Penguin chickens die massively in Antarctica

paris - A colony of some 40,000 Adelie penguins on Antarctica has a disastrous breeding season. On two penguin chicks after, all the boys were starved. It is the second time in four years that the colony receives such a blow, while it has never occurred in the fifty years before.

French researchers discovered the two surviving penguins in the colony on Petrels Island. Spread across the island they found thousands of starved chicks and unexhausted eggs, the sender reported France Info.

In 2013, no chick survived, according to French experts, due to an unusually high amount of sea ice and heavy rainfall. As a result, the penguins had to spend 100 kilometers extra for food, while the chicks remained in the rain and did not stay warm.

Antarctica has very little sea ice this year, but there is a lot of sea ice in the area around the colony.