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FAQ
How big is the entire colony?
The Snow Hill island Emperor colony is split into a few distinct sub-colonies of a few hundred penguins each, but the entire colony has a population of around 2000. This colony is relatively small compared to the others. Below is an image of one of these groups captured with the drone, which is made up of hundreds of individually captured images stitched together.
Emperor penguin sub-colony on Snow Hill island, which is a part of the image dataset used in this counting project
Why this colony?
This island is far from the only place where Emperor Penguins are found in Antarctica, but this colony is the most northern breeding site - which means that it's also the warmest; and therefore on the front line of climate change. As temperatures continue to rise in Antarctica, the conditions on the coasts further south will begin to resemble the conditions on Snow Hill island. With the sea ice habitat of the penguins melting, tracking the populations (and unfortunately, their decline), on this island is important for predicting the future population change of the species as a whole.
Map of nearby Emperor penguin colonies in the Antarctic Peninsula, and the entire Antarctic coast
Why don't you count the penguins yourselves?
We have! But, this is science; and in science, you can't just rely on one person's opinion. There's human error in everything, and having lots or people do something will give a much more reliable result. There are also hundreds of images which requires lots of time, which is better spent writing papers, programming, or planning the next trip to Antarctica.
Why can't AI count the penguins?
It will! Volunteers identifying the penguins will allow scientists to use these counts as training data to build reliable machine learning algorithms that will be able to track Emperor penguin populations all over the Antarctic coasts. Training data is a set of completed identifications that is given to a machine learning algorithm to learn what is and isn't a penguin. This process is called supervised learning. Then, the trained model can be used to identify penguins in any similar images. Currently, there is no training data or existing trained model that can be used to count Emperor penguins from above, so this project will be very valuable in developing penguin-counting technology. Having lots of people count the penguins is especially important, as this won't make the trained model biased towards any one person's opinion.
Can we build artificial platforms to support Emperor penguins?
This idea has already been floating around as a solution to help protect polar bears in the Arctic. However, it doesn't seem to be viable for multiple reasons. The main reason is that the Antarctic is extremely remote, and it's very difficult, costly, and carbon-intensive to develop infrastructure in the harsh polar conditions. Aside from this, it would also not be very helpful, as the sea ice does not only function as a platform, but also as a part of the polar food web. Sea ice is a habitat for micro-organisms and algae that grow on the underside of the ice. In the polar regions, algae has evolved to have ice-binding proteins, which makes sea ice its ideal place to grow. This attracts phytoplankton which feed on the algae. Phytoplankton are the foundation of the polar food web, bringing fish and other marine life to the area for the penguins to feed on. An artificial platform would not have this ecological function and would not be a good home for the penguins.
AI-generated image of an artificial Emperor penguin colony platform
Why do penguins live in Antarctica?
Penguins are adapted to the freezing environments of the Antarctic. There, they are safe from large land predators, which otherwise would be a threat for a flightless and slow-moving bird. The coasts of Antarctica are also full of delicious fish, plankton and krill, which they can easily access from the sea ice. They have also never been hunted by humans in Antarctica due to their remoteness and charm. However, you might be surprised to find out that there are a few penguin colonies on the coasts of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand (but these are not Emperor penguins).
So why don't penguins live in the Arctic?
You might think that we don't have penguins in the Arctic because of predators like polar bears, but the Arctic was actually full of cute and clumsy penguin-like flightless birds for around 20 million years - the Great Auk. Unfortunately they were hunted to extinction by humans in the 1800s (because they were flightless and easy to catch). Just 200 years ago, we may have seen penguins in Greenland and Iceland, and their fossils have been found as far as Spain, the east coast of the USA, and the UK!
An illustration of the Great Auk
Polar Observatory is supported by the British Antarctic Survey, WWF and the Antarctic Research Trust