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August 9, 2020 03:34 pm

Penguin Poop Seen From Space Leads To Discovery of New Colonies

Satellite-mapping technology "that detects stains on the ice from penguin droppings" has revealed there are more Emperor colonies than previously known in fast-warming Antarctica, reports Bloomberg: Eleven new colonies of the species were found, taking the census to 61 across the polar continent, according to a study by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey published Wednesday. The scientists used images from Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission to locate the flightless birds. "This is an exciting discovery," said lead author and geographer Peter Fretwell in a statement. "Whilst this is good news, the colonies are small and so only take the overall population count up by 5-10%, to just over half a million penguins..." The discovery will be used by scientists who are monitoring the birds and raising concerns because they're particularly vulnerable to sea ice melting from climate change... Scientists warned that most of the newly found colonies are in locations likely to be lost as the climate warms and large sections of seasonal ice -- where penguins mate -- risk disappearing. "Birds in these sites are therefore probably the 'canaries in the coal mine'," said Phil Trathan, head of conservation biology at BAS.

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