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Freak storms stopped tens of thousands of birds breeding in Antarctica

13 March 2023

Huge snowstorms between December 2021 and January 2022 made Antarctic petrels, snow petrels and south polar skuas abandon attempts at nesting and return to sea

Chinstrap penguin population halved at key Antarctic breeding area

8 December 2020

The population of Chinstrap penguins on Elephant Island, a core breeding location off the coast of Antarctica, has declined by 57 per cent in the last 50 years

Iceberg the size of Cyprus on collision course with Atlantic island

5 November 2020

An iceberg the size of Cyprus is on a collision course with South Georgia, risking a major threat to the remote Atlantic island’s globally important penguin and seal colonies

The mummified penguins that hold the secrets of Antarctica's past

18 December 2018

Antarctica’s Adélie penguins nest on the well-preserved remains of their ancestors. All it takes is a trowel and a strong stomach to dig into their climate history

Hundreds of ancient mummified penguins found in Antarctic graveyard

5 September 2018

On a peninsula in east Antarctica there are hundreds of mummified Adélie penguins that died centuries ago, and it seems extreme weather was to blame

Drones reveal huge colonies of 1.5 million penguins on islands

6 March 2018

Two massive colonies of Adélie penguins have been discovered on the Danger Islands off the coast of Antarctica, bringing the global population to 8 million

Let's hope chickless penguin colony can come back from the brink

22 November 2017

Last season, a huge colony of Adélie penguins saw just two young survive. As they gather to breed again, a repeat would be alarming, says Olive Heffernan