Energy/Environment Antarctic fur seals, once hunted to near extinction, now face climate threat

Antarctic fur seals, a conservation success story, now aren't getting enough to eat. A new study links the decline of the seals to a drop in the krill population, caused by warming oceans.

By , Staff writer

Alister Doyle/Reuters/File

Climate change appears to be pulling the ecological rug out from under a once-stable population of Antarctic fur seals. Their numbers on a remote island in the South Atlantic are falling, even though an increasing proportion of survivors are displaying greater genetic variation – a trait generally thought to boost an organism's ability to adapt to environmental stress.