Ruth Peacey [email protected] +44 (0) 7976 130763 Expedition Penguin

Expedition Penguin

In January 2020, a team of energetic expedition scientists are sailing by yacht across some of the roughest seas in the world to the South Sandwich Islands in Antarctica to uncover the effects that plastic, climate change and, even volcanic activity is having on penguin and whale populations.

Film maker, Ruth Peacey has been specially chosen to join the team and film the expedition, which will officially discover new penguin colonies and be scaling the side of ice volcanoes in a mission to fully explore this area, which no tourists can visit. Using a range of technology, including a special underwater drone, the film will include spectacular landscapes of glaciers, icebergs and mountains combined with whales, seals, penguins and other sea birds.

One of the key objectives is to see if the world’s biggest chinstrap penguin colony (last seen when filming 2) has survived a volcano eruption on the island of Zavodovski. The only way to find out is by visiting the colony in person. We will be retrieving time-lapse cameras that were left at the colony prior to the eruption so we will be able to see exactly what happened. If the colony is severely reduced or has gone, we will still fill this programme with penguins since we will visit neighbouring colonies - many of which haven’t been recorded by science (or camera!) previously.

Chinstrap penguins are at threat from climate change since they depend upon krill to feed their young, so this population is critical. Elsewhere, many populations are being out-competed by gentoo penguins which don’t rely entirely on krill. Chinstraps are charismatic birds that build their nests out of stones and the colonies we will film will have chick in January.

The South Georgia Government will use the information our team provides to fully protect the waters around these islands, thus conserving the iconic wildlife and landscape within them.

This is a very exciting opportunity to explore part of the world very few people ever get to travel to and will be bursting full of charismatic Antarctic wildlife, mixed with a true sense of intrepid adventure and a strong conservation story.

Ruth Peacey [email protected] +44 (0) 7976 130763 Expedition Penguin

Ruth Peacey has spent more than a year in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean islands.

She spent five months living aboard a yacht and on a tiny island, filming penguins for BBC2’s Natural World: Penguin Post Office. Her passion for penguins and this remote part of the world has led to her qualifying as an expedition guide and lecturer in the Antarctic regions. Ruth’s passion, experience and knowledge has allowed her to build great relationships with scientists in this field and she recently discussed new behaviours she has filmed in gentoo penguins at the penguin conference in New Zealand.

TV credentials include:

Natural World (Penguin Post Office and Attenborough’s Ark to name two), Planet Earth 2 (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?%20v=1468380126528872) Life in the Air and .

Developed the idea Undercover Tourist, made by Highwire Productions. Ruth featured in an episode about illegal bird trapping in Cyprus. Trapping has now been virtually eradicated on British Cyprus soil. You can watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9r8CSznLeM

Self-shot, directed and produced a children’s film alongside filming Penguin Post Office. Example of this work can be found here: https://vimeo.com/236780440

Ruth Peacey [email protected] +44 (0) 7976 130763 Expedition Penguin

These are the key scientists that are (quite literally) onboard:

Ted Cheeseman Happy Whale https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06zhyvk

Tom Hart Penguin Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXsXk-r3XI8

Emma Liu Volcanologist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqAKiiv8ZnM

Skip Novak Skipper & Climbing https://www.ukaht.org/visit/our-films/ (03:56 in)

For more information, please contact [email protected]