Near the Antarctic peninsula there is an area of difficult access and adverse conditions that is home to approximately 1.5 million Adélie penguins ( Pygoscelis adeliae ). The finding has been carried out by a group of researchers after discovering some curious spots in the photograph of some islands, through a NASA satellite.
Over the past 40 years the total number of Adélie penguins (one of the most common on the Antarctic Peninsula) was thought to have dropped considerably. However, a new study led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has discovered a super colony that exceeds one million individuals of this species in the Peligro Islets (a chain of rocky islands far from the northern tip of the Peninsula. Antarctica, in the Weddell Sea).
“Until recently, it was known that the Danger Islets were not an important habitat for penguins,” says co-investigator Heather Lynch . “These super colonies have gone unnoticed for decades, partly because of the remoteness of the islands and partly because of the treacherous waters that surround them,” he says.
It was not until 2014 when Lynch, together with a colleague, discovered some spots in images of the islands, made with a NASA satellite . To make sure that their suspicions were true and that they were indeed penguins, they partnered with a group of researchers from different institutions and organized an expedition to see these animals. A year later, they found, just as they had predicted, hundreds of thousands of birds.
A key point in the exploration was the use of a commercial Quadcopter drone, modified to take images of the entire island from above . Its precision and image quality allowed obtaining information on the dynamics of the penguins, as well as the effects of temperature changes in the region.
“The drone allows you to fly in a grid over the island and take pictures once a second, which you can then stitch together into a large collage showing the entire land mass in 2D and 3D,” says Hanumant Singh , developer of the navigation system and drone image. According to him, once those massive images are available, his team can use neural network software to analyze them, pixel by pixel, autonomously searching for penguin nests.
Islotes Peligro : project for the largest natural reserve in the world
One of the co-authors of the project, Michael Polito, assures that “the Danger Islets not only have the largest population of Adelie penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula, but they also appear not to have suffered the population declines found on the western side of this region and that are associated with recent climate change. “
For this reason, the researchers assure that this area has become a refuge of vital importance against climate change and the human factor . Thus, they demand that it be established as a protected area, a new reserve of marine fauna.
This proposal would include the islands in the Weddell Sea Marine Protected Area (MPA) project , which has been described as the plan for the settlement of the largest natural reserve in the world .
The MPA would thus have 1.8 million square kilometers (five times the size of Germany). This would prohibit fishing in a large area of the Weddell Sea and around the Antarctic Peninsula , protecting killer whales, leopard seals and blue whales, as well as penguins and other endangered species. The initiative already has the support of several countries and will be presented before a conference of Antarctic nations in October 2018.
And it is that the situation of these animals is really critical. In fact, the researchers warned that unless climate change is curbed, some species like the king penguin could disappear from Antarctica by the end of the century .
Foto apertura: Michael Polito, © Louisiana State University
Referencia: Alex Borowicz, Philip McDowall, Casey Youngflesh, Thomas Sayre-McCord, Gemma Clucas, Rachael Herman, Steven Forrest, Melissa Rider, Mathew Schwaller, Tom Hart, Stéphanie Jenouvrier, Michael J. Polito, Hanumant Singh y Heather J. Lynch. “Multi-modal survey of Adélie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot” Scientific Rports (2018) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22313-w
