New colony of penguins discovered in Antarctica thanks to satellite imagery The

PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP Thousands of penguins (Manchots royaux) are pictured December 21, 2022 on Possession Island, part of the Crozet Islands, a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. – The Crozet Islands form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Territories. They are home to four species of penguins. The most common are the macaroni penguin, of which around 2 million pairs breed on the islands, and the king penguin, home to 700,000 breeding pairs; half of the world population. Mammals that live on the Crozet Islands include fur seals and southern elephant seals. Killer whales have been observed chasing the seals. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP)

PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP

Thousands of penguins pictured here December 21, 2022 on Possession Island, part of the Crozet Islands, a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. (illustrative photo)

ANIMALS – This is good news for a species severely threatened by global warming. British scientists announced on Friday January 20 that they have identified a new colony of emperor penguins in Antarctica using satellite imagery of the continent.

The research team discovered the colony of 500 members thanks to the dark spots left by the excrement of these animals on the ice floe, clearly visible from space, the British Antarctic Survey, a British research organization, explains in a press release.

This new colony brings the number of groups of emperor penguins identified along the Antarctic coast to 66, half of which have now been spotted thanks to satellite imagery.

‘This is an exciting discovery (…) but while it is also good news (…) this colony is small and located in an area severely affected by the melting of the pack ice,’ said Professor Peter Fretwell after making the discovery from this research for the British Antarctic Survey.

Scientists have discovered a new emperor penguin colony at Vergler Point in Antarctica 🐧 They used satellite mapping… https://t.co/corqBGkvYK

—British Antarctic Survey (@BAS_News)

See the tweet

Endangered species

The emperor penguin, the largest penguin species that lives and breeds only in Antarctica, was recently listed as an endangered species by the US Wildlife Administration.

Global warming and melting sea ice are threatening the penguin’s breeding grounds, while ocean acidification is threatening certain species of crustaceans on which it feeds.

Scientists estimate that with current global warming, almost all emperor penguins could be extinct by the end of the century.

Scientists worked on this project to identify penguin colonies using a satellite mission developed as part of Europe’s Copernicus climate change program.

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