WEBVTT

00:00:11.249 --> 00:00:12.500
Penguins have long captured

00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:14.451
the imagination and the hearts

00:00:14.451 --> 00:00:16.412
of people the world over.

00:00:16.412 --> 00:00:17.834
But while popular culture

00:00:17.834 --> 00:00:20.401
depicts them as clumsy, adorable birds

00:00:20.401 --> 00:00:22.907
with endlessly abundant populations,

00:00:22.907 --> 00:00:25.751
the truth is that penguins are exceedingly graceful,

00:00:25.751 --> 00:00:27.077
often ornery,

00:00:27.077 --> 00:00:30.275
and their populations are in rapid free fall.

00:00:30.275 --> 00:00:32.876
Their real life situation is far more precarious

00:00:32.876 --> 00:00:34.264
than people think.

00:00:34.264 --> 00:00:36.417
And if current trends do not change,

00:00:36.417 --> 00:00:37.583
it may not be long

00:00:37.583 --> 00:00:40.666
before penguins can only be found in movies.

00:00:41.266 --> 00:00:42.842
There are many things about penguins

00:00:42.842 --> 00:00:45.337
that make them odd birds, so to speak.

00:00:45.337 --> 00:00:46.187
For one thing,

00:00:46.187 --> 00:00:48.982
they are one of the few bird species that cannot fly,

00:00:48.982 --> 00:00:51.662
having evolved from flight-capable birds

00:00:51.662 --> 00:00:54.134
about 60 million years ago.

00:00:54.134 --> 00:00:56.469
Surprisingly, their closest living relative

00:00:56.469 --> 00:00:57.961
is the albatross,

00:00:57.961 --> 00:01:00.274
a bird known for its enormous wingspan

00:01:00.274 --> 00:01:03.489
and extraordinary soaring abilities.

00:01:03.489 --> 00:01:04.493
It may seem strange

00:01:04.493 --> 00:01:06.235
that losing the ability to fly

00:01:06.235 --> 00:01:08.283
would be an evolutionary advantage,

00:01:08.283 --> 00:01:10.884
but the penguin's short, flipper-like wings

00:01:10.884 --> 00:01:12.148
and solid bones

00:01:12.148 --> 00:01:14.760
allow them to swim faster and dive deeper

00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:16.805
than any other bird on Earth,

00:01:16.805 --> 00:01:20.597
filling an ecological niche that no other bird can.

00:01:20.597 --> 00:01:22.839
Penguins inhabit the southern hemisphere,

00:01:22.839 --> 00:01:24.687
being one of the few bird species

00:01:24.687 --> 00:01:27.260
able to breed in the coldest environments.

00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:29.551
But contrary to popular belief,

00:01:29.551 --> 00:01:31.970
they are not restricted to cold regions

00:01:31.970 --> 00:01:34.682
nor are there any at the North Pole.

00:01:34.682 --> 00:01:37.859
In fact, only 4 of the 18 penguin species

00:01:37.859 --> 00:01:41.329
regularly live and breed in Antarctica.

00:01:41.329 --> 00:01:43.028
Most penguins live in subtemperate

00:01:43.028 --> 00:01:44.482
to temperate regions.

00:01:44.482 --> 00:01:46.894
And the Galapagos penguin even lives and breeds

00:01:46.894 --> 00:01:48.320
right near the equator

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:50.464
off the coast of South America.

00:01:50.464 --> 00:01:52.841
They are also found in South Africa,

00:01:52.841 --> 00:01:53.564
Namibia,

00:01:53.564 --> 00:01:54.342
Australia,

00:01:54.342 --> 00:01:55.463
and New Zealand,

00:01:55.463 --> 00:01:56.974
as well as on a number of islands

00:01:56.974 --> 00:01:58.437
in the southern Atlantic,

00:01:58.437 --> 00:01:59.144
Pacific,

00:01:59.144 --> 00:01:59.729
Indian,

00:01:59.729 --> 00:02:01.767
and Antarctic Oceans.

00:02:01.767 --> 00:02:05.559
Although penguins spend 75% of their lives at sea,

00:02:05.559 --> 00:02:07.607
they must come to shore every year

00:02:07.607 --> 00:02:10.017
to reproduce and to molt their feathers.

00:02:10.017 --> 00:02:12.562
They do this in a variety of places,

00:02:12.562 --> 00:02:15.224
from the temporary ice sheets of the Antarctic

00:02:15.224 --> 00:02:17.785
to the beaches of South Africa and Namibia,

00:02:17.785 --> 00:02:20.911
to the rocky shores of subantarctic islands,

00:02:20.911 --> 00:02:24.359
to the craggy lava surfaces in the Galapagos.

00:02:24.359 --> 00:02:25.464
Different penguin species

00:02:25.464 --> 00:02:27.632
have different nesting practices.

00:02:27.632 --> 00:02:30.803
Some dig burrows into dirt, sand, or dried guano;

00:02:30.803 --> 00:02:32.887
some nest in tussock grasses;

00:02:32.887 --> 00:02:35.865
some build nests out of small rocks, sticks, and bones;

00:02:35.865 --> 00:02:38.511
while others don't build any nests at all.

00:02:38.511 --> 00:02:41.397
Although most penguins lay a clutch of two eggs,

00:02:41.397 --> 00:02:42.984
the two largest species,

00:02:42.984 --> 00:02:44.397
the King and the Emperor,

00:02:44.397 --> 00:02:45.737
lay a single egg

00:02:45.737 --> 00:02:47.796
that they incubate on top of their feet

00:02:47.796 --> 00:02:50.191
for approximately two months.

00:02:50.191 --> 00:02:53.945
Unfortunately, 15 of the 18 penguin species

00:02:53.945 --> 00:02:56.489
are currently listed as threatened,

00:02:56.489 --> 00:02:57.404
near-threatened,

00:02:57.404 --> 00:02:58.266
or endangered

00:02:58.266 --> 00:03:01.749
by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

00:03:01.749 --> 00:03:03.193
In the last several decades,

00:03:03.193 --> 00:03:04.755
we have seen the world populations

00:03:04.755 --> 00:03:06.907
of most penguin species decline

00:03:06.907 --> 00:03:09.419
by up to 90%,

00:03:09.419 --> 00:03:10.454
with two of them,

00:03:10.454 --> 00:03:12.307
the Yellow-eyed and Galapagos penguins,

00:03:12.307 --> 00:03:15.746
down to just a few thousand birds.

00:03:15.746 --> 00:03:17.917
Penguins are an indicator species,

00:03:17.917 --> 00:03:21.096
the proverbial "canary in the coal mine."

00:03:21.096 --> 00:03:23.509
Simply put, if penguins are dying,

00:03:23.509 --> 00:03:25.641
it means our oceans are dying.

00:03:25.641 --> 00:03:28.880
And sadly, most of this decline is attributable

00:03:28.880 --> 00:03:30.915
to human activities.

00:03:31.607 --> 00:03:33.491
Historically, penguins have had to deal

00:03:33.491 --> 00:03:35.573
with multiple disturbances.

00:03:35.573 --> 00:03:37.368
The mass collection of penguin eggs

00:03:37.368 --> 00:03:38.153
and the harvesting

00:03:38.153 --> 00:03:39.949
of the seabird guano they nested in

00:03:39.949 --> 00:03:41.744
caused the dramatic decline

00:03:41.744 --> 00:03:43.743
of several penguin species.

00:03:43.743 --> 00:03:44.535
If you're wondering

00:03:44.535 --> 00:03:46.445
what humans would want with seabird poop,

00:03:46.445 --> 00:03:47.531
it was used as an ingredient

00:03:47.531 --> 00:03:49.675
in fertilizer and in gunpowder,

00:03:49.675 --> 00:03:51.400
being so valuable

00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:52.588
that in the 19th century,

00:03:52.588 --> 00:03:55.217
it was known as white gold.

00:03:55.217 --> 00:03:57.666
Current threats to penguins include the destruction

00:03:57.666 --> 00:04:00.185
of both marine and terrestrial habitats,

00:04:00.185 --> 00:04:01.766
introduced predators,

00:04:01.766 --> 00:04:03.681
entrapment in fishing nets,

00:04:03.681 --> 00:04:06.655
and pollution from plastics and chemicals.

00:04:07.470 --> 00:04:10.067
There have also been several large-scale oil spills

00:04:10.067 --> 00:04:12.035
over the past 50 years

00:04:12.035 --> 00:04:13.457
that have killed or impacted

00:04:13.457 --> 00:04:17.034
tens of thousands of penguins around the world.

00:04:17.803 --> 00:04:19.977
But the two major threats to penguins today

00:04:19.977 --> 00:04:21.474
are global warming

00:04:21.474 --> 00:04:23.752
and overfishing.

00:04:23.752 --> 00:04:26.987
Global warming impacts penguins in multiple ways,

00:04:26.987 --> 00:04:28.874
from interrupting the production of krill

00:04:28.874 --> 00:04:31.583
due to decreased sea ice formation in the Antarctic,

00:04:31.583 --> 00:04:33.008
to increasing the frequency

00:04:33.008 --> 00:04:34.306
and severity of storms

00:04:34.306 --> 00:04:35.806
that destroy nests,

00:04:35.806 --> 00:04:37.436
to shifting the cold water currents

00:04:37.436 --> 00:04:39.718
carrying the penguins' prey too far away

00:04:39.718 --> 00:04:43.405
from penguin breeding and foraging grounds.

00:04:43.405 --> 00:04:44.410
Even though humans

00:04:44.410 --> 00:04:46.670
may be the greatest threat to penguins,

00:04:46.670 --> 00:04:49.177
we are also their greatest hope.

00:04:49.177 --> 00:04:51.259
Many research and conservation projects

00:04:51.259 --> 00:04:53.875
are underway to protect penguin habitats

00:04:53.875 --> 00:04:56.516
and restore vulnerable populations.

00:04:56.516 --> 00:04:58.349
With a little help from us

00:04:58.349 --> 00:04:59.948
and some changes in the practices

00:04:59.948 --> 00:05:02.287
that impact our planet and oceans,

00:05:02.287 --> 00:05:04.605
there is hope that our tuxedo-clad friends

00:05:04.605 --> 00:05:07.857
will still be around in the next century.