Methods
Penguins walking on sea ice. Image - Kerry Barton
We are comparing the reproductive and foraging ecology of penguins nesting at three colonies on Ross Island, Antarctica.
- Cape Royds ~ 3 500 breeding pairs
- Cape Bird ~ 60 000 breeding pairs
- Cape Crozier ~ 150 000 breeding pairs
As well as opportunistic data collection at Beaufort Island.
Our study is designed to study how Adélies function in their environment and cope with environmental change, and since 1981 we have been counting the number of birds breeding at the colonies in the Ross Sea region. This long-term dataset (one of the longest running biological data sets in Antarctica) allows us to investigate what controls population growth or decline.
We use a range of techniques some directly involving our study animals (flipper-banding and deploying instruments on the birds) and some using remote data collection (aerial photography, band searching, satellite imagery, and automated weighing systems).
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| Map showing areas of Antarctic research |
At the colonies we assess: