Penguin Lifelines Project Journal Entries

ZSL Penguinologist Tom Hart is hiking across South Georgia with the joint tasks of working on the rat eradication project, collecting penguin feathers for DNA sampling, and checking the cameras set up last season to see if they’ve made it though the winter. Here is his latest news…

The Secret Lives of Penguins
A year in the life of Antarctic
penguins caught on camera
February 24 2012

Sixteen “hidden” cameras planted by scientists have survived some of the planet’s harshest winter conditions to capture the annual comings and goings of penguin colonies in Antarctica.

Danko Island
click for larger view

Researchers from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and University of Oxford used tour ships to set up 16 cameras around Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia. Penguin research normally takes place in the summer, when scientists can get to the colonies, but which often misses the start of breeding. Now, time-lapse cameras have allowed researchers to record parts of the penguin life cycle normally go unseen, when humans are not there.

The footage captured gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) at Brown Bluff on the Antarctic Peninsula and King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) huddling overwinter at Salisbury Plain on South Georgia. The camera at Brown Bluff was covered by a snow drift for part of the winter, but continued to take photos throughout.

Gentoo on nest on Danko Island
click for larger view

Penguinologist, Dr. Tom Hart, says: “Antarctica is larger than Europe, but only a handful of penguin colonies are monitored. Using cameras that cost less than £500 each could revolutionize the way we study Antarctic wildlife”.

Climate change, the expansion of fisheries and the danger of disease all pose new threats to penguins, making monitoring them vital. Cheap technology could expand monitoring even when science budgets are tight. The 16 cameras were placed overlooking colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia, and captured a number of images a day showing the movements of penguins.

Gentoo penguin chick on
Petermann Island
click for larger view

Dr Ben Collen from ZSL added: “Antarctica is one of the world’s least explored regions making it all the more important for us to collect worthwhile data on wildlife. New information is vital for making informed conservation decisions, so we are able to best manage species under pressure and deal with the wider global implications of climate change”.

ZSL’s scientists continue the development of a new monitoring system for the southern polar region which will help in the design of protected areas in the Antarctic, and answer questions about the response of penguins to their changing world.

Penguin Lifelines Programme
These two expeditions formed part of ZSL’s “Penguin Lifelines” programme, which is researching the threats to Antarctic penguins. Scientists are using long-term monitoring in the field and genetic analysis of penguin feathers to get a complete

MSc. Student Gemma Clucas
click for larger view

Journal Entry #11
Final trip of the 2012 season
February 24 2012

MSc. Student Gemma Clucas joins Tom to conduct her thesis project, which will evaluate long-term changes in genetic diversity of Adélie penguins.

Adélie penguins
click for larger view

Tom and I reached the Antarctic Peninsula amidst a howling gale which had blown throughout the night. It was touch and go as to whether we would get ashore to visit a gentoo colony on Pléneau Island but the wind dropped just in time for us to get into a zodiac and get a lift to the colony. This was a colony that we’d never visited before so it was great to get a full set of shed feathers for our DNA ‘feather-printing’. We also visited Petermann Island which was previously a stronghold for Adélie penguins, but is now becoming dominated by gentoos, so it is an interesting place to study. Tom and Ben had previously set-up two camera traps here so we went to check that they were working and to download the images. Heading to Pléneau Island
click for larger viewOne camera overlooked a penguin highway and so we got some great photos of the adults coming and going, busily feeding their hungry chicks. This will give us important information about the rate at which the adults are able to feed their young and how environmental conditions affect this each year. The other camera looked over the nest sites, and so this will tell us when breeding commences after the Antarctic winter, and how fast the adults are able to rear their chicks. We hope that by pairing the cameras we will be able to understand what affects the breeding success of the penguins and how gentoos are able to out-compete the Adélies at this site.

Over the next two days we visited two more colonies and got some more feathers for feather-printing. We also set-up two new camera traps, bringing the total number of cameras out in the field to 15. The new ones we put out were at Neko Harbour, a large (and particularly smelly) gentoo colony. Gentoo penguin at Heko Harbour
click for larger viewIt’s tough work setting up the camera traps, as you have to weight them down with large rocks to stop them blowing away over the fierce Antarctic winter. Somehow I ended up being the one carrying all the rocks, which meant I was particularly covered in guano by the end of the day. A quick hose down and a wash of all the kit with an antibacterial agent will prevent us spreading any infections, but it doesn’t get rid of the smell... my cabin mate wasn’t too impressed that night!

The ever-changing Antarctic weather prevented us from reaching any colonies on our fourth day in the field, but it gave us the chance to look over the photos from the camera traps that have been out for the last year. Chinstrap penguin
click for larger viewWe’ve got lots of great images and I’m really confident that we’ll learn a lot from them now and in the years to come. It also gave me the chance to reflect on how incredible this place is. The density of wildlife is just astounding. You can be sitting next to a huge colony of penguins watching humpback or minke whales surfacing in the distance whilst seals are hauled out on ice floes or twisting and turning in the shallows. And all this is accompanied by the creeks and groans of the myriad of glaciers which surround each bay.

The climate has warmed by a staggering 2.5 degrees C in this region over the last 60 years, and changes to the fauna are already being seen. I just hope that the beautiful animals and spectacular scenery is resilient, so that people can be as amazed by it as I have been, on my first (and hopefully not my last) trip to Antarctica.

Cuverville Island from above
click for larger view

Journal Entry #10
Antarctic Islands
February 24 2012

Ben and Tom continue their journey along the Antarctic Peninsula, encountering frenetic penguins, and have the experience of a lifetime with two humpback whales…

Ben and Tom at Neko Harbour
click for larger view

For the second half of our trip, we move north through the peninsula islands of Danco and Cuverville, with continent landings at Neko and Orne Harbours. The weather continues to hold and we are fortunate to have bright sunshine and very little wind. It makes for easy work setting out the rest of our camera array (it’s all so much easier when the wind isn’t blowing at 40 knots), and great views of the penguins (mostly gentoo and chinstrap towards this end of the peninsula).

Gentoo Penguins
click for larger view

Many of this season’s penguin chicks are getting ready to fledge, so are quite big by this stage. The parents are making daily trips to sea catching krill, and returning to feed hungry chicks. Having identified their offspring, a food chase ensues; penguin pandemonium as the chick hurtles down the beach after the parent. A packet of krill, held in the crop while the parent swims back to the colony, is the regurgitated reward for the persistent chick.

Humpback Whale
click for larger view

On our last day on the peninsula before we take the journey across the Drake Passage back port in Ushuaia, we encounter what turn out to be two extremely curious humpback whales.  They approach us, and spend a good couple of hours just checking out the strange looking people in the zodiacs, spy-hopping, diving under the boats, and at one stage even nudging the boats along.  We spend the time drifting with the engine cut, completely spell-bound at the size and control of these extremely graceful marine mammals.  It’s a fitting end to our trip, and we head back to Ushuaia, where Ben heads back to the UK. Gemma, an MSc student from the University of Southampton will join Tom for the final trip of the season.   

Booth Island Gentoo
click for larger view

Journal Entry #9
Peninsula Antarctica
February 24 2012

Ben and Tom continue their journey along the Antarctic Peninsula, setting up new time-lapse cameras.

Ben and Tom on Booth Iisland
click for larger view

The first few days of landings have been spectacular. Our first landing was at Booth Island. We were deposited by zodiac for a 3 hour landing, dropped off on shore with a couple of barrels of safety kit, and left to our own devices. On the zodiac ride in, we passed a Minke whale, and a couple of crab-eater seals hauled out on an ice flow. Minkes are rarely curious enough to come for a close look at boats, and tend to stay well clear – maybe they were intrigued by the orange hats? After landing we made a quick recce off the colonies of gentoo and chinstrap penguins, we chose two locations for our first cameras of the 2012 season. Overcast, lightly snowing with a temperature of about -3 degrees C, this was a tremendous start to our trip.

Yalours Adelie Penguins
click for larger view

As we steam through the Lemaire channel towards the southern part of the Peninsula, we move into especially interesting area for us. It represents one of the main battlegrounds between penguin species. More generalist in nature and slight larger bodied, gentoo penguins are starting to exploit the more southern reaches of the peninsula and its islands as climate warming takes effect, often at the expense of more ice-obligate Adelie penguins.

Paradise Harbour
click for larger view

Over the next couple of days we land at two sites a day, at places including Petermann Island, the Yalours Islands, Port Lockroy and Vernadsky. The wind has died away to nothing, and we are lucky to have bright sunshine, and sub zero temperatures. Perfect weather for us. At each site, we deploy time-lapse cameras, and collect feathers from which DNA analysis will be carried out back in London. At Port Lockroy, where there is a British base and historic site, we visit a camera that has been placed and maintained by the Antarctic Heritage Trust [please look up link and add in]. The camera has worked perfectly, showing gentoo colony dynamics over the months of January and February. A quick battery change, and the camera is set to run through the winter. The girls at the base treat us to a nice cup of tea, and some of their precious supply of biscuits. Surely this is how Antarctic field work should be done?

That evening, we move further north into the aptly named Paradise Bay.

Antarctic Circle
click for larger view

Journal Entry #8
Crossing the Circle
February 16 2012

Ben and Tom continue their journey south, crossing the Drake Passage towards Antarctica.

Fur Seal silhouette
click for larger view

It’s 8 am on the 16th of February, and we have just crossed latitude 66 degrees 60 minutes south; the Antarctic Circle. Since our departure from Ushuaia, the temperature has gradually fallen, and the wildlife out on the open ocean has started to change from the South American continent associated fauna, to truly marine species of the Southern Ocean, and the Antarctic continent. Aside from a slightly lumpy first night, we’ve been lucky to have relatively flat seas.

Crab eater seal hauled out on ice flow
click for larger view

Tom and I have spent the past couple of days building up the equipment which we’ll deploy in the coming days. New fixings for the cameras, a good dose of silicon sealant around the exposed parts, and battery testing to ensure that the cameras will be able to last the next 12 months. We’ve also been preparing and giving talks to the passengers on the ship, explaining what we hope to achieve over the next few weeks.

Humpback whale taking a breath
click for larger view

Nudging our way through the pack ice, we see crab-eater, Weddell and fur seals, and spend a fantastic 30 minutes with a pair of humpback whales, right on the edge of the pack, seemingly playing in the brash ice. The temperature has dropped well below freezing, as we turn north again to head up to the Lemaire channel. If the weather gods are smiling on us, tomorrow will be our first landing day.

 

Journal Entry #7
En route to the Peninsula
February 2012

Ushuaia
click for larger view

ZSL scientist Ben Collen heads down to Argentina to join Penguinologist Tom Hart for their trip down to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Tom and I have just met up in Ushuaia – referred to on the posters as ‘the end of the world’. Feels strange then, that it’s our starting off point. Ushuaia sits right on the edge of the Beagle channel, nestled among the mountains at the far Southern end of Tierra del Fuego. Despite it being the height of summer, the wind whistles over the glaciers making it bright and cold.

Ushuaia Sunset
click for larger view

Tom was looking a bit jaded from his long trip hiking around South Georgia, but has had some time to rest in Ushuaia. To our amusement, a good dose of proper English breakfast tea, smuggled in from the UK, has brought him round. We have had 5 days in Ushuaia, and today we catch our ship for the trip down to the Antarctic Peninsula, and are raring to go.

Centro Austral de Investigaciones Cientificas in Ushuaia
click for larger view

We’ve been preparing kit for the trip, making sure that all the cameras are up and running, and that we have all the appropriate bits and pieces for genetic sampling. We have also been designing a new more secure mounting system for the tripods which hold the cameras. Despite our realisation that the rigors of an Antarctic winter would profoundly test the fixings for the cameras that we deployed last year, we had no idea that they would suffer so much from the freeze-thaw cycles of temperature change that are present in South Georgia. A couple of changes should fix that.

Ushuaia Sunset
click for larger view

During our stay in Ushuaia, we’ve been hosted by the Centro Austral de Investigaciones Cientificas. We have had a series of meetings with the scientists here, and given a talk on the work that we are conducting on this trip. The talk went down really well; someone even bought their mum along (no, seriously), such was the draw of having ZSL’s premier penguinologist in town.

News from the peninsula is that the pack ice has been slow to break up this year, which may slow our progress south. We’ve met up with Duncan, one of the Expedition Leaders we worked with last year. He described his last crossing of the Drake Passage, one of the more infamous stretches of water in this region, as ‘the worst he has ever had’. Oh good. Let’s hope the wind calms down as we head out of port.

Journal Entry #6
Antarctic Winter Cameras
January 2012

Ben & Tom setting camera up among King Penguin colony Salibury Plain South Georgia.
click for larger view

We are designing a new scheme to monitor penguins in Antarctica in much more detail than ever before. Step one relies entirely on showing that cameras can survive the winter. Operating electrical equipment remotely, in logistically difficult places to access, which experience extreme temperatures is challenging for both scientists, and the equipment we use. You will therefore understand our nervousness as we returned to our sites: did our cameras manage to survive the Antarctic winter?

King Penguin colony Salibury Plain South Georgia.
click for larger view

Tom has now been able to visit two of our sites on South Georgia, and colleagues from [Oceanites, British Antarctic Survey and naturalists on Quark ships have visited the remaining sites on the South Shetland Islands. We have had some fantastic results. Apart from one camera, all survived the winter! And even that one recorded for four months before it fell over. The results are fantastic and mean that we can expand the network this season around the Antarctic Peninsula. There are a few examples here, but we’ll put together a time lapse video for the next blog.

The king penguin photos from Salisbury Plain, South Georgia, show three examples of how a colony changes as the season progresses. These provide us with several different bits of useful information. We can see when penguins arrived at the site to start breeding, and we can see how many arrive each season. We can also see how many chicks are around, and get some insight into their behaviour. Antarctic Fur seal.
click for larger viewOne of the behavioural indicators we hope to get from our photos is the timing of crèching (chicks huddling together, which you can see in the third photo) and the size of crèches in relation to weather and temperature patterns. These photos illustrate how we can do this quite well, although we’ll probably use more cameras per colony in future to answer these specific behavioural questions.

One camera was only able to record part of the season, as it was blown off its mount. The katabatic winds that gust in the regions in which we are monitoring are incredibly strong, reaching speeds well in excess of 100 mph. We’re working on a more secure mount to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Or perhaps the camera was knocked off by a marauding fur or elephant seal? As you can see, they are pretty fierce…

Journal Entry #5
Felt Really at Home
November 26th 2011

View over to King Edward Point
click for larger view

We’ve just been picked up with the other rat teams and brought back to King Edward Point. Eggshell-Mike, Ron and I have a good catch up over a cup of tea and find out what each other have been up to. Also today was the memorial service for Frank Wild. He was the hero of several expeditions with Earnest Shackleton, including the famous one where he was left to keep the team on Elephant Island alive until help arrived. He lived in relative obscurity in a mining town in South Africa for the rest of his life, and his ashes were found in a house and brought down to South Georgia to be buried where he felt really at home.

Journal Entry #4
I Feel a Bit Special
November 22nd 2011

I suspect most people aren’t as excited as I am by penguins, but the aim of our project, to record how penguins are responding to growing threats in the region, is really exciting. Working on the rat eradication project, a growing problem for the bird life of South Georgia, means that we are making strides towards penguin conservation. Also, it’s my birthday, which meant we had a good dram of whiskey with dinner. Andy cooked a very good pasta slop, and the hut felt quite festive. At the evening safety sched (a round-robin radio call with specific times for each team to report in), it feels like most of the Southern Ocean is wishing me a Happy Birthday, so I feel a bit special...

Journal Entry #3
It’s Paradise!
November 20th 2011

View over to King Edward Point
click for larger view

It’s been a busy week. We’ve been setting loads of traps for the rats around the coast. They have only just started catching – a bit worrying as there are meant to be loads of rats here. We’re also trying to collect rat poo and samples from skua pellets to try and gather more information and gather a larger sample for the rat genetics work, which is being undertaken by the Government of South Georgia. Meanwhile, we’ve been using the opportunity to visit loads of penguin colonies around the Barff Peninsula – mostly gentoo penguins. I’ve collected a load of broken eggshells that are a result of eggs being snatched by skua (a bit like a seabird version of an eagle), and hundreds of feathers from around the colonies. We will process these in the lab over the Antarctic winter. We’re getting to a lot of sites this year, which is really valuable. We also hope to be able to return to some of these sites next year to see how penguin populations are changing over time.

Life in the field is great – we have stunning views, with lots of amazing wildlife. We’re trekking quite a few miles each day over the mountains so it’s tiring but doing me the world of good after most of a year in the office. Happiness revolves around the basics – lots of food and a warm sleeping bag at night. In the evenings it’s great to catch up with the other teams when we report in and to have an hour off just sitting and looking at the wildlife. The hill behind our hut is a white chinned petrel colony, so as dusk falls they start chirping and the hill comes alive with movement. It’s paradise!

Coral Hut at Coral Bay
click for larger view

Journal Entry #2
City Slicker
November 13th 2011

We’ve just been dropped off in Coral Bay, South Georgia – it’s across Cumberland Bay from King Edward Point and really scenic. It’s a little horseshoe cove with a scattering of elephant seals, a few fur seals and some lost penguins every now and then. There are loads of skuas, giant petrels and sooty albatrosses flying overhead- we’ve chosen an amazing spot!

We’ve landed our kit by zodiac (flat-bottomed inflatable speedboat) in loads of boxes that we drag up the slope to the hut. There are a few huts which act as refuges around South Georgia, and we’re lucky enough to be staying in one of the most scenic. While lugging boxes up the hill, I fell into several of the muddy holes peppering the hill. Andy called me a “city slicker”.

Journal Entry #1
All at Sea
November 8th 2011

The MV Pharos SG
click for larger viewI’m at sea on the MV Pharos SG. I’ve flown in from Santiago, had a night in Stanley (Falkland Islands) and then joined the ship. The Pharos is the fisheries patrol vessel for South Georgia, and has a remit to deter vessels from fishing illegally in the area. She’s about 60 metres long, quite comfortable but rolls a fair bit.

It’s a great crew, all very friendly and open, showing us around the ship and always welcoming us onto the bridge. My task over the coming weeks is to help out on the South Georgia rat eradication project. Although the whaling and sealing industries have long gone, their legacy remains. Introduced on the ships of sealers and whalers in the 19th and 20th Centuries, rats have had a devastating impact on local seabird populations.Today we started to make detailed plans about landing sites and where to camp. I’m excited about the prospect of getting back out into the field on South Georgia. I’ll start off on the Barf Peninsula, which is one of the most beautiful spots in the world, although anywhere on South Georgia is paradise!Old whaling station
click for larger view

So, as usual, the point of this trip this season is to monitor penguins and to get to more sites across the Antarctic Peninsula and its surrounding islands, and set up more monitoring stations. However, for the next couple of months I’m primarily a rat catcher. When South Georgia was the capital of whaling in the Southern Ocean, the amount of whaling traffic without any bio-security introduced rats to the island. This has wiped out the ground nesting birds on many parts of South Georgia. The aim is to get rid of rats while they are in relatively small, isolated populations before the glaciers retreat totally and allow them to move around more of South Georgia.

South Georgia Island
click for larger viewAs part of this, we’re doing trapping and genetics to work out the population structure of rats. As with penguins, knowing about how the population is faring tells you important things about areas in which rats can interbreed and which do not. However, whereas with penguins the point is to conserve them effectively, with the rats we are trying to work out the units to eradicate at any one time. The good thing is that we’ll be passing loads of penguin colonies. When we do, I’ll be getting samples and setting up monitoring sites.

We’re due into King Edward Point in two days, then we have a couple of days training and then we’re off into the field. I’m working with Andy from the South Sandwich Islands trip earlier this year, so we should be fairly slick. That’s the hope, at least.

SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

Penguin Plunge includes four penguin species - Humboldt, Gentoo, Rockhopper and Kings. Two of which face serious challenges in the wild.

GENTOO PENGUIN

Conservation Status: Near Threatened - some populations have increased, but rapid declines in key populations are suspected to be driving a global population decline.

Range: Antarctica to islands off South America

About: Gentoos are the fastest underwater swimming penguins and can reach speeds of 36 kilometres per hour. You can recognize them by the wide white stripe that extends across the top of their heads and their bright orange-red bills.