Environment Birds First contact with huge Antarctica emperor penguin colony (Your Images of the Day)

A previously unknown colony of around 9,000 emperor penguins has received its first human visitors. Scientists from the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Antarctic polar research base visited the colony on Princess Ragnhild coast after its location was revealed in a study of satellite images by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 January 2013

The emperor penguin colony on Antarctica’s Princess Ragnhild coast. The colony of emperor penguins was first discovered in satellite imagery in 2009.
 

The 2009 paper 'Penguins from space: faecal stains reveal the location of emperor penguin colonies' described the colony's location. However, its existence was unconfirmed until the visit from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica team.

Three experts from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica polar research station have now become the first people to visit and photograph the colony

Emperor penguin populations are a useful climate change indicator due to the birds' reliance on sea ice

The team had been supporting the work of glaciologists carrying out scientific research on the Derwael ice rise, 50km from the colony. Emperor penguins are the least common Antarctic penguin, with an estimated 200,000 breeding pairs

By studying the images, the scientists discovered that guano stains were reliable indicators of the birds' presence. 'We can't see actual penguins on the satellite maps because the resolution isn't good enough. But during the breeding season the birds stay at a colony for eight months. The ice gets pretty dirty and it's the guano stains that we can see,' said BAS mapping expert, Peter Fretwell
  

A satellite image showing guano stains in Halley Bay, Antarctica

 

  Raphael Richard, field guide, negotiates difficult ice conditions to reach the Antarctic coast. The field team has journeyed from Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, for the IceCon and Be:Wise projects, both of which are investigating the movement of Antarctica's ice cap

 

Princess Elisabeth Station with wind turbines, solar panels and a satellite dish

 

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Penguin seeing clearly thanks to rare procedure

David Boushy and Tamara Elliott, Global News : Wednesday, January 09, 2013

CALGARY- A penguin at the Calgary Zoo is seeing a lot more clearly now, thanks to a delicate procedure at the hands of a group of caring professionals.

Ray, a 17-year-old Gentoo, was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes, shortly arriving at the zoo last year.

“In the water he was regularly out-swum by the other birds, he was out-competed when it came to feeding because he couldn't see the fish in the water,” says Dr. Malu Celli, curator of the penguin exhibit. “The vets noticed that he had a cloudiness, a milkiness to his eyes, which is a very clear indication that he's got cataracts.”

So in November, a specialty clinic veterinarian led a team to perform the two-and-a-half hour surgery. The operation has a high success rate, but requires extreme precision.

“It is a delicate procedure that requires micro-surgery and microsurgical techniques, and we use an operating microscope to have good magnification,” explains Dr. Kelli Ramey. “We do use the same equipment and techniques on humans, but with some modifications based on the species.”

The surgery was a success, and Ray has been gradually adjusting to life with clear vision. While he hasn’t caught his first fish yet, he is swimming more.

Video available at source

 

Image of the Day

 

Awkward seal is awkward!

image courtesy of icanhascheezburger

Rat plague hits penguins

Angela Pownall, The West Australian Updated January 9, 2013

Penguin Island manager Dave Charles with a dead rat trapped on the island. Picture: Mogens Johansen/The West Australian

A plague of black rats is destroying the native wildlife population on Penguin Island, threatening to ruin one of WA's best nature havens and ecotourism attractions.

Thousands of the rats have inundated the small island 700m off Rockingham to feed on hundreds of eggs and chicks of its famous little penguin colony and other birds.

Penguin Island was, as ever, an idyllic escape from the heat and bustle of the mainland yesterday but the scene belied the huge environmental threat.

As families, tourists and holidaying children swam in the blue shallows and watched the penguins, birds and seals, a major offensive began to try to rid the island of its unwanted pests.

Penguin Island manager David Charles said the rats were having a devastating impact on wildlife.
"The bridled terns have had no chicks survive at all this year," he said. "From our nest boxes, we're talking about only 20 little penguin chicks that have survived.

"In previous years, it's been in the 40s and 50s."

The rat infestation is at a terrible time for WA's biggest breeding colony of little penguins, which already faces a battle for survival.

Mr Charles said the penguin population had fallen to 1200 breeding pairs from about 2000 just two years ago. Rising ocean temperatures are blamed for penguin deaths because the warmer waters drive away whitebait, their favourite food.

"We're not quite sure what we can do apart from eliminate as many of the factors that are affecting them as possible," Mr Charles said.

A dozen wildlife officers and volunteers are laying more than 270 poison bait traps over the 12.5ha island this week.

Black rats were first spotted on the island a year ago.

Mr Charles said a few rats were thought to have managed to cross the sandbar to the island at low tide or stowed away on a visiting boat.

In just one year, the number of rats has exploded to plague proportions and thousands now roam the island.

With a gestation period of just 21 days, female rats can have eight or nine litters of about six babies a year.

Mr Charles said they had designed the bait traps so only rats - and not skinks and other native wildlife - could get inside and take the poison.
 
Some secondary poisoning of birds that ate the dead rats was expected.

But Mr Charles said the mass rat poisoning was necessary to save the rest of Penguin Island's diverse wildlife.

 

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Rat baiting program on Penguin Island

09/Jan/2013

A black rat on Penguin Island. 

 

A DEPARTMENT of Environment and Conservation baiting program to eradicate black rats on Penguin Island will begin next week.

DEC Penguin Island manager David Charles said the invasive black rats were killing penguins, birds and other fauna on the island and had to be eradicated as soon as possible.
The island will remain open to the public during the six-week baiting phase, which starts on Monday.

“Black rats have recently become established on Penguin Island and are posing a significant threat to nesting shorebirds, seabirds, terrestrial birds and native skinks. The rats are also a serious threat to the island’s ecology,” Mr Charles said.

“The planned baiting program will involve using a commercially-available anticoagulant rat poison contained in bait stations and placed in a grid pattern around the island.

“The stations allow access by rats, but are designed to reduce the possibility of animals such as skinks getting into them."

Mr Charles said the baiting method would reduce the chances of native species being affected.

“Eradicating the rats will help protect Penguin Island’s diverse array of wildlife, including iconic little penguins, caspian terns, bridled terns and pelicans," he said.

“The island’s colony of little penguins is thought to be the largest on Australia’s west coast and of course, the island is very popular with tourists and for recreation activities. Another benefit of the baiting program will be the reduction of the introduced house mouse population.”

The baiting phase will run until the end of February. DEC staff will continue to monitor key species and the effectiveness of the program.

A biosecurity plan will also be developed and implemented to ensure black rats and other introduced animals and plants are not taken to Penguin Island in the future.

 

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Humans Visit Huge Penguin Colony for First Time

Analysis by DNews Editors
Tue Jan 8, 2013

The newly-discovered 9,000-strong emperor penguin colony on the East Antarctic coast. Credit: International Polar Foundation

By Douglas Main, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer
The existence of a 9,000-strong colony of emperor penguins in East Antarctica has been confirmed by three people who visited it for the first time.

Signs of the penguins were spotted by satellite, which took images of large stains on the snow in 2009 that scientists suspected were penguin feces. But it wasn't until early December 2012 that three people from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica polar research station visited the colony to glimpse the penguins for themselves, according to a statement from the International Polar Foundation, which runs the station.


The first three visitors were the station's expedition leader Alain Hubert, mechanic Kristof Soete and Swiss mountain guide Raphael Richard.

DNEWS VIDEO: Find out what it's like to study penguins in Antarctica.

The explorers decided not to chance a trip to the suspected colony earlier due to bad weather. But in early December the weather let up, and they arrived at the colony in the dead of night.

"It was almost midnight when we succeeded in finding a way down to the ice through crevasses and approached the first of five groups of more than a thousand individuals, three quarters of which were chicks," said Hubert in the statement. "This was [an] unforgettable moment!" (See photos of the penguin colony.)

The trio was part of a team supporting scientific research on the Derwael Ice Rise, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the colony. Here, researchers are looking to see how quickly ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is being lost to the sea due to warming-fueled melt.

Scientists estimate the population of emperor penguins of Antarctica is larger than once thought; satellite imagery has helped to find previously unknown colonies like this one, by pinpointing stains from penguin feces as well as spotting the penguins themselves.

Nevertheless, the fate of these and other penguins remains uncertain, and penguin numbers are likely to decline if the continent continues to warm. The Antarctic Peninsula, where emperor penguins are plentiful, is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, with air temperatures rising between 4 and 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 and 2.5 degrees Celsius) in the last 50 years.

Emperor penguins are the largest penguin species and stand on average about 45 inches (114 centimeters) tall and weigh 90 pounds (41 kilograms).

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Image of the Day

Explorers found a new Emperor Penguin colony (see the story here) and for the page that shows a gallery of those newly found penguins, click here.

Image of the Day

Portrait of a penguin, a photo by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr.

Image of the Day

Falklands, a photo by richard.mcmanus. on Flickr.

Gotta itch

Instant Live 8: 'Penguin Days' at the Dallas Zoo

by WYATT GOOLSBY

WFAA

Posted on January 7, 2013 

DALLAS  - The Dallas Zoo is sending out a big thank you to North Texas after a record-breaking number of visitors in 2012.

They are lowering the price of admission for both January and February. It's called "Penguin Days," and it costs only $5 for general admission, ages three and up. Children ages two and under always get in free.

On Monday, WFAA’s Wyatt Goolsby took our mobile Instant Live 8 camera behind the scenes inside the indoor heated holding area for the African Penguins at the Dallas Zoo. African Penguins are very adaptable to the North Texas heat, which is why they are in many local zoos.

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Image of the Day

yellow eyed penguin, a photo by RobVis on Flickr.

Yellow Eyed Penguin Family

Penguin chicks hatch at Kelly Tarlton's aquarium

By Cassandra Mason

Monday Jan 7, 2013

 A Gentoo Penguin chick and its parent. Photo / Supplied 

Seven penguin chicks are the newest residents at Kelly Tarlton's aquarium thanks to a world-class breeding programme.

The newly-hatched baby Gentoo Penguins, born throughout December, were hatched as part of New Zealand's only Gentoo Penguin breeding programme.

The births bring the number of healthy penguins delivered at the aquarium last year to 10 - seven Gentoo and three King Penguins.

Kelly Tarlton's SEA LIFE Aquarium Aviculturist Laura Seaman says the programme is also one of the most successful worldwide.

"Although the penguins don't experience the same fight for life as their sub-Antarctic counterparts, we believe it's extremely important to replicate their natural environment and we've done just that with our new state-of-the-art enclosure."

The chicks hatch from eggs incubated by both parents for about 35 days. They take up to 48 hours to come out of their shell, after which they spend several days hiding underneath their parents.

As they grow, they are transferred to a special penguin crèche where they stay until they are adult sized and can join the main colony.

Visitors to Kelly Tarlton's can see the chicks with their parents in new walk-through penguin encounter.

"We're very excited to have 10 penguins hatched this year, making New Zealand's largest penguin colony even bigger, with 80 Gentoo and King Penguins in total," says general manager James Thomas.

- nzherald.co.nz

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Image of the Day

000008, a photo by winkyintheuk on Flickr.

Adelie penguins