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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Penguins in Decline? Study goes on- BBC Cambridgeshire

'Monty and Mabel' Adélie penguins monitored at Christmas

Adelie penguin on Rothera Point in the AntarcticAdélie penguins are often said to resemble little men in dinner jackets

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A Cambridge-based scientist is spending her Christmas monitoring real-life "Monty and Mabel" penguins - a species now well-known after featuring in a UK store's festive television advert.
Stacey Adlard, who works for the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, is spending five months monitoring Adélie penguins in the Antarctic.

The zoological field assistant hopes to discover why the species is thriving in some areas but in decline in others.

She is currently based on Signy Island.

Signy, in the South Orkney Islands, lies on a latitude of approximately 60°S. It is in the southern hemisphere where temperatures - in what is now midsummer - average between -4°C and +4°C.

Stacey Adlard with Adelie penguins on Signy IslandStacey Adlard is monitoring the Adélie penguins during their breeding season
Signy Island
Stacey Adlard is monitoring the Adélie penguins during their breeding season
Signy Island
The Signy Island research centre caters for up to eight scientists and support staff
The Antarctic continent and surrounding islands are the main breeding grounds of the Adélie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae. 
Miss Adlard is part of a small team monitoring the success - or otherwise - of the current breeding season.
BAS research scientist Dr Phil Trathan, said there were about 3.79 million breeding pairs of Adélie on the continent.
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Adélies in decline
Adelie penguins
  • Adélies are categorised as "near threatened" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species
  • The global Adélie population is expected to decline at a "moderately rapid rate due to the effects of climate change", Dr Trathan says
  • Scientists from BirdLife International, who monitored the species in 2012, have "precautionarily" projected a population decline approaching 30% over the next three generations
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