Richard Collins: Gigantic penguins are extinct — will climate change take Emperor penguins next?

There are 17 surviving penguin species, all in the Southern Hemisphere: three are considered to be ‘endangered’, and seven more are listed as ‘vulnerable’ — it is estimated that climate change will reduce the emperor population by 90% by the end of the century

The penguin Kumimanu fordycei would have towered over other species such as Petradyptes stonehousei more than 55 million years ago. Picture: Dr Simone Giovanardi / Natural History Museum

Are you in the wrong job? Would a different path have suited you better? Or is it just that far-off hills are greener?

Some wild creatures seem to have similar doubts. Red squirrels, for example, flit about in the treetops, seldom descending to the ground. They seem to wish they were blue tits. Ostriches have powerful legs and eyes larger than their brains to alert them to danger. Do they yearn to be horses?