Scientists have discovered a new colony of emperor penguins in Antarctica with the help of satellites, which showed accumulations of bird excrement. The colony, like others, faces a threat to its existence due to climate change.
The British Antarctic Survey has announced the existence of a previously undiscovered colony of emperor penguins in one of the most remote and accessible parts of Antarctica. Scientists spotted the colony – the 66th found on the continent – by comparing satellite images taken by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission and the Maxar WorldView-3 satellite.
In the photo, the brown patches contrasted with the white ice and snow at Verleger Point, West Antarctica, are accumulated droppings left by seabirds.
For the past 15 years, the British Antarctic Survey has been searching for new penguin colonies using satellite images to detect signs of excrement patches. Of all the known people of the colonies in Antarctica, exactly half were found precisely with the help of satellites.
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“This is a wonderful discovery, but this colony is small and in a region that has been severely affected by recent sea ice loss,” said Dr. Peter Fretwell, one of the scientists who led the study.
As The Guardian notes, emperor penguins are the only penguins known to breed on ice. This makes them particularly vulnerable to climate change. The birds need the ice around the colonies to last from April to September so that their offspring have enough time to grow.
“If the ice breaks up before then, the chicks will fall into the water and drown or freeze,” Fretwell told the paper.
One recent study predicted that by 2100, the number of emperor penguins will decline by about 86% if the world does not find a way to limit global warming to 1.5°C. If countries meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, the number of emperor penguins will decrease by approximately 31%.
Source: Engadget, The Guardian
