Penguin Mega-Colony Discovered Using Satellites and Drones, Raising Scientists’ Hopes

Scientists recently discovered a “supercolony” of more than 1,500,000 Adélie penguins in the Danger Islands, a chain of remote, rocky islands off the Antarctic Peninsula’s northern tip. Rachael Herman, Stony Brook U./ Louisiana State U.

Scientists have discovered a “supercolony” of Adélie penguins in Antarctica’s remote Danger Islands, raising hopes that the bird’s population isn’t declining as rapidly as previously thought.

The discovery, which is documented in a paper published recently in Scientific Reports, came after Stony Brook University biologist Heather Lynch and NASA’s Mathew Schwaller noticed apparent guano stains in satellite images of the Danger Islands, a remote chain of normally ice-locked islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, in 2014.