For the second time in just four years, thousands of Adélie penguin chicks in Antarctica have failed to survive the breeding season. This year, scientists blamed unusually thick sea ice forcing penguin parents to travel farther for food in what conservationists have called a “catastrophic breeding failure.” Scientists who have been studying a colony of 18,000 pairs of Adélie penguins in East Antarctica since 2010 discovered that only two chicks survived the most recent breeding season in early 2017. Just four years ago, no penguin chicks from the colony survived the season due to the combination of rain and a sudden cold snap.
The long trek for food: