Scientists have stumbled across a huge group of previously unknown Adélie penguins on the most northerly point of the Antarctic Peninsula.
科學(xué)家們在南極半島最北端無意中發(fā)現(xiàn)了一大群以前不為人知的阿德利企鵝。
Numbering more than 1.5 million birds, they were first noticed when great patches of their poo, or guano, showed up in pictures taken from space.
這超過150萬只的企鵝種群首次被注意到，是因?yàn)樗鼈兊拇蟊愠霈F(xiàn)在從太空拍攝到的照片中。
The animals are crammed on to a rocky archipelago called the Danger Islands.
這些動(dòng)物擠在一個(gè)叫險(xiǎn)惡群島的巖石群島上。
The researchers, who detail the discovery in the journal Scientific Reports, say it is a total surprise.
研究人員在《科學(xué)報(bào)道》雜志上詳細(xì)介紹了這一發(fā)現(xiàn)，他說這是一個(gè)驚喜。
"It’s a classic case of finding something where no-one really looked! The Danger Islands are hard to reach, so people didn’t really try that hard," team-member Dr Tom Hart from Oxford University, UK, told BBC News.
英國牛津大學(xué)的團(tuán)隊(duì)成員Tom Hart博士告訴BBC：“這是一個(gè)經(jīng)典的找到?jīng)]有人真正注意過的東西的案例!險(xiǎn)惡群島很難到達(dá)，所以人們并沒有真正嘗試這么做。”
The scientists used an algorithm to search images from the American Landsat spacecraft for sites of possible penguin activity.
科學(xué)家們使用一種算法從美國大地衛(wèi)星航天器搜索可能存在企鵝活動(dòng)的地點(diǎn)的圖像。
Landsat does not return especially high-resolution pictures and so when the system flagged potential colonies, they had to be followed up with much sharper pictures for confirmation.
大地衛(wèi)星不會(huì)返回特別高分辨率的圖片，因此當(dāng)系統(tǒng)標(biāo)記潛在的群落時(shí)，他們必須跟蹤更加清晰的圖片以進(jìn)行確認(rèn)。
"And the sheer size of what we were looking at took our breath away," said Dr Heather Lynch from Stony Brook University, New York.
“而我們所看到的龐大規(guī)模讓我們屏息凝神，”紐約石溪大學(xué)的Heather Lynch博士說。
"We thought, ’Wow! If what we’re seeing is true, these are going to be some of the largest Adélie penguin colonies in the world, and it’s going to be well worth our while sending in an expedition to count them properly."
“我們當(dāng)時(shí)想，’哇!如果我們看到的是真的，這將成為世界上最大的阿德利企鵝群，并且非常值得派出遠(yuǎn)征隊(duì)進(jìn)行正確計(jì)數(shù)。 ”
But, as the name implies, the Danger Islands are notoriously difficult to reach.
但正如名字所暗示的那樣，險(xiǎn)惡群島是非常難以到達(dá)的'。
Even in the austral summer, the ocean surrounding the archipelago is filled with the kind of thick sea-ice that ships try to avoid.
即使在南半球的夏季，群島周圍的海洋也充滿了船只試圖避免的那種厚厚的海冰。
However, in December 2015, the team did manage to get on the ground to begin its count. And one of the most effective techniques was to deploy drones, which flew above the birds to make large mosaics of their nesting sites.
然而，在2015年12月，一支隊(duì)伍確實(shí)設(shè)法開始計(jì)數(shù)。而最有效的技術(shù)之一是部署無人機(jī)，它們飛過鳥類上方，對準(zhǔn)它們的巢穴制作大型馬賽克。
"The drone lets you fly in a grid over the island, taking pictures once per second. You can then stitch them together into a huge collage that shows the entire landmass in 2D and 3D," explained Prof Hanumant Singh from Northeastern University.
東北大學(xué)的Hanumant Singh教授解釋說：“無人機(jī)可以讓你在島上飛行，每秒拍攝一次照片，然后將它們拼接成一張巨大的拼貼畫，以2D和3D的形式顯示整個(gè)地塊。”
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