Penguins may be an unlikely winner from climate change

Scientists have found that the Adelie penguin may be a rare beneficiary of climate change, at least for now.

Adelies in front of the Australia’s Davis station in Antarctic.

Beneath the waves, penguins move gracefully, soaring and swooping through the sea. Above the waves, they wobble like waiters with their legs in a plaster cast.

Is it any wonder, then, that they do better when the sea is covered in less ice? Scientists have found that the Adelie penguin may be a rare beneficiary of ­climate change, at least for now.

By tagging 175 of the penguins, they found that the birds were more efficient hunters and caught more krill when there was less ice. The findings help explain reports that the penguins raised more chicks in seasons with less ice.

“Counterintuitively for this ice-dependent species, body conditions and breeding success ­improved in the ice-free environment,” wrote researchers from the Japanese National Institute of Polar Research, in the journal Science Advances.

The scientists used accelerometers, video cameras and tracking devices to plot each hunt. They found that when there was no ice the penguins did a lot more swimming — and this was a good thing.

“For penguins, swimming is a whopping four times faster than walking. They may be sleek in the water but are pretty slow waddlers overland,” Yuuki Watanabe, a researcher, said.

By swimming, the paper said, “penguins searched larger areas for prey in shorter durations in the ice-free season”.

One explanation for the finding that the penguins caught more krill may be because krill preferred less ice too.

In recent years, Antarctic sea ice cover has increased, but as temperatures warm that trend is set to reverse. While this will ­initially be good news, that may not last. On the Antarctic peninsula, where there is less sea ice ­already, the penguins have less breeding success if there is less ice.

Somewhere between the two lies the perfect balance of balletic underwater swooping and ungainly icy waddling.

The Times