Worrying deaths in the world's largest penguin colony

According to the written statement made by BAS, field and aerial research was conducted on the "ring bearded penguin" population on Zavodovski, a volcanic island near Antarctica.

As a result of the observations, it was determined that more than 500 thousand of the ring-bearded penguins on the Island have died since 2011.

It was concluded that these losses corresponded to more than 1/4 of the total penguin population on the Island.

Thus, the island became the place where the population of ring-bearded penguins decreased most rapidly in the world, and it also lost its title of "the world's largest penguin colony".

Researchers pointed out that climate-related changes in the Southern Ocean negatively affected the penguins' food sources.

Details of the study were published in the journal "Current Biology".