The Emperor Penguin Colony, an endangered animal, was accidentally caught on a satellite camera 'hiding' in Antarctica. The visual image is not only eye-catching but also astounding as it is the first time it can be identified from outer space.
Is Peter Fretwell, a geographic information officer at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) who noticed something strange in the photo taken by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite.
Initially, Fretwell was only on duty as usual, namely monitoring environmental conditions in Antarctica. He saw the loss of sea ice in some of the photos taken by the satellite.
Fretwell was amazed by the brown spots on the white expanse of Antarctica. What a surprise when he realized that these spots were colonies of Emperor Penguins.
"I could see what looked like very small brown smudges on the ice," Fretwell said as quoted by Space, Tuesday (24/1/2023).
The discovery of the Emperor Penguin colony is made even clearer by this high-resolution photo taken from the Maxar WorldView-3 satellite. But the photo shoot was different, in October.
The animal, which has the Latin name Aptenodytes forsteri, can be seen clearly from outer space. An Emperor Penguin can reach 100 cm in height and weigh up to 45 kg.
As the best diver, the Emperor Penguin can be recognized easily, namely the combination of black on the head to the entire back of the body, white on the stomach, and yellow around the neck.
In fact, Fretwell found the largest penguin colony last December. But he backed off and put it on hold until it coincided with Penguin Awareness Day on January 20.
Meanwhile, these Emperor Penguin colonies are often far away and difficult to study. However, with the discovery of BAS scientists, it reveals the fact that there is a possibility of about 20% more than estimates regarding these endemic animals in Antarctica.
Emperor penguins breed exclusively on solid sea ice. This dependence on sea ice makes these animals endangered, considering that Antarctica is increasingly melting as climate change warms there.
"Last year we had minimum sea ice margins in Antarctica, and this year is even worse, for the second year in a row. It is estimated that we may lose at least 80% of Emperor Penguin colonies before the end of the century," said Fretwell.