Adelie Penguin Colony In Palmer Land, Antarctica, Collapsing - 80% Population Loss Since 1974

[hatrack]

PALMER STATION, Antarctica - William Fraser remembers when the ice floes and rocky outcrops near this U.S. outpost were thick with Adélie penguins and the constant, almost deafening roar of their calls made it impossible to hold a conversation. “You could not go anywhere without seeing hundreds to thousands of Adélies,” says the ecologist.

Today, the Adélies outnumber people in this icy patch of the world by 100 to 1. The ratio sounds impressive until Fraser notes that the penguin population has shrunk by 80 percent since he began studying it in 1974, and that he expects the knee-high birds to be extinct in eight years.

EDIT

Adélie penguins spend 90 percent of their lives at sea, swimming or huddled on ice floes in one of the world’s harshest climates. In 1974, about 15,200 breeding pairs nested each summer on a handful of windswept islands near Palmer Station. In 2003, there were 5,635 breeding pairs. “Right now, you can walk on some of these islands and it is completely silent," Fraser said at the time. "It’s sad.” During the 2005 breeding season, Fraser could find no breeding pairs on a rocky outcrop called Litchfield Island. It marked the first time in at least 700 years that, according to paleontological evidence from an excavation, Adélie penguins hadn't nested there.

The latest breeding season ended early this year. Speaking from his home in Montana, Fraser said his team counted only 3,393 pairs of Adélies.

EDIT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19918376/

So, how are your feet? Happy?

[dipsydoodle]

1. Truly tragic

[JDPriestly]

2. We humans have overbred. We are destroying the habitats of other animals.

And we claim to be the superior, rational beings.