The wintering whereabouts of penguins | University of Oxford

Knowing where and how Antarctic penguins, seabirds and marine predators migrate is critical for conservation efforts. Although electronic tracking devices have helped scientists track marine animals' migration patterns, the devices can be expensive, invasive for the animal and challenging to retrieve. Scientists have discovered a new and potentially better way to track where penguins go over the winter using forensics. Researchers at the University of Oxford worked in Antarctica with an international team from Louisiana State University, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, and the Instituto Antártico Argentino. The team attached trackers to 52 adult Chinstrap and Adélie penguins at their breeding colonies. The team then used the chemical signal of their feeding grounds from tracked individuals to work out where a much larger number of untracked birds had overwintered. These penguins are part of the family of "brush-tailed" penguins named after their approximately 15-inch long, stiff tail feathers which shed after each breeding season and before they migrate to their oceanic wintering grounds.