麻豆约拍

98% of the world鈥檚 emperor penguin colonies could vanish by the end of the century due to melting ice in Antarctica... that's the worst case scenario found in a new study by an international team of wildlife experts. Emperor penguins depend on sea ice for breeding, moulting and feeding.

The study's author is Phil Trathan, the head of Conservation Biology at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK.

"If (the sea ice) disrupts or blows out with strong winds, then the breeding attempts will fail. The chicks will fall into the water, they've got downy coats, they're not waterproof, so they'll freeze to death. So if we have interruptions in the sea ice, we'll have interruptions in breeding and the population will decline."

(Photo: An emperor penguin. Credit: P Kimball)