ScienceDaily (Nov. 8,
2012) — While about 2500 chicks of emperor penguins are raised this year
at the colony close to the French Dumont d'Urville Station, two new colonies
totalling 6000 chicks have just been observed about 250 km away, near Mertz
Glacier by the scientists Dr André Ancel and Dr Yvon Ancel, from the Institut
Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien in Strasbourg (CNRS and Université de
Strasbourg). Since a pair of emperor penguins may only successfully raise one chick
a year, the population of breeding emperor penguins in this area of the
Antarctic can therefore be estimated to more than about 8500 pairs, about three
fold that previously thought.
The two new colonies
have been revealed on 1st and 2nd November, during the late winter season trip
of the MSS Astrolabe1 towards Dumont
d'Urville. They are located on the winter sea ice. This ice surrounds the
remains of the Mertz Glacier, from which a large ice wall, 80 km long, 40 km
wide and 300-400 m thick has separated. These may be two sub-populations
originating from the initial Mertz colony which, following the Mertz Glacier
break, are attempting to settle again on favorable surroundings. One accounts
for about 2000 chicks and the second for about 4000 chicks.
Dr André Ancel had
suspected the existence of an emperor penguin colony near the Mertz Glacier
since 1999, when with Dr Barbara Wienecke (Australian Antarctic Division), they
observed thousands of emperor penguins going back and forth in the Mertz
glacier area. Dr Peter Fretwell and Dr Phil Trathan of the British Antarctic
Survey localised this colony in 2009 based on the images from space of emperor
penguin nitrogen dejections on the sea ice. However, the break of the Mertz
glacier in 2010 questioned the fate of this colony. New satellite images
obtained since then suggested that the birds might attempt breeding on
different sites. Over the last 13 years all French attempts to find the birds
had failed, due to the harsh winter conditions and the summer disappearance of
the sea ice where the Emperors breed.
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