Emperor penguin population decline may be "worse than the worst-case projections," scientists warn

Emperor penguin populations in Antarctica may be declining faster than the most pessimistic predictions, scientists said after analyzing satellite images of a key part of the continent. 

The images, spanning from 2009 to 2024, suggest a decline of 22% in the Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen Sea, according to researchers from the British Antarctic Survey and University of Southampton, who published their study in Nature on Tuesday. 

The 16 emperor penguin colonies in that part of Antarctica represent a third of the global population. The estimated decline compares to an earlier estimate of a 9.5% reduction across Antarctica as a whole between 2009 and 2018.