Penguin breeding site strangely empty

WASHINGTON — For the past three years, virtually nothing has hatched at Antarctica’s second biggest breeding grounds for emperor penguins, and the start of this year is looking just as bleak, a new study found.

Usually 15,000 to 24,000 breeding pairs of emperor penguins flock yearly to a breeding site at Halley Bay. But almost none have been there since 2016, according to a study in Wednesday’s Antarctic Science.

The breeding pair population has increased significantly at a nearby breeding ground, but the study’s author said it is nowhere near the amount missing at Halley Bay.

“We’ve never seen a breeding failure on a scale like this in 60 years,” said study author Phil Trathan, head of conservation biology at the British Antarctic Survey. “It’s unusual to have a complete breeding failure in such a big colony.”

Normally about 8 percent of the world’s emperor penguin population breeds at Halley Bay, Trathan said.

Black-and-white with yellow ears and breasts, emperor penguins are the largest penguin species, weighing up to 88 pounds and living about 20 years. Pairs breed in the harshest winter conditions with the male incubating their egg.

In 2016 and 2017, there was no breeding in Halley Bay and last year there was just a bit, the study found.

The nearby Dawson-lambton breeding area, which had been home to a couple thousand pairs, increased to 11,117 pairs in 2017 and 14,612 pairs in 2018, the study said.

While that’s encouraging, it doesn’t make up for all that was lost at Halley Bay, Trathan said. “Not everybody has gone to Dawson Lambton yet,” he said.