British scientists map Antarctic penguins from space
18:12, 3 June 2009
WASHINGTON. June 3. KAZINFORM Penguin poo (guano) stains, visible from space, have helped British scientists locate emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica. Knowing their location provides a baseline for monitoring their response to environmental change, according to a new study published this week in the U.S. journal Global Ecology and Biogeography; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
In the new study, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS)describe how they used satellite images to survey the sea-ice around 90 percent of Antarctica's coast to search for emperor penguin colonies. The survey identified a total of 38. Ten of those were new. Of the previously known colonies six had re-located and six were not found.
Because emperor penguins breed on sea-ice during the Antarctic winter little is known about their colonies. Reddish brown patches of guano on the ice, visible in satellite images, provide a reliable indication of their location; Kazinform cites Xinhua.
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