Scientists have found that penguins use their feces to melt snow in their breeding grounds.
The University of Oxford’s Penguin Watch initiative captured some images of colony of Antarctic Gentoo penguins, which show the snow piling up before the penguins arrive, ready to breed, after that the birds gather up, release the faces and the snow begins to melt.
Dr. Tom Hart, a penguinologist said that the darker color of the poo may be helping to melt the snow by absorbing extra heat – a process known as the albedo effect.
He added “the snow might also be melting because of mechanical erosion – because the penguins are walking around,” saying the birds may not have realized that it was there excretion that was doing the melting.
