Research on king penguins on the Crozet islands


This 9 August 2015 video is called King penguins following me on the beach on Crozet (Ile de la Possession) .

From the New Zealand Herald:

Scientists use penguins to do research for them

By Simon Usborne

He is used to marching across the frozen expanse of Antarctica, his sleek silhouette and monochrome plumage marking him out from the harsh, windswept landscape.

Plunging hundreds of metres into the dark, icy depths of the Southern Ocean and spending weeks on end expertly hunting fish is just a way of life for him. But waddling along on an adapted treadmill inside a rickety Perspex box, Roy the king penguin looks far from majestic.

Although he might not have appreciated it at the time, he and his friends were recruited as scientific researchers in an ambitious project to gauge the effects of overfishing and global warming on the Southern Ocean ecosystem. …

The Birmingham team travels thousands of kilometres from the Midlands to the tiny Indian Ocean island of Reunion, before taking a week-long voyage to the Crozet archipelago, a French territory of islands about halfway between Madagascar and Antarctica.

Palaeocene fossil Waimanu penguins: here.

The world’s biggest colony of king penguins is found in the National Nature Reserve of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF). Using high-resolution satellite images, researchers have detected a massive 88 percent reduction in the size of the penguin colony, located on Île aux Cochons, in the Îles Crozet archipelago. The causes of the colony’s collapse remain a mystery but may be environmental: here.

9 thoughts on “Research on king penguins on the Crozet islands

  1. Penguins stress out around humans, scientists find

    Wednesday 11 July 2012

    If like Jean-Paul Sartre you think hell is other people spare a thought for the penguins, writes Tony Patey.

    Scientists have uncovered a case of not so happy feet in penguin populations stressed by humans in the sub-Antarctic Crozet islands.

    They tested stress responses of king penguins in colonies disturbed by humans over 50 years compared with others in areas not visited by humans.

    Penguins from the disturbed colonies were better able to cope with the sight of approaching humans, loud noises and being captured.

    Why? Because, apparently, stress-sensitive penguins were likely to have waddled away in penguin-style disgust, leaving more resilient individuals behind.

    The research by scientists from the University of Strasbourg in France is published in the online journal BMC Ecology.

    Meanwhile researchers at Sheffield University and two US universities claimed Britain’s record-breaking wet weather is being caused by melting Arctic sea ice.

    The region is getting warmer and upsetting weather patterns.

    http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/

    Like

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