China’s 42nd Antarctic expedition team has recently completed its mission. Among the participants was a professor from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou who used remote sensing technology to measure penguins’ body size and count their nests.

Liang Qi, an associate professor at the School of Remote Sensing Science and Technology, conducted more than 60 drone flights over penguin breeding grounds on Ardley Island near the Great Wall Station. Using drone imagery, he accurately identified individual penguins, distinguished between standing and lying postures, and measured body length, waist circumference, and other morphological parameters.

The number of penguin nests and breeding pairs are key indicators for assessing current population size and predicting future population dynamics. They are also core metrics in Antarctic field surveys. Previously, obtaining such data required expedition members to endure the harsh Antarctic environment and repeatedly travel to breeding sites for manual counting. Now, drone-based measurements have greatly improved both efficiency and data collection capacity.