Image of the Day

May 3, 2008

Marching Toward an Uncertain Future

Four penguins march over a massive cornice on their way to a secluded part of the Cape Crozier colony, on the rim of the Ross Sea in Antarctica. The birds, like many other polar species, are threatened by changing climate and changing (often shrinking) food supplies. "The dangers posed by habitat destruction through fishing could have a much more immediate effect than climate change, said researcher Viola Toniolo. "We can't forget that penguins are seabirds. They live in the ocean," which is not nearly so strictly protected as Antarctica's land. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)