These two iconic polar species have been driven to endangered status by a warming planet
Climate change is pushing two iconic Antarctic species to the brink of extinction: the emperor penguin and the Antarctic fur seal, according to a new assessment. The new lists, released Wednesday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, cite factors including warming ocean waters, melting sea ice and declining availability of food to feed these species.
The IUCN Red List of Endangered Species is an authoritative inventory of the most endangered species and the causes of their decline. It is distinct from classifications under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which listed the emperor penguin as “threatened” in 2022. The Antarctic fur seal is not currently listed in the ESA classifications.
Both species constitute very charismatic megafauna. The emperor penguin is the largest of all penguin species, reaching over 3 feet in height and 100 pounds in weight. These birds – and their huge, fluffy feathered babies – featured prominently in the classic Penguin Walk documentary. In contrast, fur seals are the smallest seal species in Antarctica and live primarily on sub-Antarctic islands. They were hunted to extinction in the 19th century, but legal intervention and conservation projects have brought them back. Now they are in danger again.
The emperor penguin is upgraded from “near threatened” to “endangered” on the IUCN Red List, based on new projections that its population will be cut in half by the 2080s. Satellite data shows that emperor penguins lost about 10% of their population between 2009 and 2018, totaling a loss of more than 20,000 adult penguins.
The main factor driving populations down is early break-up and loss of sea ice linked to climate change, said Philip Trathan, a member of the IUCN working group that completed the penguin Red List assessment.
“For emperor penguins, sea ice is their primary habitat,” Trathan told CNN. “They breed on fast ice,” which is sea ice connected to the coastline. “They molt on coastal ice or pack ice. They feed in sea ice in polynyas, conduits and cracks in the ice.”
“As sea ice decreases, so does their habitat,” Trathan said. “Significant sea ice loss resulting from regional climate change remains an ongoing threat and will likely reduce reproductive success and adult survival in the long term. »
Seasonal sea ice in Antarctica has declined significantly since 2016, he said, leading to increased or complete breeding failure in nearly half of known emperor penguin colonies throughout Antarctica.
Trathan said there are two lines of evidence that have helped establish the change in status of emperor penguins: analyzes of satellite images supported by assessments made in the field, as well as assessments of population models.
As for the Antarctic fur seal, its status was reduced from “Least Concern” to “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List after its population declined by more than 50 percent between 1999 and 2025. The decline in the seal population is also linked to climate change, the IUCN found, which is reducing the availability of krill, their main food source.
Kit Kovacs, who worked on the assessment of Antarctic fur seals, told CNN that as the temperature of surface waters near Antarctica increases, krill move farther offshore and enter deeper waters to reach colder areas. “This makes krill much less accessible to terrestrial predators,” Kovacs said.
“These new listings in the South Atlantic Ocean reflect changes that have already taken place in the Arctic North Atlantic, where hooded seals, harp seals and ringed seals are already in serious decline,” Kovacs said.
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