Antarctica: Giant penguin colony discovered

Surprise: On the remote Danger Islands off the eastern Antarctic Peninsula, researchers discovered a massive colony of 1.5 million Adélie penguins in total.

NASA satellite images lead to the discovery

Just 160 kilometres to the west of the archipelago, this species is in decline due to melting ice, according to an article published on Friday in the journal "Scientific Reports". It was already known that the small penguins with their white bellies, black heads, and white-rimmed eyes inhabit at least nine islands in the Weddell Sea. But it has now emerged that their numbers are far greater than previously thought.

Scientists from the United States, France, and Great Britain made the discovery through analysis of NASA satellite images, as Heather Lynch of Stony Brook University in the US told the news agency AFP. "At first I thought it was an error," said Lynch. But the high-resolution satellite images then showed that the researchers had made "a significant discovery."

The area is normally difficult to access due to its thick layer of sea ice. However, in December 2015, a research team was able to take advantage of a rare opening in the ice sheet and undertake an expedition to the Danger Islands.

Surprising finding: 751’527 breeding pairs

Using drones, photographs, and manual counting of nests and birds, the scientists arrived at a total of 751’527 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins – "more than on the entire rest of the Antarctic Peninsula," a region in the north of Antarctica. "It was an incredible experience to find and count so many penguins," says zoologist Tom Hart of the University of Oxford.

Adélie penguins live widely dispersed across Antarctica. According to the conservation organization IUCN, their population is generally growing, but recent studies have shown that some colonies are in decline. The new discovery brought a “striking contrast” to recent studies, Hart explained.

The cause of the decline in some Adélie penguin colonies is not yet known, he added. Possible factors include “climate change, fishing, and direct human disturbance.” Scientists are particularly concerned about krill fishing. The tiny crustaceans are a primary food source for many penguins. More on wildlife and environment and conservation.