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Emperor Penguins Counted From Space
HairyNevus writes "An international team of scientists used satellite technology to conduct a census of emperor penguin populations from outer space. Honing in on their colonies by looking for the brown patches of penguin guano that stand out in the snowy antarctic, high resolution images were taken and used to count the total number of emperor penguin species on the continent. The result was a census of 595,000 penguins, almost double the previous estimates of 270,000-350,000 emperors. This includes seven new colonies which had not been previously identified. Although this is uplifting data, computer modeling still shows that loss of ice flows in the northern reaches could result in problems for the penguins."
Are they super-intelligent Hive-Mind Killer Penguins planning to take over the world?
They are headed North...straight towards humanity.
the total number of emperor penguin species on the continent.
Can a satellite really tell us the number is not 1?
how many shoggoths?
The video in the article mentions that the computer does most of the counting and I get the feeling that surveying animal count from aerial photographs might only work with penguins in Antarctica. It's relatively easy to distinguish between snow, poop and penguin from a computer vision algorithm stand point seeing how it boils down to distinguishing between black or brownish spots with little noise from other unwanted objects. Not that I'm trying to say it's trivial to program it but it it's a lot simpler problem than say counting people in a city from space or cars.
[FUCK BETA 2.6.2014]
Difficult question to answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano
Guano is probably most often used to refer to bat guano, but sometimes for various birds too.
I got this picture of a Google Earth car driving through a group of penguins.
And I, for one, welcome our new penguin alien overlords.
It's the only way to be sure.
Guano is generally construed as being the excrement of seabirds (under which penguins are classified), bats, and seals. So, no, "penguin guano" is not redundant, as it distinguishes it from the guano of non-penguin seabirds, bats or seals.
An international team of scientists used satellite technology to conduct a census of emperor penguin populations from outer space
How do you tell which ones are from outer space?
There's no such phrase as "honing in" on something.
That phrase is similar to "intensive purposes", in that it results from a perpetuated mishearing of another phrase. You can "home in" on something - the phrase is "homing in". But to 'hone' means to sharpen (one's blade, one's skills, one's wit etc.)
I am sure some will find some links that suggest that it's such a common mishearing that it has now become acceptable, but I don't agree. Both the Merriam-Webster (for US English) and the OED (for UK/Commonwealth English) state that "hone in" is an error.
Bats, equitorial seabirds, arctic seabirds and many things that crap in one place in large volumes produce guano. It is a word cool and exotic enough to be in a list of ingredients for an energy drink, but it really does just mean deposits of crap that have built up over a long time. In some places it's a valuble resource due to it being a easily obtained source of nitrogen for fertilizer and explosives. In the days of gunpowder it was paticularly valuble and was apparently a major source of income for countries like Chile.
Is this a new thing? Are they taking over our bases? What do they want!!!!
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
It isn't mentioned in the article but the technology isn't yet advanced enough to count the penguins while they are moving, so the satellite had to kill them all using a death ray. They hope to have this problem resolved for next years census, which is predicted to be much quicker.
One reason the population of penguins is increasing, is because of the huge reduction in the baleen whale population in the Southern Ocean. Baleen whales and penguins compete for the same krill, so fewer whales means a lot more food for the penguins. When the whale populations rebound, the penguins population will return to normal.
They know their shit. Solid scientists.
sudo eat my shorts
I think the northern reaches they are referring to are the northern areas of antarctica. Naturally this is where the loss of ice flows is happening first.
What other people think of me is none of my business
Birds with fur? Did you graduate from public school?
If that blows your mind, see this: http://www.topix.com/forum/city/west-plains-mo/THPIF1N4OJTH3ODJA
That scares me, emperor penguins must be the most dangerous creature on Earth if they can only be counted from space.
Carbon based humanoid in training.