As rapidly warming global temperatures help push Antarctica’s sea ice to unprecedented lows, it’s threatening the very existence of one of the continent’s most iconic species: emperor penguins.
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25 photos to celebrate World Penguin Day
A Gentoo penguin feeds its chick at Station Bernardo O'Higgins in Antarctica on Jan. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Seen through glass, a penguin looks out of the water in a pool in the zoo of Frankfurt, Germany, on Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
African penguins gather to keep warm as others are fed sardines by staff at the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds after they were found covered in oil on Robben Island, Cape Town, South Africa, on Sept 20, 2012. Some 200 penguins were found covered in oil following a spillage by a stricken bulk carrier. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
In this Jan. 20, 2015 photo, a Chinstrap penguin stands on the coast near the town of Villa Las Estrellas on King George Island in Antarctica. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this Jan. 27, 2015, photo, penguins walk on the shore of Bahia Almirantazgo in Antarctica. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Penguins play soccer at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, Japan, May 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
Penguins dive into the water as an aquarium employee cleans the penguin habitat in Tokyo, July 23, 2007. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
A woman directs penguins as they are released on the outskirts of Blouberg, South Africa, May 21, 2009. The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds released 84 African penguins back into the wild after they were treated for oil pollution that they obtained in Namibia. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
Rockhopper penguins, usually living in sub-Antarctic islands, are seen in their enclosure as they ignore a zookeeper, not seen, holding fish to attract them in order to scan them in London Zoo, June 1, 2010. The photo opportunity was organized to mark the process of the annual scanning of the birds, which have been microchipped. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Dudley Wigdahl, a curator of marine mammals and birds, feeds a rescued Magellanic penguin at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., April 7, 2011. Five Magellanic penguins arrived at the aquarium after they were rescued after being found stranded off a beach in Brazil. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Dudley Wigdahl, a curator of marine mammals and birds, looks at rescued Magellanic penguins at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., April 7, 2011. The penguins were rescued after being found stranded off a beach in Brazil. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Veterinary nurse Sarah Papageorgiou cares for an Antarctic penguin that wound up stranded on a New Zealand beach and resorted to eating sand at Wellington Zoo in Wellington, New Zealand, June 27, 2011. (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Mark Mitchell)
A Rockhopper penguin swims beneath a colony of penguins at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, April 11, 2007. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Pierre the Penguin, 25, wears his wetsuit at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, April 17, 2008. Pierre, who was going bald, began wearing a wetsuit and began growing back his feathers. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Kyoto, a three-week-old king penguin, nestles up to a toy penguin in the nursery at the Cincinnati Zoo, Aug. 21, 2008. The toy plush penguin was placed with Kyoto to simulate a parent. The baby penguin, taken from its parents and placed in the zoo's nursery as standard procedure, was re-introduced to his family when his down feathers came in. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)
Humboldt penguins enter the water area of their new habitat for the first time, April 7, 2009, at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Steven Sarro, right, the director of animal programs at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, looks over the African penguin colony in the birds' new exhibit, May 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
In this photo taken June 21, 2011, a woman photographs an Emperor penguin lying on Peka Peka Beach along the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand. (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Mark Mitchell)
A penguin chick whose oil-encrusted feathers have been cleaned recovers in the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds after being rescued from Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
In this Jan. 22, 2015, photo, a Gentoo penguin regurgitates food to feed its chick near Chile's station Bernardo O'Higgins, Antarctica. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A women watches penguins swimming at Taman Safari in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Nov. 19, 2008. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
In this undated file photo, a lonely penguin appears in Antarctica during the southern hemisphere's summer season. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Jana)
In this June 30, 2000, file photo, an oil-stained penguin is seen in the water on Dassen Island near Cape Town, South Africa. (AP Photo /Obed Zilwa, File)
A rescued Magellanic penguin shakes water off at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., April 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Rescued Magellanic penguins are seen at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., April 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
