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SCIENCE Friday 25 august 2023
A13

Loss of Antarctic ice hurting survival of emperor HEALTH

penguin chicks, study says DOCTOR ON DUTY
Oranjestad
Hospital 7:00 pm / 10:00pm
Tel. 527 4000
By CHRISTINA LARSON San Nicolas
AP Science Writer Imsan 24 hours
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Tel.524 8833
loss of ice in one region of Women in Difficulties
Antarctica last year likely PHARMACY ON DUTY
resulted in none of the Oranjestad:
emperor penguin chicks Sta. Cruz: tel. 585 8028
surviving in four colonies, San Lucas : tel. 584 5119
researchers reported Thurs-
day. Women in Difficulties
Emperor penguins hatch OTHER
their eggs and raise their Dental Clinic 587 9850
chicks on the ice that forms Blood Bank Aruba 587 0002
Urgent Care 586 0448
around the continent each Walk-In Doctor’s Clinic
Antarctic winter and melts +297 588 0539
in the summer months. Women in Difficulties
Researchers used satellite EMERGENCY
imagery to look at breed- Police 100
ing colonies in a region Oranjestad 527 3140
near Antarctica’s Belling- Noord 527 3200
shausen Sea. The images Sta. Cruz 527 2900
showed no ice was left San Nicolas 584 5000
there in December during Police Tipline 11141
the Southern Hemisphere’s Ambulancia 911
summer, as had occurred Fire Dept. 115
Red Cross
582 2219
in 2021.
Researchers said it is likely Emperor penguin chicks stand together in Antarctica on Dec. 21, 2005. TAXI SERVICES
that no chicks survived in Associated Press Taxi Tas 587 5900
four of the five breeding Prof. Taxi 588 0035
587 2300
Taxi D.T.S.
colonies they examined. onies, around 30% were volved in the new paper. Taxi Serv. Aruba 583 3232
Penguin chicks don’t de- harmed by low sea-ice lev- If penguins aren’t success- A1 Taxi Serv. 280 2828
velop their adult water- els last year and 13 likely ful breeding in one loca- Women in Difficulties
proof feathers until close failed entirely, Fretwell said. tion, they may look for TRAVEL INFO
to the time they usually “That this could happen another site the next year,
fledge, in late December doesn’t shock me, but I’m he said. While it’s possible Aruba Airport 524 2424
or January, scientists say. shocked that it has hap- for the population to re- American Airlines 582 2700
“If the sea ice breaks up pened already. I thought it cover from one or two bad Avianca 588 0059
588 2244
Jet Blue
under them, the young would be further down the breeding years, he’s wor- Surinam 582 7896
chicks will drown or freeze line,” said Daniel Zitterbart, ried about the future. Women in Difficulties
to death,” said Peter a researcher who studies “If you look further out
Fretwell, a researcher at Antarctica for the Woods down the line, how many AID FOUNDATIONS
the British Antarctic Survey Hole Oceanographic In- suitable places will be FAVI- Visually Impaired
and co-author of the study stitution, but was not in- left?” he asked.q Tel. 582 5051
published Thursday in the Alcoholics Anonymous
journal Communications Tel. 736 2952
Earth & Environment. Narcotics Anonymous
Overall, the ice around Tel. 583 8989
Antarctica reached near Fundacion Contra Violencia
Relacional Tel. 583 5400
record low levels last year. Centre for Diabetes
The researchers say that Tel. 524 8888
climate change will make Child Abuse Prevention
such losses more frequent Tel. 582 4433
in the future. Quota Club Tel. 525 2672
Fretwell’s team has also Women in Difficulties
completed a preliminary General Info
analysis of known nesting Phone Directory Tel. 118
sites visible in satellite pho-
tos because of colored
guano, or poop stains, left
on white ice across Ant-
arctica, the only continent
where the emperor pen-
guin lives. There are about
300,000 breeding pairs left
of the world’s largest pen-
guins.
Of 62 known penguin col-
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