Bradt Antarctica: A Guide to the Wildlife (Bradt Wildlife Guides) - Softcover

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Tony Soper has spent the last fifteen seasons in the Southern Ocean. As an expedition leader and ornithology lecturer on small ships, he’s explored the islands and most of the continental coast of Antarctica, and has shared with visitors his enthusiasm for the extraordinary congregations and complexity of the penguins, seals and great whales which summer there

Dafila Scott is an artist and zoologist, member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and ’Scott of the Antarctic’s’ grand-daughter.

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Antarctica continues to be one of the most lusted-after destinations on the planet. Visitors will see massive tabular icebergs newly breaking from continental ice shelves - as well as a cornucopia of penguins, great whales and albatrosses. This updated edition of the guide provides full coverage of identification, breeding, feeding and the best locations to observe the varied species. Dafila Scott's illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to naturalist Tony Soper's immaculate text. Updated throughout, this edition is the most practical pocket wildlife guide to the region.

'Here, at last, is the book we have been waiting for.' - Sir David Attenborough

Aus dem Klappentext

Antarctica continues to be one of the most lusted-after destinations on the planet. Visitors will see massive tabular icebergs newly breaking from continental ice shelves - as well as a cornucopia of penguins, great whales and albatrosses. This updated edition of the guide provides full coverage of identification, breeding, feeding and the best locations to observe the varied species. Dafila Scott's illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to naturalist Tony Soper's immaculate text. Updated throughout, this edition is the most practical pocket wildlife guide to the region.

'Here, at last, is the book we have been waiting for.' - Sir David Attenborough

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Penguins cannot tolerate warm sea water. The extreme limit of their range is marked by a line linking places with a mean annual air temperature of 20˚C (surface waters are warmed accordingly), so they are effectively trapped by a thermal barrier and restricted to the cold waters of the southern hemisphere. An ill-fated experiment introduced a small number of king, macaroni and jackass penguins to the Lofoten Islands, off the Norwegian coast, in 1936–38. The last recorded sighting was in 1954. Some suffered at the hands of local people who regarded them as bogeymen. None attempted to nest, probably because there weren’t enough of them to encourage the noisy sociability which stimulates courtship. (Penguins breed freely enough in northern zoos, when they are kept in good numbers in close proximity.) But the experiment was not a good idea anyway. Auks occupy the equivalent niche in northern latitudes and are a hugely successful family, not needing competition from alien penguins. They are not related to penguins, but look alike because they are designed for the same way of life – a classic example of convergent evolution.   So if you want to see a wild penguin, go south…