June 18, 2009
Scientists have located emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica - after spotting giant poo stains from space.
Satellite images picked up huge red-brown stains on the pristine white sea ice, indicating the presence of thousands of penguins.
It meant that researchers for the British Antarctic Survey were able to locate every colony on the continent for the first time ever, reports the Daily Telegraph.
The in-depth satellite survey identified 38 breeding colonies - believed to amount to between 200,000 and 400,000 breeding pairs of emperor penguins.
Until now it has been difficult to accurately estimate the population of emperor penguins because scientists have not been able to track them during the winter breeding season.
Peter Fretwell, co-author of the study and geographic information officer at British Antarctic Survey, said his chance discovery would revolutionise the way scientists monitored penguins.
He said: "No other birds breed on the sea ice and each colony can have tens of thousands of birds in it. Emperor penguins are quite big birds and it gets quite messy and very smelly.
"Sometimes I think remote sensing is the best way to monitor them as you really don't want to get too close."
Mr Fretwell had been mapping a British Antarctic Survey base near the Halley station on the Brunt ice shelf in October 2008 when he noticed a brown stain on the satellite images.
He said: "It was a bit of a eureka moment. I realised if I could see this colony with satellites I should be able to see more."
