THE DOVER CHRONICLE VOL 2

Se-Ah Lee
THE DOVER CHRONICLE - OCTOBER 2023 VOL. 2
MELTING ICE – THE PITFALL FOR
PENGUINS?
About 10,000 young penguins are most
likely to die before developing their
waterproof feathers. It is dangerous for
young penguins to survive due to the
melting ice all around them. They are most
likely to get drowned or freeze to their
death in the freezing water. As the
temperature of the Earth rises and the
climate changes continues, more and more
of the Arctic and Antarctic ice is likely to
melt. Especially now, in 2023, ice melts
and penguins are on the edge of extinction.
It is getting worse and worse, every year,
every minute, every second.
Penguins’ breeding period is long and
stabilized. But as the ice melts, it is most
likely that chicks will not be able to
become full-fledged adults. According to
BBC, most of the ice melts during
December, which is when the chicks
fledge. However, it is at the start of
December when ice starts to melt, that
most penguin chicks cannot develop their
new feathers and drown to death.
More than 90% of the emperor penguins
are likely to be extinct due to failing
breeding plans and young deaths that are
important for the survival of future
generations of penguins.
This is a life-threatening issue for
penguinsbecause if young penguins cannot
survive to adulthood to continue the
survival and growth of the colony,
penguins wouldn’t be able to breed and as
the time passes on, numbers of penguins
would decrease.
As penguin species inch closer to
extinction, it means that the food chain
would break and there would be more and
more fish in the area. This can cause the
biodiversity to decrease, threatening the
other animals in Antarctic.You might
wonder, why is this important? It is
important because if there were fewer
penguins in the area, there would be more
fish. This could cause plankton and other
small beings in the ocean to become extinct
(or endangered) because there are more
surviving predators around them.
This isn’t the only problem. Killer whales,
that mostly survives eating and hunting
penguins would be threatened by this
extinction and the number of killer whales
would slowly but dramatically decrease.
This can be a serious problem, breaking the
food web.