Emperor Penguins, Antarctic Fur Seals Near Extinction in IUCN Red List Update

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has updated their Red List, and several well-known species have been part of a grim addition to the endangered list.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™ is a comprehensive list compiled by the organization that establishes which animals, fungi, plants, and other living species are in danger of extinction. Species most at risk are labeled critically endangered, species at high risk are labeled endangered, and species with a growing risk are labeled vulnerable.

These details are supported by various statistics regarding animal and plant populations and biodiversity in certain areas. As of right now, the Red List encompasses more than 48,600 species, making up over 28% of the world's biodiversity.

Unfortunately, the Red List's latest update has added the emperor penguin, Antarctic fur seal, and southern elephant seal.

The emperor penguin, the world's most well-known penguin species, reside exclusively in Antarctica, making them extremely vulnerable to climate change. To breed and molt, emperors rely on sea ice that remains attached to the mainland.

Emperor penguins' annual molting process takes place every January and lasts until early March, where they must stay on sea ice for long enough to shed their old feathers and grow new, waterproof ones. Unlike other birds, emperor penguins shed all of their feathers at once, meaning that the sea ice is crucial to their ability to stay alive. It is also a time where the penguins cannot swim to hunt for food due to their lack of protection from the cold water, and the process is extremely energy-intensive– a stable platform of sea ice allows the penguins to feed just before and right after their fasting period.

A similar problem is happening with the penguins' breeding process. Emperors use stable platforms of sea ice to breed, but sea ice has melted much faster than usual in recent years. Young emperor chicks have downy feathers, as their waterproof ones only grow in around 5-6 months of age. If the sea ice breaks before this point, the chicks can slide into the freezing ocean, leading to mass drowning events that can decimate emperor populations. Some scientists estimate that seven emperor penguin colonies near the Ross Sea have lost around 32% of their populations in the last 4-6 years.

Meanwhile, the Antarctic fur seal is back onto the endangered list after making an incredible recovery in the 1900s. Across the 19th and 20th century, Antarctic fur seals were hunted for their pelts, almost driving them to extinction, but conservation efforts and a hunting ban in the 1970s brought them back to a status of least concern from the IUCN.

However, their population has plummeted in recent years. Around the areas where the fur seals live, krill populations – their biggest source of food – have shifted farther offshore as waters near the surface warm. This has drastically reduced the availability of food for the seals– they have lost over 50% of their population, more than one million seals, since 2014.

Lastly, the southern elephant seal has been shifted to vulnerable due to avian influenza, which has led to population declines of over 30%.

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Image credit to Nature Picture Library