Penguins silent victims of climate change and pollution

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Italian raises penguin alarm

 

Birds " silent " victims of climate change and pollution (ANSA) - Rome,

September 12 - An Italian expert has warned that the world's penguin

population is a " silent " victim of climate change and other human-made

threats. Fabrizio Carbone, a nature journalist who has just written a book

about the flightless birds, says penguin numbers are falling at a constant

and alarming rate .

 

They are under fire from the fishing industry, oil spillages and other forms

of marine pollution, habitat loss, and the effects of global warming and

melting ice caps, he says .

 

As a result, five of the 17 penguin species are 'endangered', which means

they are facing a high risk of extinction in the near future, or

'vulnerable', with a high risk of extinction in the medium-term .

 

" The silent victims of this complex environmental situation are the four

species that live in Antarctica - the emperor, Adelie, chinstrap and

macaroni penguins, " he said .

 

" Then we have the species that populate other parts of the southern

hemisphere. Almost all of them are at the point of no return .

 

" The conservation classifications put them one step away from the various

'red' lists of species that, from now on, are in danger of extinction " .

 

Since penguins spend about half of their time at sea looking for food, all

of the species are affected by over-fishing and run the risk of getting

tangled in nets and drowning .

 

Pollution and climate change are disrupting the aquatic birds' breeding and

feeding grounds, with warmer currents driving away prey .

 

The greenhouse effect is eating away at the habitats of the Antarctic

penguins too .

 

" The ice of the Antarctic is melting faster than at any other time in our

planet's history, which is billions of years long, " Carbone said. The

journalist also pointed out that the survival of one of the rarest species,

New Zealand's yellow-eyed penguin, is in peril because of predators like

weasels, dogs and cats. These predators did not exist in the birds' natural

environment until man introduced them .