Penguin poo (guano) stains, visible from space, have helped British scientists locate emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica.

Knowing their location provides a baseline for monitoring their response to environmental change. In a new study, published this week in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, scientists from British Antarctic Survey, (BAS) describe how they used satellite images to survey the sea-ice around 90 percent of Antarctica’s coast to search for emperor penguin colonies. The survey identified a total of 38. Ten of those were new. Of the previously known colonies, six had re-located and six were not found. As emperor penguins breed on sea-ice during the Antarctic winter little is known about their colonies. Reddish brown patches of guano on the ice, visible in satellite images, provide a reliable indication of their location. This research builds on work by French scientists who extensively studied one colony and found the population was at significant risk from climate change. The six colonies not found in this study were at a similar latitude suggesting that emperor penguins may be at risk all around Antarctica.