chicks. anthony: so there s less competition, therefore more of the same prey available? david: yeah. anthony: i haven t seen a lot of them going into the water, but their looking for some indicator that there are fish in there. david: they re afraid to cross the ice crack because leopard seals might be in them. they re very hesitant so then finally they make the plunge. anthony: i mean, they re very agile. they don t look though at first at first brush. they appear clumsy, but i m watching them and they ve got a lot of moves. david: yeah, they re very, very agile. anthony: increasingly people want to see penguins. they are much loved by, you know, children everywhere. a lot of people would like to come to antarctica as tourists and look at penguins up close in a natural environment without impacting in a negative way. is that a good thing? david: and the thing about antarctica is that most scientists you know keep their nose to the grind stone. so the only advocacy for
endured by the first british antarctic explorers like scott, and shackleton and norwegian amundson and the lengths of time they endured them, are well, horrifying to imagine. they made their journeys in wooden ships, then man hauling equipment across glaciers, ice floes, mountains and frozen seas surviving on penguin meat when rations ran out. ryan: you might start to smell some sulfur. you smell it? anthony: yeah i smell that sulfur. what s our altitude now? ryan: 13, two. anthony: about 22 miles from mcmurdo is cape royds, where a penguin colony of about 2000 breeding pairs live. marine ecologist, dr. david ainley, has been
i mean essentially david: yeah, this year we ve got a bunch of individuals that are 20 years old. anthony: why penguins, what brought you to penguin initially? david: well this kind of penguin does everything with no secrets. if you ask the right question and you re creative enough they re going to give you the answer without a lot of guessing. what really interests me is the relationship of the penguins to the ocean and how they fit into the food web. during the 90 s, small colonies like cape royds were increasing much faster than the large colonies where the competition for food was so intense, in the last ten years colonies started increasing again. we think it s because of the fishery of antarctic tooth fish. the tooth fish and the penguin eat the same prey. so now there are more fish available for the adults to capture and feed to their chicks. anthony: so there s less competition, therefore more of the same prey available? david: yeah. anthony: i haven t seen a lot
but their looking for some indicator that there are fish in there. david: they re afraid to cross the ice crack because leopard seals might be in them. they re very hesitant so then finally they make the plunge. anthony: i mean, they re very agile. they don t look though at first at first brush. they appear clumsy, but i m watching them and they ve got a david: yeah, they re very, verygile. anthony: increasingly people want to see penguins. they are much loved by, you know, children everywhere. a lot of people would like to come to antarctica as tourists and look at penguins up close in a natural environment without impacting in a negative way. is that a good thing? david: and e thing about antarctica is that most scientists you know keep their nose to the grind stone. so the only advocacy for antarctica has to come from the public. it s very valuable to have these tours cause then people have an ownership, you know they ve been there and they see it. anthony: what keeps y
they made their journeys in wooden ships, then man hauling equipment across glaciers, ice floes, mountains and frozen seas surviving on penguin meat when rations ran out. ryan: you might start to smell some sulfur. you smell it? anthony: yeah i smell that sulfur. what s our altitude now? ryan: 13, two. nthony: about 22 miles from mcmurdo is cape royds, where a penguin colony of about 2000 breeding pairs live. marine ecologist, dr. david ainley, has been studying this colony for 20 years. anthony: so you re tagging the young ones? david: right. anthony: do you follow them through their entire life?