China has blocked efforts to step up protection of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) that are increasingly threatened by the effects global warming is having on their natural habitat in Antarctica.
Key highlights
- Dozens of countries had backed giving the world’s largest penguins special protection status at a 10-day meeting in Berlin of parties to the Antarctic Treaty.
- The treaty was forged in 1959 to ensure that the continent remains the preserve of science, and free of arms.
About Emperor Penguins
- The emperor is the largest of the 18 penguin species. Adults can weigh up to 40 kg at the start of the breeding season.
- Historically, there were some penguin species even larger than emperors, weighing perhaps 100 kg! These mega-penguins became extinct several tens of thousands of years ago.
- Some emperor penguins live to more than 40 years but most do not live that long in the wild.
- Their closest relatives are king penguins.
- Emperor penguins have the ability to ‘recycle’ their own body heat. The arteries and veins lie close together so that blood is pre-cooled on the way to a penguin’s feet, wings and bill and warmed on the way back to the heart.
- Emperors’ feet are adapted to the icy conditions.
- Like other animals that live in the polar regions, special fats in their feet prevent them from freezing.
- Emperors have strong claws for gripping the ice.
- Emperor penguins breed in colonies scattered around the Antarctic continent. Emperor penguins are the only animals that breed during the Antarctic winter.
