Space Camera Discovers New Emperor Penguin Colony

There are 66 known emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica. The most recently discovered group, about 1000 adults with chicks on the West Antarctic coast, gave away their position to satellite cameras  — with their guano.

The British Antarctic Survey spotted the colony in December, but held on to the news until last week, so that the announcement coincided with Penguin Awareness Day on January 20. BAS geographic information officer Peter Fretwell says he was looking at satellite images of sea ice loss when he noticed the funky color on the surface. “I could see what looked like a very small brown stain on the ice,” he told Live Science. Penguin poop.

Fretwell then looked at higher-resolution photographs of the same area taken in October and could see hundreds of little dots — individual emperor penguins — strutting about near West Antarctica's Verleger Point. The population estimate is based on those dots seen from space.

The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) lives in distinct colonies around the entire perimeter of Antarctica but is a near-threatened species. That’s because they breed exclusively on packed sea ice, which is disappearing in the warming climate. 

“Last year we had the minimum ever sea ice extent in Antarctica, and this year is even worse, for two consecutive years,” Fretwell said. “It's estimated that we will probably lose a minimum of 80% of emperor penguin colonies before the end of the century.”

Photo credit; Richard Burt / BAS