{"id":717508,"date":"2026-07-29T15:52:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717508\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:52:28","slug":"experts-spent-30-years-studying-penguin-poop-from-space-and-found-something-really-weird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/717508\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts spent 30 years studying penguin poop from space \u2013 and found something really weird"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climate change is worsening the diets of Antarctic Ad\u00e9lie penguins, according to a new study published in Current Biology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US researchers used three decades of data from satellite imagery to study the changing colour of the penguins\u2019 faeces.<\/p>\n

They found a direct correlation between the poop \u2013 signalling the amount of fish in the penguins\u2019 diets \u2013 and the volume of sea ice present near their colonies.<\/p>\n

The general decline in sea ice in the Southern Ocean during the study period was linked to more krill in the penguins\u2019 diets. This, in turn, was linked to decreased survival prospects for individual chicks and declining colony sizes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSatellites enabled us to do something that would otherwise be impossible,\u201d said Dr Casey Youngflesh<\/a>, an assistant professor at Clemson University, South Carolina, in the US, and the study\u2019s lead author.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe innovation wasn\u2019t the satellite technology itself, but the ability to leverage these decades of satellite imagery with modern geochemical, statistical and computational tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one intended for these satellites to be used to monitor penguins, but now we\u2019re able to use them in these novel ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youngflesh and other researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), NASA and Stony Brook University, New York State, analysed changes in Antarctic Ad\u00e9lie penguin guano from 1984 to 2013.<\/p>\n

\"AA graphic from Clemson University demonstrates their study findings; that the colour of penguin poop can indicate important changes to ice levels and ecological change in the Antarctic – Credit: Casey Youngflesh, Clemson University<\/p>\n

They were able to detect the spectral signature of the poop \u2013 meaning, the pattern of electromagnetic radiation that identifies a chemical or compound \u2013\u00a0to work out what they had been eating and how their diets had changed over time.<\/p>\n

To work out which shade of faeces corresponded with which food source, Youngflesh collected penguin poop samples in Antarctica himself, before analysing them in the lab.<\/p>\n

But, in simple terms, penguins that predominantly eat krill tend to have pinker poo, while those that eat fish produce whiter guano.<\/p>\n

By comparing those findings against spectral analysis of three decades\u2019 worth of satellite photos, the team could draw conclusions about the evolution of the penguins\u2019 diet without having to repeatedly visit each site on the frozen continent over multiple years.<\/p>\n

Though krill is a suitable food source for Ad\u00e9lie penguins, the crustaceans make for a less calorific dinner than their preferred quarry of silverfish.<\/p>\n

Previous studies have shown that chicks fed with silverfish tend to be more robust, and therefore have a greater chance of survival through Antarctica\u2019s harsh winter than their krill-eating brethren.<\/p>\n

Decreasing sea ice means there are more krill in the penguins\u2019 diet because there are fewer silverfish for them to eat.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because silverfish use sea ice to deposit eggs, so having less of it hampers their breeding. Warmer waters also impact the health and populations of silverfish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Concentrating on the changing diet of Ad\u00e9lie penguins also has wider benefits for our understanding of the health of other Antarctic ecosystems, said study co-author Dr Michael Polito<\/a>, an associate professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n

The birds \u201care an iconic species breeding all around the continent of Antarctica,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey act as a \u2018canary in the coal mine\u2019, and our study illustrates how recent warming has disrupted the Antarctic marine food web they rely on to the detriment of many of their populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the future does not bode well for Ad\u00e9lie penguins, based on the study\u2019s link between sea ice and the birds\u2019 krill consumption.<\/p>\n

Since the final year of the study period in 2013, sea ice has either been lower or disappeared entirely from their ranges.<\/p>\n

Consequently, it seems that krill will be on the menu for your average Ad\u00e9lie penguin for some time to come \u2013 for which they will also be competing against many other species like whales, seals and humans.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Climate change is worsening the diets of Antarctic Ad\u00e9lie penguins, according to a new study published in Current…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-717508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}