Adapt or die...and make it quick. As Antarctica's penguins struggle with record low sea ice, one species is adapting.
Now, penguin experts saythese birds that move like tuxedoed toddlers are showing us the hidden hazards of burning coal and other fossil fuels by the way they march.
Along with seals, seabirds and baleen whales, penguins gorge mainly on Antarctic krill, a shrimp-like crustacean that thrives on the kind of phytoplankton found under sea ice. But early this year, sea ice reached a record-shattering low of less than 700,000 square miles, breaking the previous record set just last year.
While Adélie and chinstrap penguins remain stuck in their ancient ways come hell or warm water, the much more flexible gentoo penguins are ranging further and further south. And as they show willingness to chase new prey or abandon a nest to increase the odds of long-term survival, their numbers are exploding.
"I think there's a lesson in here for us as well," Lynch said."If we just stick to what we've always done, it's not going to turn out well for us. Just because Manhattan has always been where it is, does it make sense that it will be there in 200 or 300 years? I don't know. But I think we would benefit from being plastic and flexible and adaptive. And I think that's kind of what the gentoos are telling us.
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