Monday 16 April 2012

Emperor Penguin Numbers Double Previous Estimates, Satellites Show


Emperor penguins in Antarctica are far more plentiful than previously thought, a study that used extremely high-resolution imagery snapped by satellites has revealed.

"It surprised us that we approximately doubled the population estimate," said Peter Fretwell, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey and lead author of a paper published today in the journal PLoS One.
Fretwell said that in contrast to previous estimates, which put emperor penguin numbers somewhere between 270,000 and 350,000 birds, the new research counted 595,000 birds.

Antarctic research is challenging, since humans can essentially only work on the frigid continent for three months out of the year, and nailing down hard numbers for the iconic birds has proved difficult.

No comments:

Post a Comment

You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ShareThis