ENVIRONMENT / NATURE - 9,000-strong penguin colony discovered in Antarctica - WORLD

9,000-strong penguin colony discovered in Antarctica

The writer has posted comments on this articlePTI | Feb 10, 2013, 05.56 PM IST

The massive emperor penguin colony had never ever encountered humans until researchers found them on Antarctica's Princess Ragnhild Coast.

WASHINGTON: A huge 9,000-strong colony of emperor penguins has been discovered in Antarctica after scientists spotted their poo trails in satellite images.

The massive emperor penguin colony had never ever encountered humans until researchers found them on Antarctica's Princess Ragnhild Coast.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey noticed the trail in 2009 while studying satellite images of Antarctica and it was not until December last year that three researchers from the International Polar Foundation found the colony.

Alain Hubert, founder of the International Polar Foundation, said the penguins were curious rather than scared of them, National Public Radio (NPR) reported.

"When you arrive, they just come to see you, to watch you, to turn around you. The penguins - and especially the emperors -- they are so human. They're so cute," Hubert said.

Since the penguins had never encountered humans, Hubert says they weren't scared, just curious.

Hubert and his team live at the research station during the Antarctic summer and are focused on studying climate change, not penguins.

After they encountered a number of emperor penguins, they were convinced that a colony must be close by. They decided to make the treacherous 48-Km trip east to the sea ice.

"First of all, you have to imagine you're in the middle of nowhere - without any visibility, with complete whiteout after 24 hours driving on the ice -- you go down to the sea," said Hubert.

After navigating their way to the sea, they searched for hours and found more penguins than they had ever imagined. Hubert says that seeing so many animals huddled together was like being on another planet.

"I spent more than five years of my life in the polar regions, but that was the kind of moment that I wouldn't have expect(ed) to be able to just enjoy. It's a privilege," Hubert said.

If there was enough penguin poop to see from space, it seems like there would be quite a stench on the ground. Hubert says it wasn't a problem.

"It's too cold, really, to smell it, you know? I spoke to some scientists and they told me if it was a bit warmer, it's really smelly, " Hubert said.  

NATURE - New monkey species identified in Africa - UNITED KINGDOM

A new species of monkey has been identified in Africa, researchers have said.

The species, known locally as the lesula, was discovered after a young female was seen kept captive at the home of a primary school director in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007.

The young animal resembled an owl faced monkey (Cercopithecus hamlyni) but its colouring was different to that of any known species, the researchers writing in the journal PLoS ONE said.

Other wild lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) have since been found in their remote range in central Democratic Republic of Congo, where they live in forests and feed on leafstalks, fruit and flower buds.

The discovery of the new species, in one of the country's last unexplored forest areas, is only the second time a new monkey species has been found in Africa in the last 28 years.

Although the 6,500 square mile area in which the shy lesula is found is remote and sparsely populated, the researchers warn the monkey is vulnerable to extinction as a result of hunting for bush meat.

They called for controls on hunting and the creation of a protected area covering its range to conserve the lesula and other wildlife found in the region.

Researcher John Hart said: "The challenge for conservation now in Congo is to intervene before losses become definitive.

"Species with small ranges like

ENVIRONMENT - Rebirth of the wolf sees French Greens at each other's throats FRANCE /WORLD

Rebirth of the wolf sees French Greens at each other's throats

Environmental battle ignites as predators begin to encroach on sheep-farming land

The lightning re-conquest of France by the wolf has provoked a civil war within French Greens, pitting one of the country's most renowned campaigners against environmentalists, some of whom are demanding his ousting from the movement.

Wolves have been seen this summer for the first time since the 1920s in the sheep-rearing area in Lozère in the southern Auvergne, the home of Roquefort cheese.

José Bové , sheep farmer-turned-environmental campaigner, has called publicly for the wolves to be shot, provoking protest from other French

Greens, who point out that the grey wolf is a protected by European law. One wildlife protection group has filed a legal complaint against Mr Bové for "inciting the destruction of an endangered species".

Pierre Athanase, president of the Association pour la Protection des Animaux Sauvages (Aspas), said: "Ecology means bio-diversity. If Mr Bové can't understand that, he should leave the (Green movement)."

Mr Bové, 59, became a hero to the anti-globalist and ecological movement when he drove a bulldozer through a half-built McDonalds' restaurant in Millau, in Lozere, in 1999. He has since served several prison terms for cutting down genetically modified crops. Mr Bové insists that the grey wolf is not a green issue. "We ecologists have to stop the double- talk," he said. "We can't be against the depopulation of the countryside and, at the same time, create areas of the country in which farmers cannot make a living. We should shoot wolves... the priority should be to protect small farmers in mountainous areas."

A handful of Italian wolves, which re-colonised the French Alps around 1993, are estimated to have multiplied to about 200 animals in 20 packs, ranging as far west as the Auvergne and as far north as the Vosges on the Alsace-Lorraine border.

Experts have predicted that they could reach the large forests just south of Paris by the end of this decade. Under a "wolf code" established in 2004, the animals can be shot legally only by government marksmen or by shepherds trained and licensed to defend their flocks from an actual wolf attack. In areas where wolves are present, shepherds are expected to invest in guard dogs, lighting and electric fences.

These measures are controversial, but reasonably effective in the high sheep pastures of the Alps.

Shepherds in Lozere say that the cost of protection from wolf attack for their smaller farms would be ruinous. Their flocks – up to 200, compared to several thousand in the Alps – are used to grazing unprotected at night on warm summer evenings.

André Baret, sheep farmer and mayor of the village of Hure-la-Parade, said: "Our farms are already threatened… That's not the fault of the wolves, but they could push us over the precipice."

Defenders of the wolf say that co-habitation between man, sheep and wolf is possible. There are 200 wolves in France but over 1,000 in Italy and 2,000 in Spain, where sheep farms still thrive. Until the late 18th century, long after the last wolf was shot in Britain, wolves lived just across the Channel in the Pas de Calais.

However, canis lupus is not expected to knock on Britain's door any time soon. Western and northern France is no longer wooded or wild enough to sustain them.

Running wild

Italy's bears: The reintroduction of European brown bears to the Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy a decade ago has drawn a backlash from farmers who say the bears have been feeding on livestock.

Britain's badgers: A cull of badgers in Britain is likely to go ahead this year in an effort to combat the costs of Bovine tuberculosis among cattle. The government claims badgers spread the disease.

Staten Island's turkeys: Ocean Breeze on Staten Island in New York has battled scores of wild turkeys roaming streets.

Richard Hall