Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T09:19:37.570Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shackleton's emperor penguins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2013

Bernard Stonehouse
Bernard Stonehouse*
Affiliation:
Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER (bernardstonehouse@btinternet.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The loss of the expedition ship SY Endurance, and the subsequent dispersal of staff and crew, resulted in very little scientific information emerging from the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–1917. Among surviving records were the charts and diaries maintained by the ship's master, F.A. Worsley. During the voyage in January 1915 along the ice cliffs of the Weddell Sea coast, Worsley recorded the ship's daily progress, soundings and trawling and dredging activities, and also daily encounters with seals, whales and seabirds, On 12 January he noted a group of fledgling emperor penguin chicks (Aptenodytes forsteri) on an ice foot, clearly a remnant of what was then only the third-known breeding colony of the species. Shackleton's first published account of the expedition mentioned the chicks only in a brief note (one that was omitted from later editions), and no further report covering Worsley's observations appeared in scientific literature. In consequence the discovery of the breeding colony and records of emperor penguin distribution along the Weddell Sea coast have since been overlooked by avian biologists, regrettably including the present author. This paper discusses the identity of the colony, Worsley's observations that foreshadowed the later discovery of more breeding concentrations along the coast, and a possible reason why colonies occur at points of particular glaciological disturbance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 192 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clark, R.S. 1919. Biology log book. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 1619/15:D.Google Scholar
Drygalski, E. von. 1904. Zum Kontinent des eisigen Sudens, Berlin: Verlag Georg Reimer. (Reprinted 1989 in an English translation by M. Rarity as The Southern Ice-Continent: the German South Polar Expedition aboard the ‘Gauss’ 1901–03. Bluntisham and Norfolk, Bluntisham Books and Erskine Press).Google Scholar
Eagle Clarke, W. 1907. Ornithological results of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. III. On the birds of the Weddell and adjacent seas, Antarctic Ocean. Ibis 9th series, 1 (2): 325–349.Google Scholar
Eicken, H., Grenfell, T.C., and Stonehouse, B.. 1988. Sea ice conditions during an early spring voyage in the eastern Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Polar Record 24 (148): 49–54.Google Scholar
Fretwell, P.T. and Trathan, P.N.. 2009. Penguins from space: faecal stains reveal the location of emperor penguin colonies. Global ecology and biogeography 18: 543–352.Google Scholar
Fretwell, P.T., La Rue, M.A., Morin, P., Kooyman, G.L., Wienecke, N. Ratcliffe, A.J. Fox, A. H. Fleming, C. Porter and P.N. Trathan B.. 2012. An emperor penguin population estimate: the first global, synoptic survey of a species from space. PLoS ONE 7 (4): e33751. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033751Google Scholar
Gerringa, L.J.A., Alderkamp, A.-C., Laan, P., Thuroczy, C.-E., De Baar, H.J.W., Mills, M., van Dijken, G.L., van Faren, H. and Arrigo, K.R.. 2012. Iron from melting glaciers fuels the phytoplankton blooms in Amundsen Sea (Southern Ocean): iron biochemistry. Deep Sea Research II 71–76: 16–31.Google Scholar
Hempel, G. and Stonehouse, B.. 1987. Aerial counts of emperor penguins, Weddell seals and whales. Berichte zur Polarforschung 39: 227–230.Google Scholar
Klages, N. 1989. Food and feeding ecology of emperor penguins in the eastern Weddell Sea. Polar Biology 9 (6): 385–390.Google Scholar
Murphy, R.C. 1936. Oceanic birdsof South America. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Norman, J.N. 1959. Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri). Unpublished Biological Report, Base Z: 156/60: 1–24. Cambridge, British Antarctic Survey Archives.Google Scholar
Shackleton, E. 1919. South: the story of Shackleton's last expedition 1914–1917. 1st edn. London: William Heinemann. (Reprinted in facsimile 1983, New York, Time-Life Books).Google Scholar
Shackleton, E. 1921. South: the story of Shackleton's last expedition 1914–1917. 1st cheap edn.London: William Heinemann.Google Scholar
Speak, P. (editor). 1992. The log of the Scotia expedition 1902–04. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Stonehouse, B. 1953. The emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri Gray. 1. Breeding behaviour and development. London: Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (Scientific reports 6).Google Scholar
Thomas, J.E. 1957. The Weddell Sea cruise of the Argentine icebreaker General San Martin, 1954–55. Polar Record 8 (55): 351–354.Google Scholar
Thomas, R.H. 1973. Dynamics of Brunt Ice Shelf. Cambridge: British Antarctic Survey (Scientific report 79).Google Scholar
Trathan, P.N., Fretwell, P.T. and Stonehouse, B.. 2011. First recorded loss of an emperor penguin colony in the recent period of Antarctic warming: implications for other colonies. PloS ONE 6 (2): e14738 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014738.Google Scholar
Thurston, M.H. 1961. Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri). Cambridge: British Antarctic Survey. Unpublished biological report, Base Z: N1/1960/Z.Google Scholar
Wienecke, B. 2010. The history of discovery of emperor penguin colonies, 1902–2004. Polar Record 40 (238): 271–276.Google Scholar
Wilson, E.A. 1907. Aves. British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04. 2. Zoology, Pt. 2: 1–31.Google Scholar
Worsley, F.A. 1915. Charts 3 and 4, 1914–15. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 207/1–4; MSM.Google Scholar
Worsley, F.A. 1916. Journal, 1 Jan 1915 to 18 May 1916. Cambridge: Scott Polar Research Institute MS 296; BJ.Google Scholar
Worsley, F.A. 1931. Endurance, an epic of polar adventure. London: Philip Allan and Co.Google Scholar