Chinstrap Penguin Survey on Elephant Island in Antarctica

Leopard seal looking for prey, while scientist Steve Forrest, from Stony Brook University, counts chinstrap penguins from the top of a hill on Elephant Island.
Steve has been going to remote places in the Antarctic for the last 25 years to study penguins. He is leading a team of scientists studying the impacts of climate change and fisheries in penguin populations in the Antarctic.
Elephant Island is home to one of the world’s largest Chinstrap Penguin populations, yet it has only been ornithologically surveyed once in 1971, by a British Joint Services expedition.
To understand how penguin populations are faring, a census has been organised by researchers from Stony Brook University, Northeastern University and Greenpeace to study the impact of climate change on fragile chinstrap penguin colonies on Elephant Island in Antarctica.
(This picture was taken in 2020 during the Antarctic leg of the Pole to Pole expedition under the Dutch permit number RWS-2019/40813)