Emperor penguins appear to adapt to changing climate, study finds

A study has found that emperor penguins are figuring out ways to adapt to the changing climate.

According to Nature World News, researchers at the University of Minnesota found that over a three year period, there were six instances in which emperor penguins changed the sites where they would breed.

It had previously been thought that these penguins kept to the same breeding grounds, but satellite images have shown that they don’t return to the location where they bred before.

The results of the study were presented by lead author Michelle LaRue at a conference in Toronto and the study will eventually be published in the Ecography journal.

Other research has also looked into the changes that penguin’s go through when it comes to their behavior. Scientists for the British Antarctic survey found the birds were looking for stable ice shelves in order to use as their breeding sites, even climbing the walls of ice shelves in order to find other spots.

NBC News reported that a new colony of penguins was discovered on the Antarctic Peninsula and researchers felt this showed the penguins were moving to other areas for nesting.

In a news release, LaRue reportedly said, “If we assume that these birds come back to the same locations every year, without fail, these new colonies we see on satellite images wouldn’t make any sense.”