Satellite images of penguin poop in Antarctica allowed researchers to make an important discovery about the Adélie colonies there.
FlickrAdélie penguins cover in their own pinkish - color dope .
There ’s a specific species of Antarctic penguin that has unambiguously - colour fecal matter . In fact , that penguin poop has such a alone color , and is so plentiful , that it can really be seen from place .
Adélie penguin that live along the seashore of Antarctica and on the nearby islands have a diet that consist of tiny pink crustaceans called krill .
FlickrAdélie penguins covered in their own pinkish-colored poop.
According toVox , , these penguins deplete so much krill that their poop becomes pink . That pink poop discoloration everything — from the terrain where the Adélie penguins live to their own body .
And there ’s so much pinkish penguin low-down that it can be seen in orbiter images .
Moreover , these pinkish poop discolouration provide unbelievably utile entropy to researchers study the demeanour of Adélie penguin . The penguins are hard to spot via satellite . But because the after part stain are visible , researchers are able to recognise where these penguin colonies reside .
Penguinmap.com/Google EarthA satellite image of penguin poop indicating the presence of the colonies on the Danger Islands.
Penguinmap.com/Google EarthA orbiter epitome of penguin turd indicating the bearing of the colony on the Danger Islands .
“ We think that we recognise where all the [ Adélie ] penguin colonies were , ” say Heather Lynch , an ecologist at the Stony Brook University , at the American Geophysical Union league on Dec. 11 .
The breakthrough of the extra Adélie penguin colonies happened by fortuity , according toLive Science . Researchers spent 10 month embark on what they thought was a pan - south-polar survey of the penguin by observing all of the satellite image available of the continent .
Wikimedia CommonsAdélie penguins on an iceberg.
Then , NASA - developed computer software that notice certain anomalies was used to scan the already - be images and began to notice these large pinkish spot on the continent ’s polar Earth’s surface , specifically on a group of islands called the Danger Islands .
The pixels that the software was able-bodied to fleck on the Danger Islands were single that “ we as human annotators had merely just leave out , ” Lynch explained .
Lynch continued :
“ We do n’t see individual penguin in the satellite imagery . But we do see this pink discolouration left on the landscape by their guano . And we can shape out from the area of the guano discoloration how many penguins must have occupied that internet site . ”
Lynch say that she believes her team of researchers missed the Danger Island penguin colonies because they “ had n’t carry to obtain them there . ”
The Danger Islands are not the safest islands to travel to , as is evidenced by their appropriate name . The islands are often covered with a stocky level of ice that prevents researchers from properly surveying the country .
Wikimedia CommonsAdélie penguin on an iceberg lettuce .
But after the penguin nincompoop stains were find , Lynch and her enquiry team had understanding to move around there to dispatch a thorough analysis .
As it turns out , there are more penguins that know on the Danger Islands than anywhere else in the whole of Antarctica .
This revelation is a pleasant surprise for researchers . evidently , Adélie penguin have been hit heavily by mood change , and their universe has been steadily declining over the retiring 40 years .
The squad ’s research found a universe of 1.5 million Adélie penguin living on these island . Although that might sound like a vast telephone number , it ’s not as significant as it once might have been .
Lynch believes that the Adélie penguin universe in all likelihood peaked somewhere in the nineties and “ has been on a slow but steady descent ever since , ” diminishing my approximately 10 or 20 percent .
Now that Lynch and her team have uncovered these newfangled Danger Island colonies , she says “ that we want to be able to protect it , and that involves judge to understand why the populations may have changed . ”
“ We carry on to discover new penguin colonies from satellite imagery every prison term we count , ” Lynch tell . “ And I ’m sure there are more out there . ”
After this aspect at the study of penguin poop , read about howclimate change may be responsible for for completely wiping out this penguin dependency . Then , discover31 interesting fact about penguins — everyone ’s preferred flightless bird .
