Antarctic penguins may be climate change winners...

                                                                                                          TheA

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  Two Antartic penguins from the documentary The Last Ocean. - Source: Seven Sharp

A colony of Antarctic penguins could be excused for feeling like climate change's big winners.

A study has found a group of Adelie penguins on Beaufort Island in the Ross Sea, 3500 kilometres south of New Zealand, has significantly boosted its numbers as nearby glaciers have receded.

A team of US and New Zealand-based scientists has used aerial photographs from as far back as 1958 and modern satellite imagery to measure nesting areas and population.

Population size varied with available habitat, and both increased rapidly since the mid-1980s," the team found.

Numbers in the colony increased by 84 per cent as habitat grew by 71 per cent.

Between 1983-2010, habitat grew by 20 per cent as a snow-ice field near the colony retreated more than 500 metres.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/antarctic-penguins-climate-change-winners-5394727

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