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A British team will be spending five months in Antarctica to count penguins.

The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) is sending two teams 9,000 miles south to two small remote islands in Antarctica.

The job is based at Port Lockroy on Goudier Island and Blaiklock Island Refuge.

One team will travel to Goudier Island in October, which is only the size of a football pitch.

Responsibilities include looking after the world’s southernmost post office which is also a museum and monitoring more than 1,000 gentoo penguins by counting nests, eggs and chicks.

Gentoo penguins are found on the Antarctic Peninsula, Subantarctic islands, southern continental coasts and islands, and several South Atlantic islands.

They are the third largest penguin, after the emperor and king.

The conditions on Goudier Island include constant daylight, sub-zero temperatures and no running water or a flushing toilet.

The team's training included a talk from a penguinologist.

For the first time, a second group will then later travel to Blaiklock Island Refuge, UKAHT’s smallest and most inaccessible site.

The team will need to work in “inhospitable conditions” to complete repairs to make the site safe and restore its historic buildings.

Blaiklock Island is a high island which still has buildings that were used by scientists in the 1950s.

“We have selected the team, not just for their love for Antarctica and a desire to preserve and protect its human history, but also for their resilience too,” said UKAHT CEO Camilla Nichol.

“While the sea ice and ocean currents can make reaching this remote island very challenging, it feels critical that we restore it now so we don’t lose this little time capsule forever."