Penguin guano spotted from space leads to ‘lost’ colonies
NEW emperor penguin colonies have been found in the Antarctic after snow stained with their excrement was spotted by scientists from space.
Four breeding grounds were discovered by experts from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) while exploring potential new bird habitats.
Scientists used satellite imagery to monitor the remote colonies, being guided by the brown stains of the penguins’ guano – faeces – on the white ice and snow.
They stumbled across them while trying to locate four “lost” nesting sites which were disrupted when ice shelves broke loose and crashed into the ocean.
The discovery takes the total number of known emperor penguin colonies to 66. Dr Peter Fretwell of the BAS, said: “These newly identified locations fill in almost all the gaps in the known distribution of these iconic birds.
“All except one of these colonies are small with less than 1,000 birds, so finding these new colonies makes little difference to the overall population size.
“In fact, it is overshadowed by the recently reported breeding failures due to the early and fast ice loss.”
Emperor penguins only live on ice that is fixed to the shore and is therefore more stable than that of icebergs and ice sheets. As a result they are only found in the most remote and inhospitable places in the world.
They lay eggs in May and June. Chicks are born 65 days later, but typically do not fledge until December or January. That cycle is under threat as winter sea ice in the Antarctic is at a historic low and scientists are working to understand why an area the size of Greenland is missing.