Penguin Watch EY

Meet the Penguin Watch EY research team

Tom Hart - Tom is a research fellow at the University of Oxford, and apart from being a penguinologist, his interest is large scale conservation challenges involving tech. Much like a supercomputer, he gets faster when cool. As a consequence, he can often be found thinking about stuff in the Southern Ocean.

Fiona Jones - Fiona completed her DPhil at the University of Oxford in March 2020, using the data generated by Penguin Watch to investigate penguin population dynamics. She has now moved to Oxford Sparks, where she spearheads much of Oxford University's engagement with research. In her spare time she enjoys figure skating, lindyhop and photography.

Ignacio (Nacho) Juarez - Nacho is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford. His aim is to use the data generated by Penguin Watch to understand the ecology and impacts of climate change and other human-induced alterations. Hopefully this can give us clues as to how penguins are responding respond and which measures can be taken. When not coding, Nacho can be found taking wildlife pictures (IG: @leeburro), playing boardgames and generally with friends.

Laure Cugniere - Passionate for anything biodiversity, Laure is Penguin Watch Project Coordinator, based at Oxford University. She does a bit of everything for the project like social media, fieldwork logistics, education material design and fundraising. Happier in warmer wild places like a Galápagos penguin, she is our lifeline to home when we are in the field.

Contact the research team using @researchers in the project Talk.

The Moderators - AvastMeHearties, gardenmaeve and yshish (contact using @moderators) - Not sure if that's an adult or a chick, penguin or oddly penguin-shaped rock? Our dedicated team of moderators make Penguin Watch what it is and we would be nothing without them! They can often be found on the 'Talk' forum, answering your questions and sharing their wealth of Penguin Watch knowledge.

The Zooniverse
Penguin Watch is just one of over 80 live Zooniverse projects. 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's goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. The research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications.

Check out the team of researchers and developers responsible for the Zooniverse at www.zooniverse.org/about/team

Mike Polito, Louisiana State University
Mike and his students are ecologists from the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University (LSU). LSU is a leading public research university that seeks to advance our understanding of the interaction between complex human and natural systems, and to find solutions to environmental problems that affect coastal and marine ecosystems.

Heather Lynch, Stony Brook University
We collaborate extensively with Heather and her team at The Lynch Lab, Stony Brook University to monitor sea ice extent and create decision-making tools for policy makers. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU), Stony Brook is a leading public research university in the Northeast United States.

Oceanites
Oceanites is the original penguin counting team! They have helped extensively in servicing the cameras at a range of field sites. Oceanites is a nonprofit, science and educational foundation, which intends to foster the conservation of the world’s oceans, islands, and their wildlife, as well as a better appreciation of the sensitive connections we humans have to our watery globe.

Andrea Raya Rey, Austral Center for Scientific Research
Andrea is a researcher at the Austral Center for Scientific Research (CADIC-CONICET) Argentina. Andrea is a seabird conservation biologist. She lives just 1,000 km away from the Antactic Peninsula, and as close as 70 km away from the nearest penguin colony. Andrea enjoy isolated location such as the subantarctic islands where huge colonies of rockhopper penguins live. Sharing at least part of the year with penguins in those magical places help her to think better conservation actions to improve penguin and humans living in harmony.

Kelton McMahon, University of Rhode Island
Kelton and his students are interdisciplinary oceanographers from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography (URI-GSO). The McMahon Ocean Ecogeochemistry Laboratory at URI-GSO studies the structure, function, resilience, and adaptation of marine ecosystems through the lens of food web dynamics. They are particularly interested in how climate change and human-environment interactions alter those relationships.

Belinda Cannell, The University of Western Australia
Belinda is research fellow at The School of Biological Sciences at The University of Western Australia. A Little Penguin colony just 50 km south of Western Australia’s capital, Perth, is only 500 m offshore from a rapidly growing urban area. It has been the subject of many studies but the longest running study has been monitoring the breeding of a subset of penguins that use nestboxes first placed on the island in 1986. Breeding penguins spend the day either on the nest incubating eggs or guarding young chicks, or at sea feeding. They only return at night, and we know very little about the behaviour when they come back to their nest. The motion-camera images will help us understand what they do outside their nest. But more than that, we can gather information on a potential predator of penguin eggs and chicks, the Australian raven.

The Tawaki Project
The Tawaki Project is studying the breeding biology and foraging ecology of the enigmatic tawaki (or Fiordland penguin) in the rainforests of New Zealand’s Southwest. Very little was known about the species even though it was suspected that its population was in decline. However, Tawaki Project nest monitoring since 2014 paints a more promising picture. Tawaki may even be increasing in numbers. The time-lapse data analysed here, will help us understand how often adult tawaki return to feed their chicks, and will give us an idea about breeding success.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL)
We work with the fantastic Al Davies, who has developed satellite-linked cameras and more user controlled cameras that can make decisions on board. Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats.

NOAA
We have provided cameras to collaborators at the Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center to monitor penguins at their long-term research site on King George Island. The AERD is recognized as a leader in the development of ecosystem-based fisheries management and maintains several long-term monitoring studies in the Antarctic Peninsula region.

British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
Colleagues at the British Antarctic Survey use cameras to monitor local penguin populations around the Southern Ocean. BAS is one of the world's leading environmental research centers and is responsible for the UK's national scientific activities in Antarctica.

Quark Expeditions
We are hugely indebted to Quark Expeditions for early adoption of the project. Not only do they get us where we need to go, but they have also fundraised for us and been enormously supportive of the project. Their knowledge and experience has helped make the project all that it is today. Support your local Expedition Leader!

Darwin Initiative
Generous funding by the Darwin Initiative has played an integral part in the start-up and continuation of this project. The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide.

John Ellerman Foundation
We have been generously funded by the John Ellerman Foundation for Penguin Watch and Seabird Watch. If you are trying to monitor seabirds, particularly in UK overseas territories, please get in touch with us, as we can help thanks to their generosity!

Our volunteers
Most importantly, YOU are a member of the Penguin Watch team! Without the valuable contributions of our volunteers our research would not be possible. So thank you very much.

Support a Penguinologist!

We depend on generous donations to run our research and expedition. In addition to supporting with our data analysis, you can also help us by donating or fundraising:

• from anywhere in the world: https://www.development.ox.ac.uk/penguins
• from North America: https://www.oxfordna.org/donate