December 1, 1996


Adelie Penguin Colony at Cape Bird

The weekdays, which includes Saturday, run at a pretty hectic pace around here. After the standard 54-hour working week, Sunday mornings are a particularly calm time. The galley is open for breakfast between 6:00am and 8:00am, but most of the community at McMurdo surfaces slowly for brunch, which is served from 9:00am until 1:00pm. This is particularly appealing, as the fare usually includes fresh fruit--strawberries, grapes, oranges and bananas; it all depends on the previous week's flight schedule for resupply. I had brunch with Kate O'Sullivan, the producer of the three-part BBC Horizons television series on research in Antarctica, and Tim Wyatt, the sound recordist for the project. We talked about our different and overlapping times and experiences on the ice--the highpoints and disappointments. The latter mostly involved scheduling and travel conflicts; more time was needed here and there, etc. It has been nice to cross paths with their crew during my stay here.

Kate had been struggling with her script and I had been pushing to finish up my latest journal entries and to get a bead on the research being conducted by Event S-031, under the direction of David Ainley, "Factors Regulating Population Size and Colony Distribution of Adelie Penguins in the Ross Sea." Traveling to the field with this group was to be my last extended field trip, as I would join them for several days at one of their three study sites: the Adelie penguin rookery at Cape Bird--seasonal home of some 160,000 penguins.

Ainley is the American point person for an interdisciplinary, collaborative project with Landcare Research New Zealand (LCRNZ). The scope of investigation brings together a remarkable range of professionals including population ecologists, biologists, pharmicologists, and engineers. A pioneering initiative, the seven-year study is one of the first field-based attempts to "consider the geographic structuring of a seabird population." Various sub-groups have been and will continue to gather data on aspects of population dynamics and reproductive success in order to ascertain some of the broader issues governing the growth of existing Adelie colonies and the establishment of new colonies in the Ross Sea. According to Ainley and his colleagues, the purpose of the research is to, "increase scientific understanding of population regulation and patterns of dispersion and of the effects of climate change--mediated through changes in sea-ice cover--on penguin populations." A further goal of the team is to use their data and results to augment and interpret existing information on Adelie penguins as an "indicator species" for human impact studies involving tourism and fishing. The current rationale is that our activities within a habitat can be measured by looking at the effects on a key, or "indicator," species. The problem has been that conflicting data on Adelie penguins has lead to inconclusive and perhaps specious assessments.

The field work comprises traditional, arduous and labour-intensive behavioural observation and some of the latest in technological monitoring. The latter includes aerial photography, satellite imaging, stable isotope analysis, radio telemetry, and automated systems to log individuals' weights and movements to and from colonies. In their proposal, the researchers have identified a panoply of considerations:

For purposes of this study, three established colonies of varying sizes have been selected for investigation--Cape Royds (5,000 breeding pair), Cape Bird (80,000 breeding pair) and Cape Crozier (200,000 breeding pair). In addition, other work will be conducted from on board a research ship and at several other locations in and around McMurdo Sound and the Ross Sea.

My plan was to join the team for their put-in at Cape Bird on Thursday, December 5, where I would hope to make some recordings and learn more about the these wonderful birds...

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