Emperor penguins listed as endangered species

Science Emperor penguins listed as endangered species by worldwide tracking organization April 9, 2026 / 5:47 AM EDT / AFP Add CBS News on Google The emperor penguin has been declared an endangered species as climate change pushes the icon of Antarctica a step closer to extinction, the global authority on threatened wildlife announced Thursday. Its change of status from "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) underscores the existential threat to ice-dependent species as global warming profoundly reshapes the frozen continent. Emperor penguins rely on sea ice to live, hunt and breed. The early break-up and loss of these platforms of frozen ocean water has caused their numbers to plummet.The IUCN -- a global network of scientists, governments and conservation groups -- said changes in sea ice caused by climate change were expected to halve the emperor penguin population by the 2080s. They "concluded that human-induced climate change poses the most significant threat to emperor penguins," Philip Trathan, part of the IUCN expert group who worked on the Red List assessment, said in a statement. The Red List of Threatened Species is maintained by the IUCN and is the world's most comprehensive information source on the extinction status of plants, animals and fungi. There are six classifications, from "least concern" to "extinct." Those ranked as "endangered" are two steps below "extinction in the wild," which denotes a species surviving only in captivity and not in nature. The Antarctic fur seal -- once hunted to near extinction by humans seeking their pelts -- was also moved to the endangered category, their numbers having plunged more than 50 percent since 1999.How climate change is endangering emperor penguins  "The ongoing decline is due to climate change, as rising ocean temperatures and shrinking sea ice are pushing krill to greater ocean depths in search of colder water, reducing the availability of food for seals," the...