The World's Largest King Penguin Colony Has Dramatically Collapsed, And Scientists Don't Know Why

[Judi Lynn]

Climate change doesn't fully explain it.

MICHELLE STARR 31 JUL 2018

The world's largest king penguin colony has dramatically collapsed, and as yet scientists just don't know why. From 2 million members in the 1980s, including 500,000 breeding pairs, the population on the sub-Antarctic Île aux Cochons has shrunk to just 60,000 breeding pairs.

Using recent high-resolution satellite data from 2005 onwards, and helicopter and satellite images taken in 1982 and 1988, researchers from the Chizé Centre for Biological Studies (CNRS) have measured the changes in the colony since a crew of scientists last visited the island in 1982.

The colony, which has been known about since the 1960s, has lost 88 percent of its population, the researchers found. This constitutes an entire third of all the king penguins in the world.

To estimate the current colony sizes, the research team studied the contours of the island, and calculated how much of it is covered by vegetation. This is because breeding king penguin colonies occupy flat, or gently sloping, unvegetated ground, at a rate of 1.6 to 2.2 penguins per square metre.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-largest-king-penguin-colony-dropped-88-percent-since-1980s-ile-aux-cochons-antarctic

[debsy]

1. Happy Feet explained what is happening to the penguin population.

Humans are taking all their food. Climate, I'm sure, has something to do with it but until we stop taking (and wasting) food from the animals in the ocean, they are going to continue to starve to death (possibly to the point of extinction).

[BumRushDaShow]

2. A couple months ago, I saw articles about a different species that increased

I.e., they found a previously undiscovered group of the "Adelie" penguin.

Hidden colony of 1.5M penguins discovered on Antarctica's Danger Islands

CBC Radio · March 2

The documented global population of Adélie penguins just grew by 20 per cent.

A colony of 1.5 million of the creatures has recently been discovered in a remote region of Antarctica called the Danger Islands, according to new research published in the journal Nature.

"It's kind of amazing that there's been this really large number of penguins breeding on these small islands in a remote part of Antarctica that sort of slipped under the radar for so long," co-author Michael Polito, an oceanography professor at Louisiana State University, told As It Happens host Carol Off.

"It's exciting because it's a very significant number from a global population standpoint."



http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.4556159/hidden-colony-of-1-5m-penguins-discovered-on-antarctica-s-danger-islands-1.4559899

So since penguins are pretty good swimmers one wonders if some members of the King Penguins may have broken off and established elsewhere yet undiscovered. The OP article included that as a suggestion where they did find one break-off group -

<...>

Another explanation is relocation. King penguins tend to stay faithful to their birthplace and first breeding ground, but 2005 satellite images showed a separate colony closer to the beach that had not been seen before. However, the size of this colony was too small to account for the entire loss.

https://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-largest-king-penguin-colony-dropped-88-percent-since-1980s-ile-aux-cochons-antarctic