Previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins were discovered in Antarctica
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Four previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins were discovered in Antarctica using satellite images.
The four newly discovered colonies likely existed for many years, but scientists had previously overlooked them. These are mostly small colonies, each of which has less than a thousand nesting pairs, writes Phys.org.
Currently, scientists know about 66 colonies of emperor penguins, which have less than 300 thousand pairs of penguins. Scientists are studying them to understand where they will move next, Fretwell says.
It’s unclear whether any of the newly discovered colonies could be a breakaway group from other larger colonies, said Daniel Zitterbart, a penguin researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved in the study.
| PHOTO: British Antarctic Survey |
“But it is clear that breeding grounds are changing, and global warming means more ‘penguins will be moving“, – he said.
Emperor penguins, considered “endangered,” are the largest penguins in the world. They raise their chicks in the winter in Antarctica on patches of sea ice. But if the ice melts before the chicks can move, most of them will die, the researchers point out.
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| Satellite images: British Antarctic Survey |
British Antarctic Survey researcher Peter Fretwell notes that one colony of penguins near Halley Bay may have moved about 30 kilometers to the east. Unstable weather conditions since 2016 have made their old habitat unsafe
“Emperor penguins have taken it upon themselves to find more stable sea ice“, he adds.
Read also: Polar scientists on Vernadskyi showed growing baby penguins. PHOTO
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