Greenpeace reports that data from the National Sea Ice Data Center shows that this year Antarctic sea ice will reach the lowest extent on satellite record. Preliminary measurements show the sea ice around the continent has surpassed the previous record minimum set, in March 2017, of 2.1 million square kilometers, dropping to 1.98 million square kilometers on Sunday 20 February.
By Laura Geggel – Scientists have discovered a previously unknown colony of gentoo penguins in one of the southernmost spots these waddling birds have ever been spotted. The discovery is a cause for concern, according to the researchers, who say that climate change is expanding the range of this temperate, non-ice-loving species of penguin.
Gentoo penguins are benefiting from a newly enlarged no-fishing zone (known as a No-Take Zone NTZ) around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia following British Antarctic Survey (BAS) tracking research commissioned by the RSPB.
By University of Bath – Gentoo penguins should be reclassified as four separate species, say scientists at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, after analyzing the genetic and physical differences between populations around the southern hemisphere.
Two female gentoo penguins are new moms at an aquarium in Spain and are raising the baby chick they adopted as an egg.
By Chloe May - On 25 April every year, people around the world celebrate World Penguin Day - a day to raise awareness of the plight these flightless birds are currently facing. This takes place at the same time as the annual northern migration of Antarctica’s Adelie penguins and was created as a way for researchers at an American research centre on Ross Island to pass time and raise awareness.
Penguin Awareness Day is an unofficial holiday which is celebrated annually on January 20th. This holiday is used to celebrate and commemorate these fascinating flightless birds which are loved by people all over the world. It’s also a day to bring attention to the plight of these birds whose numbers seem to be shrinking faster and faster each and every day.
Data sent from penguins to space and back to University of British Columbia could help researchers determine why the species’ breeding population fluctuates so dramatically. UBC researchers visited the South Atlantic in April to attach small transmitters to the backs of 66 Gentoo penguins from two colonies in the Falkland Islands
April 25th is “World Penguin Day”, undoubtedly the world’s most popular bird – think of Happy Feet, March of the Penguins, Pingu just to name a few uses in popular culture. These charismatic flightless birds are funny to watch on land but are graceful and rapid in water. They occur only in the seas of the Southern hemisphere; there are seventeen species of penguin ranging from the Galapagos to Antarctica.
The longest and most comprehensive study to date of what penguins eat is published this month. The study, published in the journal Marine Biology, examines the diets of gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) at Bird Island, South Georgia over a 22 year period and is part of a project investigating the Southern Ocean ecosystem and its response to change