Photo: File: Getty
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has officially designated Antarctica’s emperor penguins as a “threatened” species, saying climate change has had a “profound impact” on the birds.
“This listing reflects the growing extinction crisis,” Martha Williams, the federal wildlife agency’s director,said in a statementon Wednesday. “Climate change is having a profound impact on species around the world and addressing it is a priority for the Administration.”
She continued, “The listing of the emperor penguin serves as an alarm bell but also a call to action.”
The flightless species is now protected under the Endangered Species Act, 11 years after The Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned the agency to protect the Emperor penguin, according toThe Washington Post.
In astudylast year, conservation officials forecasted that the penguins and their colonies could become “quasi-extinct.”
The wildlife agency first floated the idea of protecting the penguins in 2021, issuing a statement citing melting sea ice as the prime culprit for the species' diminishing numbers.
It concluded, “While this estimated decline is concerning, the proposal to list the emperor penguin as threatened under the ESA comes while there is still time to prevent the species from becoming endangered throughout a significant portion of its range.”
With the Emperor penguin’s new Endangered Species Act protection, conservationists now hope that U.S. officials will begin to limit krill fishing around the continent and weigh the climate implications of federal projects before approving them, thePostreported.
“If we manage to take action, and especially action now,” scientist Stephanie Jenouvrier told the outlet, “we can still avoid the extinction.”
source: people.com
