Penguin numbers linked to global warming

[jpak]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Penguin-numbers-linked-to-global-warming/2006/12/17/1166290395889.html

The first Adelie penguin chicks of the season - black fluffballs small enough to hold in the hand - started hatching this month, and the simple fact that there are more of them in the south and fewer of them further north is a sign of global warming, scientists say.

Smaller than the more majestic Emperor penguins, the Adelies have some 193 colonies that have a total population of 2.5 million breeding pairs, said researcher David Ainley in an from his camp at the penguin rookery at Cape Royds in Antarctica.

"We're looking for dramatic right-hand turns (in the penguin population), which are happening now," Ainley said.

"The rate of Adelie penguin colony disappearance is accelerating as the sea ice disappears."

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