Scientists Just Discovered 1.5 Million Penguins They Didn’t Know Existed In Antarctica
The scientists were tipped off by large clusters of penguin poop seen on satellite images.
A scientific expedition to a remote part of Antarctica turned up a pleasant surprise: a secret hideout of more than 1.5 million penguins, whose populations have been declining due to climate change.
Scientists discovered this previously unknown “supercolony” of Adélie penguins on the Danger Islands, a set of remote, icy islands on the northeastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, according to a study ( Multi-modal survey of Adélie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot; Scientific Reports V.8, Article number: 3926 (2018) doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22313-w) released Friday.
“Basically these islands were covered in penguins,” Michael Polito, an assistant professor of oceanography and coastal sciences at Louisiana State University and coauthor of the paper, told BuzzFeed News.
