Woman In Antarctica

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 14

Woman In Antarctica

When Dr D. MullerSehwarze visited Antarctica five years ago he was single; yesterday, on his second visit, he took his. wife.

Mrs Christine MuilerSchwarze, a 29-year-old psychologist, said at Christchurch Airport that she was very excited and looking forward very much to accompanying her husband to Cape Crozier for two months of studies of Adelie penguins and predators.

Dr Muiler-Schwarze, an associate professor of animal behaviour at Utah State University, said that he and his wife normally worked together. At home she assists him to raise deer and antelope for his studies of animal behaviour and scent communication.

“We intend studying the interaction between penguins and predators such as the leopard seals in the sea and the skua gulls on land which prey on the eggs and chicks,” he said. “We wish to know how the penguins recognise the predators and try to avoid them,” he said. This study was new, although some related projects had already been carried out in Antarctica. At Cape Crozier, where Dr Muiler-Schwarze and his wife will spend two months, they will be joined today by two field assistants who will spend four months in the same area, and during the summer two other scientists

from Johns Hopkins University will join the Utah University party for penguin studies. Since the announcement that his wife would be the first woman scientist from America to work on the continent, Dr Muiler-Schwarze said, many people had sought their reaction, half expecting a spectacular statement “To us it is just like our going out on another field study,” he said. “There is nothing unusual about women

going to the Antarctic. Perhaps the last time I was there working at Hallett Station it would not have been possible, but the place is far more civilised today. I think it is a perfectly natural development.” Dr Muiler-Schwarze and his wife were among about 200 Americans who left in two United States Navy Hercules and two Super Constellations for Antarctica yesterday on the first flights of the summer season.