Working together to protect penguins
Capturing Antarctic icons from the air
In Antarctica, the vast size and remoteness of the region makes it incredibly challenging to monitor. In 2013, scientists from BAS were lucky to find a brief window of clear weather when they could fly over 140 of the 500 or so known Adélie, Chinstrap and Gentoo penguin (collectively known as pygoscelis or brushtail species) colonies along the Antarctic Peninsula, capturing high resolution images as they flew.
These images have been compressed to form a seamless mosaic. Now each penguin can only appear once – which is essential to count the population accurately. This new data will be invaluable for understanding penguin populations in the region and set a benchmark for future surveys. Of the 140 colonies captured, only a sample of about 30 are included in the Zooniverse project. These were selected to give a range of species, geographic locations and colony sizes.
Now thanks to our exciting partnership, the general public are able to act as an ecologist from their sofa and to directly contribute to our current understanding of penguins. The information gathered will be used to assist in their conservation and will contribute towards the development of Marine Protected Area (MPA) proposals for the Antarctic Peninsula.
MPAs are one way to preserve penguin foraging and breeding grounds and to ensure protection from human disturbance and threats. Having the best possible data on populations will help us to monitor how penguins are responding to any threats and make sure these Antarctic icons are safeguarded and protected.
About our partners
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) delivers world-leading research in the Polar Regions. Its skilled science and support staff, who are based in Cambridge, Antarctica and the Arctic, work together to enable research that advances our understanding of Earth as a sustainable planet. BAS facilitates access for the British and international science community to the UK polar research operation.
The Zooniverse
The Zooniverse
The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — hundreds of thousands of people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Zooniverse projects make it easy for anyone to contribute to real academic research, on their own computer, at their own convenience. It also helps tackle one of the major challenges of 21st century research: dealing with the flood of information we can now collect about the world around us.
Computers can help, but in many fields the human ability for pattern recognition — and our ability to be surprised — makes us superior. With the help of Zooniverse volunteers, researchers can analyze their information more quickly and accurately than would otherwise be possible, saving time and resources, advancing the ability of computers to do the same tasks, and leading to faster progress and understanding of the world.
Penguin Watch
Penguin Watch
Penguin Watch is a citizen science initiative set up by Oxford University in collaboration with other penguin groups. It has been connecting people with penguins since 2014 and has continued to grow and reinvent itself, hoping to find solutions to the present data gaps and to provide data to policy-makers on areas particularly sensitive to fishing and human disturbance.