11 Oct 2014

Penguin watch

From This Way Up, 12:55 pm on 11 October 2014

Penguin Watch
Photograph by Caitlin Black.

Penguin Watch monitors penguins in the remotest parts of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, with the goal of understanding breeding patterns and changes in populations.

More than half a million images of the colonies have been classified so far by over 7000 citizen scientists. Through the web site penguinwatch.org participants analyse images recorded remotely and then identify penguins, hatchlings, eggs and other types of sea birds.

Caitlin Black from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford has been working to understand the penguins without having to battle the harsh winter conditions.

"It's fun to be engaged with something. You're not wasting your time. Everything you're doing is contributing to a bigger picture."

Sign up to be a citizen scientist for Penguin Watch.