SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) -
Funding is a dilemma researchers always face. Luckily for one local
scientist, private funding paved the way from San Diego to the South
Pole, with the benefit of using new technology that's cutting down on
time in the field with better accuracy. In this week's earth 8 we bring
you part 2 of the science behind this penguin study.
Senior research scientist Dr. Brent Stewart hopes to answer many
important questions about several penguin species living on the South
Pole.
When you're surrounded by hundreds of thousand of birds, the only way
to get a better count is to fly high above them. As we showed you in
part one of this series, a drone-like aircraft was used to collect more
precise scientific data.
"What I really like about it is it can be a stable platform rather
than flying over very quickly, we can hover. We can quickly move it in
one direction, spin it around to get different perspectives," Stewart
said. "But it's going to take another month, two months to count each
bird at the two colonies. The big ones, the king penguins St. Andrews
Bay, Salsbury Plains, they're probably 200,000 to 300,000 birds at each
one of those colonies."
Although it looks crowded, Stewart says some colonies are not doing as well as others.
"Adelie penguins on the peninsula, we know that their populations are
changing very rapidly as the climate there changes very rapidly. But
other species are coming in and doing very well, so there are local
colonies which are sustaining and are vital and other colonies are
declining," he said.
Aside from a variable climate, penguins will always have natural predators.
"For Antarctic penguins, leopard seals are predators, they eat them.
Particularly in the peninsula, killer whales, I think the ultimate
predators are parasites which they're always dealing with. Infectious
disease is a key issue in their population, biology. But it's really
leopard seals and killer whales are their primary predators other than
humans used to be.
"We're starting to plan for the next season next year for the
Antarctic trip. Locally it's elephant seal season that's coming up in
December, so I spend a lot of time out in San Nicholas & San Miguel
Islands to study populations there, and we're trying to use the same
kind of tools to help us with that," Stewart said.
Citadal professor headed to Antarctica to study penguins
Diane Knich
Posted: Thursday, December 12, 2013
ProvidedA
rockhopper penguin warms its young chick and guards against predators
during Citadel professor Paul Nolan's 2006 research trip to the
Falkland Islands.
Penguins are the proverbial canary in a coal mine
when it comes to gauging climate change, says Citadel biology professor
Paul Nolan.
So he packed his freezing-weather gear and is headed to Antarctica Friday to study them.
Nolan, who studies animal behavior focusing mostly on
birds, said he's been studying penguins for more than a decade,
including taking several trips south of the equator to observe the
waddling black and white creatures in their natural habitats.
He'll be working on the penguin study with Oxford University professor Tom Hart. People can learn more about the work, at PenguinLifelines.org.
Nolan, who also runs the nonprofit group CharlestonAudubon.org,said
The Citadel Foundation gave him a $3,000 grant to help him with his
research. He expects to share much of what he experiences with his
students in future classes.
Jay Dowd, the foundation's
chief executive officer, said Nolan's research is one of many
ground-breaking projects conducted on campus by faculty, graduate
students, and cadets to which the foundation contributes.
Nolan
said it's important to go to Antarctica because "ongoing climate change
is most pronounced at the poles." In Antarctica, there's been a 5- to
6-degree temperature increase in the past 100 years," he said.
The
researchers plan to study the birds in two major ways. They will
collect and analyze feathers that drop from the birds, he said, because
feathers contain stress hormones, an indicator of environmental change.
They
also will place cameras in penguin colonies that snap pictures every
hour. The cameras will remain in place for about a year, he said, then
researchers will go back and collect the cards from the cameras and
study the photos. "The big idea behind this is that we want to monitor
the behavior without bothering the birds."
A huge
number of photographs will be collected, Nolan said, and members of the
public can volunteer to help annotate them. The photographs will be
available on April 25, which is International Penguin Day, he said.
Nolan
said his unique role in the project is to study the color and color
changes of the birds, especially in their beaks and feet. Color can
reveal a great deal about an animal's health, he said.
Temperatures in Antarctica this time of year range from 0 to 20 degrees, he said, but he's ready for the cold.
The
research team will travel on a cruise ship, and take Zodiac boats to
various penguin colonies each day, he said. It's very difficult to find a
way to travel in that part of the world, he said, but cruise ships work
well. The researchers will make some presentations on penguins to other
travelers, he said.
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