The global climate is changing, and its effects are destroying important parts of the natural environment. For a species of penguin known as the king penguin, the future is bleak. If action is not taken to counteract greenhouse gas emissions, by the end of the century, over 70 percent of king penguins could be in serious danger. These creatures will have to decide between relocating entirely or facing certain death. “We know that penguin populations will collapse soon,” said Céline Le Bohec, an ecologist at the Hubert Curien Multi-disciplinary Institute in France. “They are showing us the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in the ecosystems.”

King penguins live on islands scattered throughout the Southern Ocean, the waters surrounding Antarctica. The birds can swim as far as 310 miles to feed on their prey. However, climate models show that their food belt will move closer to the South Pole as temperatures continue to rise, which will force the king penguins to swim much farther to eat. On the Antarctic Polar Front, where 3.2 million adult king penguins live, cold waters meet warmer waters from temperate regions. This region sustains a bloom of marine life, from plankton to krill to fishes.

But the Antarctic Polar Front is expected to drastically change as the world keeps warming up.

Study co-author Emiliano Trucchi, a researcher at the Università degli Studi di Ferrara in Italy said this will force the penguins to travel much farther for their food which requires much more energy and much less for the chicks at home. This will decrease the number of king penguins on this Earth to less than 70 percent of their current population. “It seems that for this archipelago, there’s not much hope in the future,” Trucchi said.

Michelle LaRue, a research ecologist at the University of Minnesota, was stunned by this news. “Unlike their closest relatives, the emperor penguin, king penguins don’t live on sea ice. In fact, they only live on ice-free islands. So in a warming world, you’d expect penguins that don’t need ice to breed to fare just fine,” LaRue said. “But today’s study shows that the cascading effects of climate change are incredibly complex and can affect species in a variety of ways.”

Relocating for king penguins is not as simple as it may seem. Because they live only on ice-free islands that are around 32 degrees Fahrenheit year round and breed on sandy or pebbly beaches, finding a new home is hard. Any new homes that may be available are most likely already inhabited by other species. This will create more competition for food and space between the penguin species and result in a further decrease in the penguin population.

The good news is that there is a way to avoid the loss of these creatures: reducing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

“It’s important to take action, to try to do something,” Trucchi said. “It depends which kind of Earth you want to live on in the future: empty or full of nice species around us.”