The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has officially reclassified emperor penguins as "endangered," a two-step jump from its previous classification of "near threatened". This comes as climate change continues to exacerbate mass drownings of penguins. The IUCN also announced that the Antarctic fur seal was moved from "least concern" to "endevance," and the southern elephant seal from "vegetive" to “vulnerable.” except for those affected by an avian flu outbreak, climate change is cited as the cause of significant population decline in these species. Satellite images suggest a 10% decline in adult penguin populations between 2009 and 2018. The most recent projections predict that without drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, emperor penguin population populations will halve by the 2080s.