Posted on 03/02/2018 8:34:15 PM PST by blueplum
A thriving "hotspot" of 1.5 million Adelie penguins, a species fast declining in parts of the world, has been discovered on remote islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, surprised scientists said Friday.
The first bird census of the Danger Islands unearthed over 750,000 Adelie breeding pairs, more than the rest of the area combined, the team reported in the journal Scientific Reports. {snip}
When the Landsat data originally suggested the presence of hundreds of thousands of penguins on the islands, she thought it "was a mistake".
"We were surprised to find so many penguins on these islands, especially because some of these islands were not known to have penguins."
Then followed a field expedition for a census using a combination of drone footage, pictures taken on the ground, and an old fashioned walk-about headcount.
"We were... very lucky to have a window of time where the sea ice moved out and we could get a yacht in," said Lynch.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Exactly. Poor polar bears on their tiny icebergs.
Perhaps a new fast food chain called Kentucky Fried Penguins could start.
Now I remember where I left them.
forget the killer whales - don’t tell the seals!
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141117-why-seals-have-sex-with-penguins
(Fixed it.. ;-)
They are endangered as they are high in vitamin C. where else can you get it in the Antarctic? No citrus trees!
Like oily Spotted Owl.
“A thriving “hotspot” of 1.5 million Adelie penguins, a species fast declining in parts of the world, has been discovered on remote islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, surprised scientists said Friday.”
[[And who cries for the krill?]]
Krillery Clinton?
1.5 million penguins discovered on remote Antarctic islands
Or as killer whales, leopard seals, polar bears are thinking: Snacks
The Danger Islands, said the team, has felt the ravages of climate change less than the western peninsula, and knew very little human activity.
Now it turns out, the area may need stronger protection from overfishing.
In the west Antarctic, Adelie penguins are in decline due to sea ice melt blamed on global warming
In the west Antarctic, Adelie penguins are in decline due to sea ice melt blamed on global warming
“The most important implication of this work is related to the design of Marine Protected Areas in the region,” said Lynch.
“Now that we know this tiny island group is so important, it can be considered for further protection from fishing.”
In addition to Adelies, the team also found about 100 nests of gentoo penguins, and about 27 nests of chinstrap penguins.
The polar regions are warming more rapidly than the rest of Earth as heat-trapping greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel-burning build up in the atmosphere.
Cooked penguins? You want fries with them?
“Yeah - the folks that do those studies just don't know where to look.”
Reminds me back in the 1980s, the environazis around Austin were in a hysteria about the golden-cheeked warbler and the black-capped vireo, two bird species they claimed were dying off and would go extinct if all construction in a wide swath of North Austin and suburbs halted immediately.
This went on for 3-4 years until a team at Texas A&M discovered that the warblers and vireos were having their nest stolen by blue jays and reacted by moving deeper into the pristine forests - where environazis don’t apparently go.
So, the environazis changed tune and instead of demanding all construction be stopped about the songbirds, they demanded all construction be stopped because of some endangered salamanders.
It didn’t work. You cry wolf enough times and eventually even the lay people figure it out.
There goes the neighborhood...
You find a perfect island somewhere with no liberals on it so you can raise your family in peace, and before long the liberals still manage to seek you out. Now they’ll be going after your kids your to apply indentifiers like wingbands and other crap and making nuisances of themselves until you can find another island to get some momentary peace...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.