It’s a bit anthropomorphic to assume that large populations of birds can adapt their behavior to rapid changes in their environment on a short timescale. There’

It’s a bit anthropomorphic to assume that large populations of birds can adapt their behavior to rapid changes in their environment on a short timescale. There’s no central planning to penguin behavior as far as I’m aware of. The fact that some emperor penguins can be made to breed in captivity without ice does not mean that enough penguins in the wild will do so without human intervention. Evolution is trial and error. Maybe eventually they would change their breeding behaviors to rely less on ice in the wild. Or maybe a rapidly changing environment will cause enough members of this endangered species to go the “error” route, and trigger a population collapse.