Icy Insights: Duties Of A Penguin Researcher On The Edge Of Antarctica

Of the 18 species of penguin, only two – the emperor and the Adélie - make the Antarctic continent their true home. In the Austral (southern hemisphere) spring and summer, Adélie penguins breed around the entire coast and small islands of Antarctica, in places where there is exposed rock that allows them to build nests out of pebbles. The emperor penguin is the only species to breed on the sea ice surrounding Antarctica during the harsh austral winter (winter in the southern hemisphere). Emperor penguins arrive at their breeding colonies in late March to April. They lay eggs in May to June and the chicks fledge in December to January.

During this frigid winter, temperatures can drop to below -50°C in some areas and winds can reach 300 km per hour. Despite these harsh conditions, there are committed individuals who not only study Antarctic life through the chilly summer, but also brave the Antarctic winter to learn more about the impacts of pressures such as climate change on the lives and breeding of these iconic flightless birds, on their habitat, and on the other wildlife they live alongside.

Around 5 km off the shore of the Antarctic content, on the Pointe Géologie archipelago in the coastal area of Adélie Coast, Dumont d’Urville (DDU) station was created in 1956, specialising in the study of birds, among other scientific subjects such as glaciology. The first study of Emperor penguins here also began in the early 1950s - since then, the colony has been monitored every year, despite the Pointe Géologie archipelago temperature dropping to -35°C!

Eight species of birds (including the penguins) and one species of seal breed here. The monitoring area may be quite small, from 15 km to the West, to 8km to the North of the station, but it is mighty! 10,000 Adélies can be found here, as well as snow petrels, Wilson’s storm petrels and Antarctic skuas.

Out of the DDU, supported by WWF, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) are gathering data on the life, death, reproduction behaviour and winter distribution of birds and marine mammals. As sentinels of global change, what insight can these species give us into the state of our planet, and how can we advocate for them? Data is key.

This year, in 2024, a valiant volunteer joined the data gathering team. Natacha Planque is working with CNRS Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé and Institut Polaire Français, supported by WWF. Take a step into her busy and varied life as a penguin researcher…

When it comes to penguins, Natacha is supporting a global study on Emperor and Adélie penguins regarding their demography – what can we learn about the dynamics of populations during the year and across the decades?

By land and air, Natacha is helping to continue the annual Adélie counts that began 1989. More than 25 islands are monitored by helicopter and by foot. 3 counts are made annually to determine the number of breeding adults and the number of chicks to confirm reproductive success.

This year, the team recorded more than 38,000 couples of nesting birds and more than 34,000 chicks. Based on sea-ice extent and weather conditions, Adélie penguin reproduction success can be very variable across the years but the couples count has been rising since 1985 across the archipelago. Sadly, this trend is not representative of the species as a whole – 1/3 of Adélie penguin colonies may be in decline by 2060. Adélie penguins are affected directly and indirectly by reduced sea ice, among other threats. Directly by habitat loss and indirectly by a reduction in food (krill) which is also dependent on sea ice.

The emperor penguins’ story here is more representative of the species as a whole. The colony in Pointe Géologie is composed of 10,000 individuals, with usually 3,000 to 4,000 chicks each year. Natacha surveys the emperor penguin arrivals in March and departures of females in May by counting the mass movement columns and identifying the corridors they used (between which islands). The colony has been decreasing since 1952, with a loss of 26% of nesting couples. This is the case in other Antarctic populations, mainly due to diminishing sea-ice extent and the ecosystem that depends on it.

Despite the stark data, Natacha can still find some joy as she surveys the emperors across the year.

The team collect non-viable emperor penguin eggs (dropped by the parents and unfortunately frozen by the cold conditions) to keep track of the reproductive success by recording egg failure. Natacha was responsible for bringing 100 eggs to the lab. Here the length, width and mass of the eggs can also be measured, providing data on how egg characteristics vary between years according to environmental conditions.

Once out of the egg, early life can be perilous for emperor penguins. Natacha is gathering data on chick kidnapping!

During August, emperor adults can be seen wandering around the colony, having lost their own egg or chick. During this time, they can become aggressive, likely due to a hormonal surplus in preparation for returning from sea to nourish the chick that is sadly not there. Driven by this, the now chick-less adults set out to get one! More than 20 adults can try to steal a single chick, as small as 300g. Sometimes, they win. But sadly, they seldom manage to keep the chick alive.

It’s believed fluctuations in this behaviour and its frequency each year since 2005 may illustrate issues with food availability in the Antarctic Ocean. When chich kidnapping is more prevalent, could this indicate that more adults have lost their chicks due to reduced food availability? The research is still ongoing.

Not all of Natacha’s duties are quite as exhilarating as counting penguins from the sky and hair-raising as kidnappings. One of her key winter missions is to keep detection antennas running. Some emperors are equipped with pit-tags, a system that works like microchips for cats. Approximately 8% of the population are monitored this way, with 300 new chicks pit-tagged every year. Antennas are set in the ice and snow and emperors taking this path are detected by the system. This system allows to monitor passively and without disturbance the emperors during the whole year.

With the diverse data gathered by committed people like Natacha, WWF and partners can better understand emperor and Adélie penguins and the state of the Antarctic. With this understanding, we can advocate for further habitat and ecosystem protection and for stronger action on climate change.