This dataset consists of two shapefiles created by Darren Southwell of the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) by digitising the boundaries of adelie penguin colonies at the Rauer Group and the Vestfold Hills. The digitising was done from images resulting from the scanning and georeferencing of aerial photographs taken on 24 November 1993. The aerial photographs were taken for the AAD with a Linhof camera. Records of the photographs are included in the Australian Antarctic Data Centre's Aerial Photograph Catalogue.

An occupancy survey on 26 January 2012 found 1 island (70166) along the coast between 111 degrees 00'E - 111 degrees 10'E had populations of breeding Adelie penguins. The survey was conducted from a fixed wing aircraft and oblique aerial photographs were taken of the occupied site. The aerial photographs were geo-referenced to the coastline shapefile from the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA, tile E158) and the boundaries of penguin colonies were digitised from the geo-referenced photos with not intentional buffer. Note the quality of the aerial photos was poor and so the resultant boundary mapping will not be very accurate. Also in the Balaena Islands there is a historic record from the 50s of penguins nesting on Thompson Islet (70166). When aerial photos were taken of this island penguins could not be detected. Please refer to the Seabird Conservation Team Data Sharing Policy for use, acknowledgement and availability of data prior to downloading data.

Adelie colony boundaries at Bechervaise Island were mapped by Matthew Pauza on the 21 Dec 2016. Subcolonies were mapped by circumnavigating the perimeter on foot while carrying a Garmin GPS (Etrex30) to record the track. When mapping the perimeter of the subcolonies a buffer distance of approximately 2.5 meters was maintained between the mapper and the breeding birds. This buffer distance was reduced by .5m to between 2m in the final shapefiles. Please refer to the Seabird Conservation Team Data Sharing Policy for use, acknowledgement and availability of data prior to downloading data.

This file contains a log of observations collected in the Casey region between 1972 and 1988. Observations were made of Adelie penguins. The hard copy of the log has been archived by the Australian Antarctic Division library.

Occupancy surveys in November 2009 and December 2010 (Southwell and Emmerson 2013) found a total of 2 Adelie penguin breeding sites in the Bolingen Island group between longitudes 75.333oE-75.912oE. The boundaries of breeding sub-colonies at 1 of these sites (Lichen Island, 73030) were subsequently mapped from vertical aerial photographs taken for abundance surveys on 20 November 2010 (for details of aerial photography see Southwell et al. 2013). The boundaries were mapped with a buffer distance of approximately 1-3 m from the perimeter of penguin sub-colonies. The other breeding site (73156) was photographed obliquely from a helicopter using a hand-held camera on 6 December 2010. Colony boundaries for this site were drawn and digitised by eye. Please refer to the Seabird Conservation Team Data Sharing Policy for use, acknowledgement and availability of data prior to downloading data.

This dataset contains data on the habitats, distribution and numbers of Adelie Penguins (Pygoscellis adeliae) along the Vestfold Hills coast (including colonies on the mainland and offshore islands) during November 1973. The data are obtained from counts at the colonies and black and white photographs. Some aerial photographs were taken at Davis in 1981-82 and 1987-88, and will be compared to the results of this survey. The results are listed in the documentation. A total of 174178 26127 breeding pairs were counted. An increase in Adelie penguin population was found at most locations in East Antarctica. Data from this record has been incorporated into a larger Adelie penguin dataset described by the metadata record - Annual population counts at selected Adelie Penguin colonies within the AAT (SOE_seabird_candidate_sp_AP). It also falls under ASAC project 1219 (ASAC_1219).

This dataset comprises a table and set of maps of all geographic sites of ice-free land along the East Antarctica coastline between longitudes 37°E and 160°E. Each geographic site comprises a discrete area of ice-free land and includes islands within 100 km of the coast and outcrops of ice free continental rock within 1 km of the coast. The geographic sites were identified in a geographic information system using polygons sourced from the AAT Coastline 2003 dataset produced by Geoscience Australia and the Australian Antarctic Division, and exposed rock polygons sourced from the Antarctic Digital Database version 4.0 produced for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. The maps are grouped into sub-regions and regions, with multiple maps in most sub-regions. The maps were designed to be of a scale that could be used in the field to identify sites by their shape and location. This dataset has previously been used in the specific context of potential breeding habitat for Adelie penguins (doi:10.4225/15/5758F4EC91665) but has potential for broader use in a wide range of ecological and environmental studies. 2021-06-30 - an updated copy of the spatial reference system spreadsheet was uploaded. The update was only minor.

This work was carried out by Graeme Smith between 1966 and 1970 as part of a PhD at the Australian National University. The dataset contains information about penguins killed in 1967 as part of the work. Also available for download is a copy of the thesis. Taken from the introduction of the thesis: Penguins are widely distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The distribution is circumpolar in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions, and ranges north to the southern coasts of Africa, Australasia and South America, where the range extends northwards up the western coast, and across to the Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos penguin is the most northern species, while the Emperor and the Adelie penguins are confined to the Antarctic. Although most species of penguins are found in the warmer zones of the Southern Hemisphere, and in many cases close to inhabited coasts, comparatively little is known about their biology. By contrast, the biology of the penguins of the remote sub-Antarctic islands and the Antarctic continent is well documented for a number of species. This anomalous situation is probably a result of the great interest shown in the Antarctic regions following Cook's voyages (1768-71 and 1772-75), and the comparatively limited number of species found in these regions. Also see the metadata record for work on Royal Penguins carried out at Macquarie Island between 1955 and 1969 - ID "RoyalPenguin1955-1969".

As seabirds emperor penguins spent a large proportion of their lives at sea. For food they depend entirely on marine resources. Young penguins rarely return to their natal colonies after their first year. Satellite tracking will give us insights into where foraging areas may be that are important for these birds. This tracking work is part of a multi-species study funded by the Integrated Marine Observation System (IMOS). These data are from penguins from the Amanda Bay area, and for the 2012-13 season.

With the aim of estimating the proportion of Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) in pack ice over summer, an Australian fixed-wing aerial survey programme, based in east Antarctica, was conducted in the austral summers of 2007/2008, 2008/09 and 2009/10 (See Kelly et al. 2010; SC/62/IA8). The first season (2007/08) comprised of three 'test' flights. As such, there were no real 'survey' data collected during these three flights, but video and digital stills data have been included in the dataset supplied. The surveys (2008/09 and 2009/10) covered two general regions: Vincennes Bay (66 degrees 24'S 110 degrees 18'E) which was surveyed multiple times across both seasons and within the 2009/10 season, and north and east of the Shackleton Ice Shelf and into the eastern section of the Davis Sea, which was surveyed once (2009/10). The primary focus was on Antarctic minke whales, however sightings of other species were also collected (killer whale, Southern right whale, penguins and seals). The survey was conducted in a CASA 212:400 aircraft at an altitude was 228m (750ft) and survey speed was 204 km/hr (110 knots). The survey was conducted as independent double-platform: the front and back observers were isolated visually and audibly. The aircraft was also fitted with a number of digital still, video and infrared cameras. Data Available 1. Sighting data set A .csv file of animal sightings. Two files, one for each survey season, has been supplied. The observers field of view was between 30 degrees and 60 degrees declination (approximately) from the horizon, corresponding to an on the ground area width of 264 metres each side of the aircraft. Protocol was followed as for traditional line transect surveys for marine mammals, with observers searching ahead of the aircraft in a 'D' pattern. The recorded observations consisted of cue counting (where possible) and the angle of declination when the animals were abeam to the observer (using a Suunto inclinometer). Cues were not recorded after the animals had moved past abeam. The angle of declination of groups was measured at the centre of the group. Perpendicular distance out to animals was calculated using angle of declination and flying height (but no correction for curvature of the earth or aircraft drift angle was applied). Other information recorded included species, group size (minimum, maximum and best estimate), cue type, number of animals at surface when perpendicular, direction of travel and any behavioural features of the animal(s). Please note that no formal sighting data was collected for the January 2008 test flights. 2. Effort data set A .csv file of survey effort and environmental conditions. Two files, one for each survey season, has been supplied. The flight leader recorded environmental covariates (ice coverage (to the nearest 10%), glare, Beaufort sea state, and cloud cover, etc) at regular intervals, or when conditions changed. 3. Still images The data includes jpeg files of images. A still camera was mounted vertically in the base of the aircraft to cover the trackline (10 megapixel Nikon D200 with 35mm lens); camera was situated behind a Perspex window. In addition in the final survey year (2009/10) two Nikon D300 cameras (12 megapixel with 50mm lens) were mounted at the side windows obliquely at an angle of 45 degrees (please note side-camera was used only during final season of survey, Dec 2009-Feb 2010). Focus set to infinity, and image settings given to account for high-light, high-contrast environments. GPS/altitude data was embedded in each images EXIF information. Still image coverage underneath the aircraft was uninterrupted along the trackline with a shutter-release of around 1 photograph per second and a swath width of around 157 m. Similarly the oblique mounted cameras had a coverage over 450 m each side of the trackline (i.e., configured to be approximately the same as the human observers). 4. Video cameras A number of streampix video files. Two high definition video cameras (Prosilica GC1350C GigE with 5mm F1.4 lens) were also fitted to the aircraft. Streampix is propriety software. 5. Infrared A number of .mov files recorded from an Infra-red camera (FLIR Photon 320 with 9mm lens) mounted in the base of the aircraft. Infrared camera was situated behind an infrared window. 6. Telemetry A number of text files (.txt) containing aircraft telemetry (yaw/roll etc) and gps. The telemetry is not that reliable, nor does it go anywhere close to covering all flights conducted (see below), but included for completeness. 7. Flight data 'dat' files dumped from the aircraft flight recorder containing flight data, including geographical position, velocity and altitude. These are ascii files. 8. GPS data In addition to flight and telemetry data, we've also included two post-processed GPS data files (two .csv files, one for each survey season). These files contain GPS data from a number of sources; this was to help buffer against GPS drop-outs. Therefore, this data is much more complete than the telemetry and flight data, and has been corrected for any time syncing issues. 9. "Season_overview_2010.xls" This Excel spreadsheet file contains details on each transect, effort and other sighting information. It accompanies the .csv files for the 2009/10 season as an overview. (A similar summary does not exist for 2008/09 season.)