Stains on ice in Antarctica reveal new penguin colonies
BONN, Germany - Ten new colonies of emperor penguins have been found in Antarctica after satellite photos showing brownish stains on the ice turned out to be the excrement of thousands of birds.
The findings, revealed by the British Antarctic Survey today, will help scientists understand penguin populations and the vulnerability to global warming of their breeding colonies on sea ice.
"We now reckon there are 38 colonies in Antarctica, 10 of them previously unknown," Phil Trathan, a penguin ecologist for the survey, said of the study in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.
"That's potentially a massive change in the population."
Scientists studying images taken from space were initially baffled by reddish-brown splodges on the ice.
"It turned out they were the feces, guano stains, of the emperors," Trathan said. "There's a really good contrast between the dark poo stains and the ice."
Scientists widened the search for the telltale blots to 90 percent of the Antarctic coastline and found 38 colonies.
Until now, estimates have said there were 200,000 to 400,000 breeding pairs of emperor penguins, plus thousands of juveniles and nonbreeders.
Emperors breed on ice in the depths of the Antarctic winter.
The males incubate the eggs in the dark, huddling together without food, their backs to the bone-chilling winds. The females trek about 60 miles to the sea and return with food in the spring.
Emperors may be vulnerable to climate change, with sea ice breaking up earlier in spring, exposing chicks to water before they can fend for themselves. 