Penguins' breeding season shifts due to climate change

ANTARCTIC penguins are breeding up to two weeks earlier as a result of climate change, a decade-long study has found.

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Researchers studying Adelie, gentoo and chinstrap penguins said the changes were happening at a “record” rate, and warned they could threaten the birds’ access to food, force competition between species and increase the risk of “broad ecosystem collapse” in the Antarctic.

Researchers used dozens of time lapse cameras across 37 colonies in the Antarctic Peninsula and some sub-Antarctic islands to see when Adelie, gentoo and chinstrap penguins were settling into their breeding sites.

The team from the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University monitored the penguin colonies over 10 years from 2012 to 2022, as the Antarctic Peninsula was warming dramatically, as well as recording environmental factors such as temperature.