Follow The Poo, Find The Penguins

Population Research Poo is helping researchers track colonies of emperor penguins on Antarctic Ice.

by Associated Press

Published: Tue, June 02, 2009 - 3:00 am CST Last Updated: Tue, June 02, 2009 - 3:04 am CST

WASHINGTON (AP) - It does a number on researchers' boots and smells really bad, but the fact that penguin poo on Antarctic ice
can be spotted from space is helping researchers.

In an area about one-and-a-half times bigger than the United States, researchers have been unable to figure out just where
colonies of emperor penguins live and if their population is in peril.

But because the large penguins stay on the same ice for months, their poo stains make them stand out from space.

Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey found this out by accident when they were looking at satellite images of their bases.

Survey mapping scientist Peter Fretwell says that using satellite data, the scientists found 10 new colonies of penguins, six that had moved and another six that seemed to have disappeared.

"Penguins From Space" is in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

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BamaBob Says:

Tue, Jun 02, 2009 at 7:34 am

If they can see penguin poo from space, can you imagine what Washington D.C. looks like from that satellite!!! Cuz there is a whole lot of deep poo in that location.