Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumChinstrap Penguin Numbers In Freefall In Antarctic Islands; Down Nearly 60% In 50 Years
Colonies of chinstrap penguins have fallen by more than half across islands in Antarctica, prompting scientific concern that something is broken in the worlds wildest ecosystem. After more than a month counting chicks in the South Shetland Islands, researchers suspect global heating is behind the sharp fall in numbers of the distinctive birds, which get their name from a black line that runs below the beak from cheek to cheek.
Using drones and handheld clickers, the team of four scientists from Stony Brook University in the US found only 52,786 breeding pairs on Elephant Island, 58% fewer in the last survey in 1971. Travelling on a Greenpeace expedition, the scientists also conducted a penguin census in the snow, fog and freezing rain of Low island, where preliminary figures indicated a similar scale of decline in what is believed to be the largest chinstrap population in Antarctica.
It was the same story on Livingston island, where the team braved choppy seas to land by the rocks of Hannah Point and conduct a count that was far down from previous estimates.
The full tally from each island will not be released until the expedition is completed, but the researchers said the trend was clear and disturbing; chinstrap colonies are shrinking, leaving space for another species of penguin, the gentoo, to move in.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/antarctic-alarm-collapse-chinstrap-penguin-numbers-global-heating
sinkingfeeling
(51,445 posts)I visited in late 2017.
ZZenith
(4,121 posts)Wow! Thats some serious hard-core tourism, there. Did you escape in a small open boat?
sinkingfeeling
(51,445 posts)from our ship to the island and returned via Zodiac. Some of the crew went in the first Zodiac to carve steps into the ice/snow so us non-athletic folks could go on shore.
ZZenith
(4,121 posts)And I really hope the penguins are able to bounce back.
Thanks for the photo!
Response to ZZenith (Reply #2)
sinkingfeeling This message was self-deleted by its author.