Facts: Emperor penguins
The emperor penguin, which is the largest species in the penguin family, can grow to about 115 centimeters in length. It is only found on the Antarctic pack ice and in the sea around it. It eats fish, squid and shrimp.
The emperor penguin can dive down to about 250 meters and stay below the surface for up to 18 minutes.
The new colony of emperor penguins was discovered at Verleger Point in West Antarctica, and is the 66th known colony. The new colony was discovered using images from the Sentinel-2 satellite, which is part of the EU’s environmental monitoring and security program Copernicus.
Sources: National Encyclopedia, British Antarctic Survey.
The new colony is not the first to be discovered from space. In total, there are now 66 known colonies of emperor penguins on Antarctic coasts, half of which have been discovered using satellite images, according to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
Around 500 emperor penguins are estimated to be part of the newly discovered colony.
There were large patches of guano, bird droppings, which revealed where the penguins were. Namely, emperor penguins live in remote and inaccessible areas that are difficult to study, where the temperature can be as low as 60 degrees below zero. But the brown bird droppings stand out against the white snow and ice, and are thus easy to spot on satellite images.
Peter Fretwell, who studies wildlife from space at BAS, says the discovery is exciting – but also has a dark side.
“And while this is good news, this colony, like many of the newly discovered sites, is small and in a region heavily affected by recent sea ice loss,” he said in a press release.
Emperor penguins depend on sea ice for nesting, an environment heavily affected by climate change. The latest projections suggest that 80 percent of emperor penguin colonies will be extinct by the end of the century, assuming current warming trends continue, according to the BAS.