'Citizen scientists' help reveal secret lives of #penguins

By Selina Ross

04.25.2015

The popularity of penguins is helping scientists shed light on the Antarctic species' secret lives.

Oxford University has released some of the early findings of its Penguin Watch program to coincide with World Penguin Day on April 25.

The scientists are working with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) on the program, which was launched in September last year. AAD ecologist Dr Colin Southwell said they use time lapse cameras to observe penguins on the icy continent. "The thing about cameras is we can get hundreds of thousands of images, but it takes a long time to process them," he said. That is where "citizen scientists" come in.

Everyone knows about penguins, everyone seems to love penguins, so they capture people's attention. Dr Colin Southwell Marine ecologist

Online volunteers count penguin adults, chicks and eggs in photographs taken by the automated cameras monitoring gentoo, chinstrap, king, emperor and adélie colonies. So far more than 1.5 million volunteers have clicked on 175,000 images of penguins.

Lead researcher Dr Tom Hart from Oxford University said scientists hope the cameras will reveal how often penguins feed their chicks and how long they have to go to sea to feed in different regions. "Until now, this has only been possible by putting GPS on penguins," he said. "The hope is that, by developing a non-invasive method, we can track penguins across the whole of the Southern Ocean without researchers needing to disturb them."

Dr Southwell said cameras operate throughout winter on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Photo: Scientists hope the cameras will reveal, among other things, how often penguins feed their chicks. (Supplied: penguinwatch.org) 

 

"What they've found in the Peninsula is that the penguins are coming back to their breeding sites in the dead of winter and these are penguins that normally are thought to leave their breeding sites and go forage at sea for the entire time of the winter. We don't know why they're coming back but it's the first time it's been observed."

The cameras will take photos every minute during the breeding season. Dr Southwell said it would allow scientists to monitor its success and how the season varies in different areas. "In East Antarctica, for instance, we've found that in some regions the breeding success is incredibly variable from one year to the other, sometimes they'll churn out lots of chicks, other times there'll be almost complete failure. "Whereas in other regions the breeding success is high all the time, so it's telling us something about what drives those populations and what could impact on them and how it could vary from place to place and time to time."



Studying penguins is also helping scientists gain better understanding of fisheries management. "Penguins and other seabirds breed on land so they're accessible, but they forage in the ocean and are then subject to impacts from anything that's affecting their food supply," Dr Southwell said. "So one thing is that they're easy to study, another thing is that they're an iconic species. "Everyone knows about penguins, everyone seems to love penguins, so they capture people's attention and so if we're trying focus people's attention on important issues like fisheries management they're a good species from that point of view."

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