Emperor penguins now endangered, international wildlife group finds
Emperor penguins now endangered, international wildlife group finds
Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAYThu, April 9, 2026 at 7:38 PM UTC
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Emperor penguins and the Antarctic fur seal were moved to the endangered species list by the international organization that tracks extinction risk to plants and animals globally.
The decisions for both species were driven by the loss of sea ice in the Antarctic, wildlife groups said. Projections for warming and sea ice loss indicate the stately emperor penguin's population could be halved by the 2080s, the International Union for Conservation of Nature announced April 9.
Satellite images indicate a loss of around 10% of the population between 2009 and 2018 alone, equating to more than 20,000 adult penguins, the IUCN stated.
"Penguins are already among the most threatened birds on Earth," said Martin Harper, the CEO of BirdLife International, which coordinated the latest assessment on the penguins. "The emperor penguin’s move to endangered is a stark warning: climate change is accelerating the extinction crisis before our eyes."
Emperor penguins are seen near Dumont d'Urville Station in Antarctica on April 10, 2012.
Emperor penguins "depend on stable Antarctic sea ice for at least 9 months a year—to mate, raise their chicks, and molt," the World Wildlife Fund stated in a news release. Since 2016, sea ice levels have dramatically declined, and in 2022, four out of five known breeding sites in the Bellingshausen Sea collapsed, with thousands of chicks freezing or drowning, the wildlife fund said.
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In February 2026, sea ice in the Antarctic, where it's winter, had reached an annual low of roughly 996,000 square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center and NASA. The coverage was significantly higher than the past four summers, but still 100,000 square miles lower than the 1981-2010 average.
Emperor penguins have been considered threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 2022, because of the sea ice loss.
"For years these beloved penguins have been losing the sea ice they need to survive," said Dianne DuBois, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, which prompted the federal government to list the emperor penguin. "It would be a tragedy if iconic emperor penguins went extinct because we didn’t acknowledge the reality of climate chaos and do everything in our power to stop it," DuBois added.
Emperor penguins are seen near Dumont d'Urville Station in Antarctica on April 10, 2012.
Similar conditions in the Antarctic are reducing food availability for the fur seal, which has suffered a 50% reduction in population over the past 25 years, the IUCN stated.
Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change, wildlife and the environment for USA TODAY. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Emperor penguins now endangered due to sea ice loss in Antarctic
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