Empo are having to struggle up 100ft walls of ice as warmer temperatures force them out of their traditional breeding grounds, a study has shown.
The behaviour was spotted by British Antarctic Survey scientists in satellite images of four colonies.
The birds normally breed on thin sea ice, close to easily accessible food, but ice forming later than usual in recent years has compelled them to move to much thicker floating ice shelves.
Because of their reliance on sea ice as a breeding platform, emperor penguins have been classified as “near threatened” in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “red list” of endangered species.
