BIRD LIFE AT SOUTH POLE

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28161, 27 December 1956, Page 6

BIRD LIFE AT SOUTH POLE

Lone Gull Seen Over Plateau [From BRTAIV “The Press" 1 zorrespemdent with the United States Navy's Antarctic Expedition'i ABOARD U.S.S. GLACIER. McMURDO. December 24. Bird life has been recorded at I the South Geographic Pole in i the middle of the desolate white ice desert. One day last week the inhabitants of the United States base at the Pole sighted i a lone skua gull winging its way ! over the IG 000 ft Polar plateau ! hundreds of miles from the ! nearest sea. The bird is a familiar : part of the marine fauna on the [ Antarctic coasts. This was the first sighting of! I any animal life so far south, i The gull is correctly called the South Polar skua ‘ Catharacta j skua MacCormicki* and is one I of the only three birds truly in- i | digenous to Antarctica. The other ; . two are the Emperor and Adelie ! penguins. ! The South Polar skua has al- ■ ways had the distinction, of be- ! ing the world’s most southerlytraveller in the animal kingdom. Captain Robert Scott saw it in January. 1912, at Latitude 87 de-' grees south. 160 miles from the Pole, and Rear-Admiral Richard E. Bird’s second Antarctic expedition in 1934 reported seeing it at Latitude 86 degrees south. Official Record To record what is probably the I most important fauna observation 1 since men began making regular, methodical scientific studies from fixed points in Antarctica 58 years ago the Americans filed an official report on a military flight document which fs used for aircraft running the service between the Pole and McMurdo Sound. Two gulls of the same species ! as the bird seen at the Pole were . killed tonight by the biologist. !Mr Richard Marwick. and Dr. ; John (Findlav. of the New Zea- ! land expedition, on the Navy icei breaker Glacier. j An American physiologist. Dr. i Sidney Schwartz, showed them i how to catch skuas on a hook I and' with a snare and how to dispatch them with a knife thrust through the roof of the mouth into the brain to keep the skin whole for taxidermy. 'The skuas will be preserved and brought back to New Zealand.