penguins

Tierra del Fuego is at the southernmost tip of South America and is sometimes known as the “end of the world.” This windswept part of Argentina is home to seven penguin colonies which breed, nest and feed in the area. Yet even here, the evidence of human encroachment on nature is clear. Plastic waste from […]

A colony of king penguins in Antarctica emit so much nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, in their poop that researchers went a little “cuckoo,” while studying them, according to Agence France Presse, which reported on a new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. The study looked at the effects of a […]

The climate crisis is taking a toll on Antarctica‘s chinstrap penguins. Scientists on a Greenpeace expedition to Antarctica found that the penguins’ numbers were falling, with one colony decreasing by 77 percent in nearly 50 years. This is especially surprising because, up until now, the chinstrap penguin has been considered a species of “least concern” […]

The world’s largest colony of king penguins declined nearly 90 percent in the last three decades, researchers announced Monday. The colony inhabits France’s subantarctic Île aux Cochons or Pig Island. Observations from the 1980s showed that it was once home to 2 million king penguins, making it the planet’s largest colony of the species, and […]

Following a £10 million ($13.5 million) eradication scheme and nearly a decade of work, South Georgia was officially declared rodent-free on Tuesday, the first time since humans arrived on the island more than 200 years ago. The British territory is one of the world’s last great wildlife areas. There you’ll find 98 percent of the […]

By Daisy Dunne The arduous journey that king penguins must make in order to hunt fish to bring back to their young could become even longer as the climate warms, research suggests. The study finds that future ocean warming in Antarctica could drive the penguins’ primary hunting grounds further poleward—away from their favored breeding spots. […]

Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise is on its way to Antarctica, where the crew on board will be the first humans ever to visit the seafloor in the Weddell Sea. The three-month expedition will aim to further the case for a massive ocean sanctuary. In an effort to combat the threats of overfishing, plastic pollution and […]

The first thing you notice about Marty is how much effort is takes her to swim. With a paralyzed left flipper, each breath seems a heroic effort—yet she perseveres. Marty is one of 15 (mostly) little blue penguins residing at the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. As her feeders kindly but firmly point […]