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Large Population of Adélie Penguins Discovered


A recent article highlighted in Nature Journey documents a new find in the Antarctic, a huge population of Adélie penguins on the Danger Islands. This population numbers in around 1.5 million individuals, that were previously not known to researchers. This hotspot for penguins was found with the assistance of aerial drones to access parts of the Antarctic Peninsula that were previously inaccessible by boat. This finding gives proof of concept to this method of data acquisition, and leads researchers to look in more remote places for tracking species more closely. Contrary to the general trend associated with climate change reducing Antarctic ice mass, this population of penguins has been largely unaffected; they will however, be considered in ongoing efforts of conservation due to their large significance in the region.
Throughout the continent, Adélie penguin populations have decreased as much as 70 due to rising air temp and decreased ice packing’s effect on prey availability. There had been concerns about the species on the whole but the danger islands have a unique circumstance that precludes them from usual environmental stresses. The currents of the Weddell sea isolates the island and limits access to the island for most of the year, in fact, the islands were largely ignored until 2009 where a passing ship took photographs of the penguins’ population and nests and prompted a larger expedition as detailed above.
The formal survey of the island revealed ~751,527 nests on the 7 islands that make up the Danger Islands, this is significant as this estimate counts the population as 55% of all Adélie penguins in “subarea 48.1 “

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