Emperor penguins: New colony found after satellite images spot their poo
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Scientists have found a brand new colony of these guys
Poo: it's smelly, it's full of germs, it's really pretty gross. But it can also lead to incredible scientific discoveries.
Scientists have discovered a brand new colony of Emperor penguins in Antarctica, and it's all thanks to their number twos, which were spotted from space.
The colony at Verleger Point, West Antarctica has been announced to mark Penguin Awareness Day, and is home to around 500 birds.
Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey say this brings the total of known emperor penguin sites around the continent to 66.
How was the new Emperor penguin colony found?
See those brown patches on the ice? That's what led the scientists to their discovery!
Satellites were taking pictures of Antarctica, and scientists spotted big patches of guano (penguin poo) in an area where they hadn't seen it before.
The pictures were taken as part of the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite mission.
They then compared the images to high resolution shots taken by what is thought to be the world's most advanced satellite - the MAXAR WorldView3.
If there's enough of it, guano is fairly easy to spot from space, as the dark colours contrast against the bright white snow and ice.
They're only found in Antarctica
They're the largest of all 18 known species of penguin - makes sense given their name!
They have lots of features to help them fight against the cold, including colonies working together to keep warm - they huddle together, and keep moving their positions so that no penguin spends too long on the outside
They're incredibly good divers - the deepest recorded was 564 metres, which is nearly two times the height of the Shard, Europe's tallest building
Emperor penguins work together to keep warm in big huddles
Lead author of the research Dr Peter Fretwell said: "This is an exciting discovery. The new satellite images of Antarctica's coastline have enabled us to find many new colonies."
But he added: "Whilst this is good news, like many of the recently discovered sites, this colony is small and in a region badly affected by recent sea ice loss."
Why are Emperor penguins in danger?
It's all about climate change.
Emperor penguins are the only type of penguin that give birth to their young on sea ice, as opposed to on land.
Mums lay the eggs, and dads keep them warm before they hatch
Rising temperatures caused by climate change melts the ice, giving the penguins a lot less space to have and raise their babies.
This is having a drastic impact on their population.
It's thought that 80% of Emperor penguins will be gone by end of century.
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