The team at Bird Island Research Station track the individual giant petrels and nests each year on the island, which helps them piece together stories like this.

This long-term view at Bird Island also tells us about the wider health of the ecosystem and the impact of human activities like fishing.

She returned to breed on Bird Island in 2004 and raised a chick 🪶

From 2004-10, she remained with the same male until he died. She found a new partner, with whom she has bred with every year since 2013.

Over her lifetime, the teams have seen her successfully rear nine chicks, with eight losses.

This stark finding shows how important long-term monitoring of wildlife in Antarctica is. Scientists from British Antarctic Survey ramped up to annual counts of southern elephant seals in 2015, giving us vital data to distinguish between short-term fluctuations and enduring impacts.

📸 Kate Owen

Breeding southern elephant seals gather in large numbers on South Georgia's beaches, with 'harems' of anywhere from 20-300 females, guarded by a male 'beachmaster'. With the seals packed together in close proximity, it's much easier for viruses - like bird flu - to spread quickly.

📸Antony Clements

Researchers used drones to survey the 3 largest breeding colonies on South Georgia, comparing numbers of breeding females before & after the outbreak. The findings were stark: around 53,000 females were missing - nearly half the breeding population.

📸 Kate Owen

🦭 South Georgia is home to the largest population of southern elephant seals in the world
📅 The virus (known as HPAI H5N1) arrived at South Georgia in late 2023
⬇️ Between 2022 and 2024, colonies of breeding southern elephant seals declined by an average of 47%

📸 Kate Owen

Always good to have a professional second opinion! 😉 The team are making the most of the wait.

Here's the latest weather reports the @metoffice.gov.uk have put together to help our team travel to Halley Research Station on Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf.

The team use these reports and webcams at Halley to judge conditions - really tricky predict in detail over such a large and remote area.

To get to Halley Research Station, the team fly from Heathrow to Cape Town, then on to Wolf’s Fang camp.

This is where the team are now, waiting for a window of good weather so they can fly on to Halley, via Neumayer Research Station, run by the German Antarctic Programme.

We've got no other information for you or clever strategic link, we were just gleeful about the existence of this photo.