Diminishing food supplies threaten king penguins  

In a story not dissimilar to the plot of "Happy Feet", The Age reports that the King Penguin is under threat from global warming. A decade ago a friend of mine spent some time down on the ice studying the diet of these penguins. This involved chasing the birds and then squeezing them to make them regurgitate whatever it was they'd just caught. Apparently they got pretty cranky about this (and an angry Emperor penguin can be quite fierce it seems). The impact on the penguin population of this research wasn't measured.

CLIMATE change may threaten the survival of king penguins — one of the most iconic creatures of the Antarctic, researchers warn.

A long-term study of the penguins, known for their distinctive yellow feather "ear muffs", reveals just a slight ocean warming had a significant effect on their breeding success.

International researchers behind the project say that under current predictions for global warming, the penguins face the risk of being wiped out.

King penguins — the second largest penguin after the emperor penguin — live in the sub-Antarctic islands, including Macquarie Island, south-east of Tasmania. There are about 2 million breeding pairs worldwide.

Their diet consists mainly of small fish and squid, and because of their one-year breeding cycle they are considered sensitive to any seasonal change in food supply.

Over nine years, researchers studied the birds on an island in the Crozet Archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean, marking 456 penguins with electronic tags.

They found that high sea-surface temperatures reduced the amount of marine prey available to the king penguins, forcing them to travel further in search of food.

According to their calculations, a sea-surface warming of 0.26 degrees would lead to a 9% decline in the adult penguin population.