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Cheers. So the chicks did survive, but then drowned because their feathers weren't waterproof, when they went to swim? Or the ice melted from under them, befo
by verisimi 3y ago
Cheers. So the chicks did survive, but then drowned because their feathers weren't waterproof, when they went to swim? Or the ice melted from under them, before they were ready?
Emperor penguins can be breed in captivity, btw. So it can't be that ice is required. It must be that the environment needs to be stable. But then the article says it was the lack of ice that did it, not the changing of the environmental conditions.
- Tomte 3y ago> Emperor penguins can be breed in captivity, btw. So it can't be that ice is required. You think the technology to create ice has not been invented, yet?
- verisimi 3y agoHa! I believe it exists. :) I probably should have said that the temperature in captivity isn't likely to be the same as that in Antarctica. I might be wrong, but I don't see them dropping the temperature to -70 degrees or whatever in captivity.
- unlikelymordant 3y agoIf the sea ice melts and the chicks drown before they develop waterproof feathers, then the melting ice could easily be the culprit, and still captive breeding would work.
- genezeta 3y agoCaptivity environments for Emperor penguins are kept around 0C (32F), which is easy to do. Your fridge can do it. In Antarctica, they usually live on the coast, where average temperatures are around -10C to 10C, not as extreme as in the interior (-40 to -60C).