British Antarctic Survey researchers reported 63 percent fewer occupied chinstrap nests on Zavodovski Island in 2025 than in 2011. They linked the drop to warming seas and a shift in krill.
Aerial surveys suggest Zavodovski Island, a remote volcanic island near Antarctica, is no longer home to the world's largest penguin colony, BBC News reported on Wednesday. Researchers counted 63 percent fewer occupied chinstrap nests in 2025 than at the same point in 2011.
The work was led by Prof Norman Ratcliffe of the British Antarctic Survey. He said chinstraps' specialist diet and preference for cooler water left them exposed as waters warmed and krill moved south. Sea ice farther south and a lack of suitable nesting islands stop the birds from following the food, he said.
National Geographic reported that the findings, published in Current Biology, identify the island as having the fastest-declining chinstrap population documented, and that the drop cedes the largest-colony title to Cape Adare in the Ross Sea. The magazine said the loss amounts to more than half a million birds over 15 years.
A 2016 volcanic eruption may have killed some birds, National Geographic reported, but the authors said it did not explain a steady decade-long decline. They pointed to regional ocean warming and sea-ice loss, while leaving open how krill fishing on connected currents might add pressure.
The survey is a population finding, not a new conservation designation. BBC said the birds may now be officially endangered; that status was presented as a possibility, not as a completed listing.
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- Norman Ratcliffe said warming waters have moved the krill that chinstrap penguins eat southwards.
- Researchers called the fall in the colony alarming.