feathers.

When sea ice breaks up prematurely, entire colonies can fail. In 2022, a significant loss of chicks occurred when four of five breeding grounds in the Bellingshausen Sea collapsed. The IUCN predicts that the emperor penguin population will be only half its current size by the 2080s.