Poop stains led to stunning penguin discovery
Unstable sea ice in Antarctica has some emperor penguins on the transfer. A number of colonies have already moved some 25 miles (40 km) in quest of steady breeding grounds. On January 24, 2024, the British Antarctic Survey said scientists utilizing satellite imagery to seek for the brand new breeding grounds had been shocked to search out 4 beforehand undiscovered colonies. How did they discover these colonies? By seeing the penguins’ brown poop stains within the white snow.
Moreover the 4 new colonies, the scientists additionally rediscovered a colony they thought had vanished. The Brunt Ice Shelf calving disrupted a bunch of emperor penguins that the researchers referred to as the Halley Bay colony. And now they’ve relocated this colony 18 miles (30 km) east close to the MacDonald Ice Rumples. So, this rediscovery plus the 4 new discoveries make 66 recognized emperor penguin colonies.
The scientists published their discovery within the peer-reviewed journal Antarctic Science on January 20, 2024.
Emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica
Emperor penguins make their colonies throughout the sides of the Antarctic continent. Penguins breed and lift their chicks on floating ice related to land. These usually are not straightforward areas for people to entry, so scientists monitor the penguins with the assistance of satellite photographs. Antarctica is a white, frozen world, and the penguins’ brown poop makes a noticeable distinction to the icy panorama. So the patches of brown reveal the penguins’ presence.
The researchers used satellite photographs from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Maxar WorldView-3 satellites.
However all will not be effectively in Antarctica
Whereas it could really feel encouraging to find extra emperor penguins in Antarctica, the scenario will not be optimistic. The lack of sea ice has been catastrophic on the penguins. In 2022, the ocean ice broke up below a number of the colonies whereas the chicks had been too younger to outlive, drowning as much as 10,000 infants.
Peter Fretwell of the British Antarctic Survey mentioned:
These newly recognized areas fill in virtually all of the gaps within the recognized distribution of those iconic birds. All besides one in all these colonies are small with lower than 1,000 birds, so discovering these new colonies makes little distinction to the general inhabitants measurement. In truth, it’s overshadowed by the not too long ago reported breeding failures as a result of early and quick ice loss.
So whereas emperor penguins can reply to the ocean ice loss by transferring to extra steady breeding grounds, the report mentioned:
Nevertheless, this technique doesn’t work if sea ice is affected throughout a whole area.
Backside line: Scientists used satellite photographs to search out brown poop stains that led to a shock discovery of 4 emperor penguin colonies. However all will not be effectively in Antarctica.
Source: Four unreported emperor penguin colonies discovered by satellite
Learn extra:
Antarctic ice on the run, with a 45-year low
Emperor penguins added to ‘threatened’ list
Emperor penguins: A report from the Antarctic
