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National Geographic Live presents Dr. Heather Lynch at the Jack Singer Concert Hall on April 19 and 20. (Werklund Centre)<\/p>\nWe may make jokes comparing Calgary\u2019s winter weather to the southern pole, but it\u2019s a misconception that penguins live in the most frigid conditions on earth.<\/p>\n
Not to say it\u2019s balmy either though.<\/p>\n
National Geographic Live is presenting researcher Dr. Heather Lynch at the Jack Singer Concert Hall on April 19 and 20.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of our fieldwork is on the Antarctic Peninsula,\u201d she says. \u201cWhich is actually much warmer than it would be in Calgary during the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The National Geographic Explorer and Stony Brook University professor has spent more than a decade studying the population dynamics of Antarctic wildlife, with a particular focus on penguins.<\/p>\n
A dynamic part of her presentation at the Werklund Centre is the smell of penguin guano.<\/p>\n
Guano is a slurry of defecation and urine left on the land surrounding penguin groups. It\u2019s an incredible tool for science as it allows researchers to track penguin populations more accurately from space.<\/p>\n
National Geographic Live presents Dr. Heather Lynch at the Jack Singer Concert Hall on April 19 and 20. (Werklund Centre)<\/p>\n
This technique allows scientists to monitor nearly 1,000 penguin colonies across Antarctica, including many that have never been visited by humans, dramatically improving the ability to track population changes and conservation threats.<\/p>\n
And as you can imagine, it stinks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sent the guano off to the world\u2019s leading scent lab\u2026 and they extracted basically a chemical recipe for how to make penguin guano smell,\u201d Lynch says. \u201cAnd then we worked with a chemist here at Stony Brook University to create what\u2019s like a penguin guano perfume.\u201d <\/p>\n
She is transporting it to Calgary in a bottle that looks just like perfume, which she expects should cause no issues at airport security.<\/p>\n
Audience members can expect more information on populations and guano research, as well as a closer look at how penguins relate to each other.<\/p>\n
In the wild, penguins aren\u2019t the constantly cuddly creatures people imagine. Lynch compares a penguin colony to rush hour on the New York subway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all together,\u201d she says, \u201cbut they\u2019re really trying hard to stay out of each other\u2019s space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her research has even revealed that penguins recognize problem neighbours. When one bird repeatedly steals nesting stones, the response escalates until the rightful owner briefly abandons its eggs to chase the thief off.<\/p>\n