Emperor penguins brave extreme cold, storms, starvation and predation. But global warming might ultimately defeat their efforts. If populations of this species fall, these iconic birds might soon find themselves marching toward extinction.
Emperors are the largest of the penguins. On April 9, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, moved the status of this species from “near threatened” to “critically endangered.”
IUCN is a network of more than 17,000 scientists and experts from over 160 countries. They maintain IUCN’s Red List. It identifies species that appear at risk of extinction in the wild — and how imminent their die-off might be.
“Critically endangered” is the Red List’s most severe category. IUCN deems these species at “very high risk of extinction in the wild.”
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