Climate change enables Gentoo Penguins to expand their habitat in the Antarctica
New York’s Stony Brook University (SBU) team of researchers were in for a surprise when they spotted gentoo penguin colonies on Andersson Island of Antarctica and also on an archipelago which has remained unexplored and is located off the Antarctica Peninsula’s northern point. According to a report in smithsonianmag.com, these places are some of the southern-most for gentoo breeding. Interestingly, gentoo penguins favour places that are warmer to raise their offspring and till recently found these regions too icy for their choice. That doesn’t seem so now as change in climate is helping them to expand their habitat – “gentoofication” as some scientists refer to it as. Talking to Mongabay, Heather Lynch, said: “It’s may be a cliché at this point, but they’re the canary in the coal mine for climate change because they’re so closely tied to those sea ice conditions.” Read More