Tracking Penguins from Space

Penguins: penguin pictureIt's always nice to know when hard-earned tax dollars are going to good use. In this case, Satellite images are being used to track penguin poop. The justification behind this expenditure is that we can then track the numbers of penguins, which is somewhere in the 200,000 to 400,000 if you count breeding pairs. Luckily, (and for a pleasant change) it is not the American taxpayer that is footing this particular endeavor, but the British government.

200,000-400,000 does not sound like an exact science to me, but penguin ecologists seem pretty excited about the fact that they can monitor the penguins at all.

 According to Phil Trathan a penguin ecologist, "This is a very exciting development. "

How exactly do the scientists count penguins and follow their "colonies”? The "penguin waste" shows up against the white ice as a "light brown" color and "gives us a chance to monitor future population changes over time." For some reason, the actual penguins themselves are not visible from space, so it is difficult for ecologists to track their movements as groups or “colonies” and the discoloration of the ice is the only method for doing so.

Imagine the poor penguins chagrin (as they are always so distinguished-looking) if they only knew they were being tracked by their “waste”. Seems like a “waste” of taxpayer pounds as well, but I guess it’s all a matter of perception.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/02/penguin.satellite.images/