Polar scientists showed hundreds of penguins returning to the Akademik Vernadskyi station. VIDEO
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600 penguins have returned to the island where the Ukrainian Antarctic station “Akademik Vernadskyi” is located. Polar scientists expect that there will be many more black and white birds, the National Antarctic Science Center reports. The first subantarctic penguin of this season visited the station a few days ago. “Well, there are already whole crowds of them here. The black and white birds are arriving at the Ukrainian station by the dozen, and in general, the number of penguins on our island of Galindez has increased from 50 to 600 in recent days,” polar explorers say. The station explains that due to the warm climate, the time of the penguins’ return to “Vernadskyi” has changed. In September, spring begins in the Antarctic, this year it is quite warm. Currently, the average air temperature on the island is -5 С⁰, and the water temperature is -1.1 С⁰. “There is almost no sea ice, so the penguins come to the places of nesting colonies earlier. Accordingly, they will start laying eggs earlier,” they say in “Vernadskyi”. Polar scientists remind that the first nesting colonies of thermophilic subantarctic penguins appeared in the area of the Argentine Islands in the late 2000s. Since then, the timing of egg laying by them has shifted significantly: from the end of November to its beginning. “The shift of the colonies of this species of penguins to the south and the change in the terms of their reproductive period is a vivid illustration of warming in the region,” says Vadym Tkachenko, a biologist of the 28th UAE. Penguins have learned to stay in large groups in the process of evolution, because this behavioral strategy helps them not only to keep warm, but also to protect themselves from predators. Read also: Thousands of emperor penguin chicks died in Antarctica as a result of global warming – scientists
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