Antarctica tough test for Tandy

Press, 23 October 1984, Page 38

Antarctica tough test for Tandy

A party of DSIR scientists who will be studying the feeding habits of the Adelie penguins in Antarctica this summer will be subjecting electronic equipment, given by Computer Advances in Auckland, to some of the toughest conditions in the? world. The research party is headed by a zoologist, Dr Lloyd Davis, of the DSIR ecology division, Havelock North. It will use a small Tandy TRS 80 model 100 lap computer to store information gained from field observations on the ice 24 hours a day for three months. Dr Davis says the TRS 80 will operate in temperatures of five degrees Celsius. A special energy pack will be worn by the researchers next to their bodies to provide adequate heat for best battery performance. The penguin project is the first of its kind and is being

sponsored by the DSIR Antarctica division, the Centre for Field Research in the United States, and the dividion of wildlife and rangelands research in the CSIRO, Australia. It also has the backing of the International Survey of . Antarctic Seabirds. Dr Davis, with Dr Brian Green of CSIRO in Australia and four New Zealand field researchers, will observe a colony of penguins on isolated Cape Bird, Ross Island, from October to January. The party will operate in freezing conditions from a tiny hut and a hide high on a clifftop overlooking the small rookery, which is home for about 100 penguins and their chicks. After the birds have been tagged and painted for easy identification the colony will be scanned every 15 minutes and data on nesting and feeding patterns will be

entered into the computer. “There could be 40 to 50 data entries made each 15 minutes,” said Dr Davis. “Most of the analytical work will be carried out at Cape Bird as the project proceeds and will be transferred to another computer in its final form when we get back to New Zealand.” Much of the information will be used for marine and resources management in Antarctica, where Japanese and Soviet fishing boats have been harvesting thousands of tonnes of krill, the main diet of penguins. Dr Davis, who is to take up a lecturing post at the University of Otago next year, says the next stage of the project is to tag penguins with transmitters so they can be tracked by satellite. Little is known about the movement of the seabirds during the summer and winter months in Antarctica.