Emperor Penguins Are Protected Under Endangered Species Act

Emperor penguins have been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act because the animals’ sea ice habitat is shrinking, federal officials announced Tuesday. Experts predict that 99% of the world’s emperor penguin population will disappear by 2100 without significantly reducing carbon pollution.

The Antarctic sea ice, where the penguins spend much of the year, is under distress. Heat-trapping gases released by humans’ use of fossil fuels is causing the ice to disappear and break apart. That ice is essential to the animals’ livelihood – it is where they breed, raise their chicks and escape predators.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, “endangered” means a species could face extinction throughout all or a large portion of its range. “Threatened” means a species is likely to become endangered in the near future. There are between 625,000 and 650,000 emperor penguins in the wild, or 270,000 to 280,000 breeding pairs, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The service’s director, Martha Williams, said in a statement that the listing reflected the “growing extinction crisis.”

“Climate change is having a profound impact on species around the world and addressing it is a priority for the Administration,” Williams said. “The listing of the emperor penguin serves as an alarm bell but also a call to action.”

The designation, which comes more than a year after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal to protect the penguins, places the animals among a couple of dozen species that the federal government considers threatened by climate change, including polar bears, two kinds of seals and 20 varieties of coral.

The Endangered Species Act is the world’s strongest environmental law that is intended to prevent extinction and foster the recovery of at-risk species, according to a news release from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a research facility in Massachusetts. A listing under the act encourages international cooperation on conservation strategies, and, although the species is not found within the United States, federal agencies must now ensure that their projects that emit large amounts of carbon pollution do not threaten the penguin or its environment.