t is one of the most desolate to this chinstrap stronghold to survey places on Earth. The ice-capped the breeding population. The chinstrap mountain of Elephant Island is may be the most abundant of Antarctica’s an inhospitable crag whose sheer penguins, with an estimated 7.5 million cliffs feel the full force of the breeding pairs, but their populations Southern Ocean on all sides. Yet, have plummeted in the past 40 years. each December, this tiny Antarctic Signy, Deception and Penguin Islands, Penguin Ioutpost transforms into a riot of sound for instance, have experienced declines and colour as tens of thousands of of 50–70 per cent. By carrying out counts chinstrap penguins gather here to breed. on Elephant Island, last surveyed in Nesting in rookeries almost 200m 1971, plus a string of other, little-studied above the sea, these charismatic birds – islands, the team wanted to find out if the named for the thin black line that gives pattern was true elsewhere. them a helmeted appearance – stain huge swathes of the island pink with guano. Bird’s-eye view The stench is matched in intensity only Day one involves scaling a 70m cliff to Puzzle by the noise. “It’s like being in a football count one of the island’s largest colonies. Antarctica’s chinstrap stadium – it’s an assault on your senses,” Thousands of penguins gather in the penguins are in decline, says Noah Strycker, one of four penguin amphitheatre-like space below, watching biologists that I accompanied to this over their fluffball chicks, while others their demise a sign of remote outpost in early January. splash in an acrid pool. One solitary Elephant Island – so called because individual stands guard on a raised greater changes at play. of the elephant seals that sprawl on its pinnacle, surveying the Southern Ocean Now, scientists are trying beaches, plus its distinctive, elephant- like a sentinel. Occasionally, a brown like shape – lies within the South skua descends and threatens to steal to find out what’s ailing Shetlands, an archipelago just north of a youngster, its presence provoking the Antarctic Peninsula. The team from piercing, murderous cries. At least this feathered trekker. Lowen/FLPA James Stony Brook University, New York, sailed once, it succeeds. By Olive Heffernan A quick glance at their markings and it’s easy to see how chinstrap penguins got their name. CHINSTRAP PENGUINS Protecting maritime Antarctica Nations are currently considering a proposal to protect the waters around the western Antarctic Peninsula, where chinstraps live and forage for krill. The proposal for a marine sanctuary will be considered by CCAMLR (the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) in December 2020. One of the main goals of CCAMLR is to establish a network of nine marine sanctuaries in the Southern Ocean, to protect the thousands of “ You have to hold unique species that live there and are found nowhere else – such as poses, balanced on bioluminescent worms and pastel starfish as well as the better-known one toe on a slope seals and penguins. ● bit.ly/pew-trust greased with guano.” Antarctica. Further north, they run out of krill; further south, it is too icy to build their stony nests. Heather thinks that chinstraps, considered a species of Least Concern, have remained off the radar because of their abundance. “People assume that there is safety in numbers – and there is, to a point,” she says. “But there have been spectacular collapses of species that we thought would never disappear, like the passenger pigeon. I think the term ‘collapse’ becomes a pretty Chinstraps, unlike the ice-loving real estate,” says Steve. “They’ve essentially Clockwise from southern elephant reasonable description at this point – half emperors and Adélies, are built for a life bought a house together, which they return above: the dramatic seal is an unwelcome of the population has disappeared in a very landscape of Half visitor among nesting at sea, spending nine months of the year to year after year – so, in all likelihood, Moon Island in the chinstraps; creating a short period.” fishing in the open ocean. They are agile they’ll end up with the same mate.” After South Shetlands; nest from stones – the swimmers, able to dive to 100m and several weeks, the chicks are large enough gentoo penguins fish arrangement needs to Getting warm venture up to 30km offshore. But when to enter a crèche, huddling with other from an iceberg; a be just so. There are several theories that could explain the breeding season rolls in, they transform youngsters while the parents hunt for food. the decline of chinstraps, the most obvious into sturdy monochrome mountaineers. being climate change. In fossil fuel terms, We watch them waddle, hop and jump Tracking and tallying just 70cm in height. But what chinstraps one of every eight carbon molecules emitted in twos and threes from their rookeries To survey the breeding population, the lack in size, they make up for in aggression. by a car’s exhaust ends up in the Southern at the summit of tall, exposed cliff-faces, scientists count the nests, not the birds “They are fierce birds,” says Steve. “They’ll Trayler-Smith/Greenpeace; Abbie Half Moon island & iceberg: Snow/Alamy; Skua: Graeme Ocean, changing conditions for every living down ‘penguin highways’ to the frigid themselves. The task is easier when family fight over anything… a pebble, a space or snow and the racket of the thousands of birds 52,786 breeding adults on the island, 56 per creature from plankton to blue whales. waters below, where they feast on krill to groups are still together, so timing is key. access to a penguin highway.” around you and become part of the scenery. cent fewer than in the early 1970s. “This is Around the Antarctic Peninsula, ocean later regurgitate to their raucous chicks. The chicks are just a few weeks old when we Counting penguin nests sounds serene, Barritt/Alamy Peter nesting: Plantema/Minden/FLPA; Otto elephant seal: At any given moment, only one thing matters the best window we have into the past 50 temperatures have risen by 1°C since 1955, “Chinstraps are tough – they can handle arrive and only slightly smaller almost meditative, but comes with incredible – nest or not?” years for these birds,” says Steve. “It’s a and the waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar a real pummelling,” says team than their parents, who average challenges. A day’s work usually sees the During a count, each scientist is allotted very dramatic decline and it’s tragic.” Current – which flows west to east around leader Steve Forrest, a scientists negotiating a tricky landing by an area, which is then divided into smaller Departing Elephant Island, the team the continent – are warming faster than veteran biologist with Zodiac, often on an exposed, windswept sections. Nests within each sub-section weaves around the South Shetlands, the rest of the global ocean as a whole. On more than 25 Antarctic shore, then – owing to the birds’ penchant are counted three times using mechanical counting chinstrap nests at, among others, land, the situation is even more dramatic. seasons under his belt. for high and remote nest sites – scaling sheer counters, with the figures only deemed Low, Snow and King George Islands. Every Temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula When it comes to breeding, cliffs, all the while keeping their distance, valid if the variance is less than 5 per cent. day, the scientists trek across beaches and have soared by at least 3°C between 1950 chinstraps have a classic co-parenting so as not to stress the birds. To complicate “A good pace of counting is 1,000 nests an up cliffs, and everywhere the same pattern and 2000, five times faster than anywhere arrangement. Typically, the male builds a matters further, the penguins tend to cluster hour,” says Noah. “That’s when you’re really emerges, with breeding populations at else on Earth. fresh circular nest from pebbles, and, once together, obscuring their stony abodes. ticking along.” about half their historic numbers. “There Chinstraps are part of a group known the eggs have hatched, the parents take it “It is the most focused, exhausting and It takes two weeks to survey and get a first is no safe haven,” says Steve. as the brush-tails, which includes gentoos in turns to hunt and mind the chicks. They exhilarating thing you can do outdoors,” says estimate for the whole of Elephant Island, According to Heather Lynch, director of (easily identified by their carrot-orange bills), return to the same nest site each year to Steve. “You have to hold statuesque poses, and the emerging numbers confirm the the penguin lab at Stony Brook University, and Adélies (the classic tuxedoed penguin Skuas try to breed, which makes them monogamous take young balanced on one toe on a slope greased with scientists’ suspicions: the chinstrap colonies the problem for these charismatic birds is of the cartoon world). Brush-tails have some by default. “It’s more a case of shared penguins and guano. You have to ignore the wind, the here have also crashed. There are now just that they exist in a sweet spot in offshore commonalities, including a love of cold water often succeed. 62 BBC Wildlife September 2020 September 2020 BBC Wildlife 63 CHINSTRAP PENGUINS CHINSTRAP PENGUINS and a habit of building nests from stones. territories. But there is evidence of another declines in chinstrap populations around But warming temperatures are sending invader – humans. Up to 20 nations fish the Livingston and King George Islands.