On Ice

This fall, I joined a small team that is working on a multi-year, multi-million dollar documentary about the life of Adélie penguins. Based at a remote field site in Antarctica, the team of four spent three weeks capturing the migration of the penguins from the Ross Sea to land as they began building their nests and meeting their mates. Read on for a Q&A with Cindy about her Antarctic experience.

What is your biology/ornithology background?

I have a biology undergraduate and graduate degree. I’ve worked all around the world studying wildlife biology but my primary focus was on polar seabirds. I began working in the Canadian arctic in 1998 and in the Antarctic in 2002. When I was in full swing as a full-time field biologist, I would spend about ten months of the year in polar field camps studying seabirds.

So you had been to Antarctica before?

Yes, I have been several times but always to the Antarctic Peninsula (via South America) at Palmer Station, the smallest of the three United States Antarctic Program (USAP) stations. This was my first trip to the New Zealand side of Antarctica and to the McMurdo USAP station.

Did you actively seek out this opportunity or did it come to you?

The opportunity came to me. A friend and former colleague from my work in the high Canadian Arctic contacted me about the opportunity to serve as a short-term penguin biologist alongside a film crew.

How do you pack for an Antarctica trip? What clothing/supplies are required to survive in such extreme weather?

Great question! You bring all of your warmest gear and ample layers. Critical clothing/supplies to survive long periods in cold weather include ski goggles, face mask or balaclava, warm hat, lots of layers (wool or synthetic—no cotton), a very good down coat, thick mittens with windproof covers and durable winter boots with removable insulated liners. When we were hiking to and from the field site, I would pare down to two base layers on top and bottom to avoid sweating as much as possible, then when we would stop at our work site for hours at a time, I would pile on nine layers on top and four on the bottom to stay warm. Keeping the body moving was also critical to keep blood flowing to extremities. Despite all of this, it is still quite easy to get frostbite. One of our team members did get frostbite on his toe.

And how cold was it?

It was really cold. -22°F on average and -50°F with windchill. We slept in Scott tents and had a small warming hut to cook our food, dry our clothes, melt snow for water, etc.

What’s the difference between Adélie penguins and other species of penguins?

Adélie penguins are a mid-sized penguin (about one-and-a-half to two feet tall) with the most southerly distribution of all penguins, except Emperor penguins (which are about four feet tall). Adélies go to land to breed and nest (Emperors nest on sea ice). They spend the rest of the year feeding on krill and fish along the sea ice edge and off icebergs.

What, if anything, surprised you about your encounters with the penguins?

I’ve worked with Adélie penguins a lot so not too much surprised me about their behavior. However, I have never seen the spectacle of a colony going from zero penguins to 500,000 penguins over the course of a few weeks before. It was indescribable—the noise, the smell, the endless activity—day and “night” (it was never dark, of course).

“I have never seen the spectacle of a colony going from zero penguins to 500,000 penguins over the course of a few weeks before. It was indescribable—the noise, the smell, the endless activity.”

What is the motivation behind the film? Is it purely educational about Adélies or is there an additional message?

Although the documentary film is about the lifecycle and natural history of Adélie Penguins, it does have a deeper message about conservation of animals and their natural habitats, and about the potential ramifications to both due to climate change.

Did you notice any evidence of climate change in Antarctica?

This is a tricky question. There is no question that there is evidence of climate change in Antarctica; the ice cores extracted from the deep ice shelf over Antarctica has been a key resource for demonstrating climate change outside of the natural climate cycle. However, when a person visits a site they have never been to before—no matter where in the world—it is nearly impossible to see evidence of climate change, unless that site happens to have a historical record of some kind. Climate change science is based on scientific measurements and trends that are documented over decades and centuries, not moments in time. 

Do you have a particularly exciting or scary story from living in such extreme conditions?

Yes! We endured a “big blow” while I was on site. The storm started with a deep, booming, prolonged thundering sound as the wind traveled over and down a steep ridge and glacier toward us. It was terrifying. We knew we were about to get hit by katabatic winds (downslope winds coming off of an ice field) that can reach hurricane speeds. We immediately packed up our gear and made our way back up and over the ridges to our warming hut as fast as we could. The trip would normally take us about thirty minutes to hike under good conditions and this time it took us two hours. Our team of four stuck close together. We hiked in a hunched over position and in single file to reduce our individual exposure to the wind. I was picked up and thrown several times when wind gusts hit us as we crested ridges. We were very lucky to have made it back to our hut safely and without injury. The winds raged at about one hundred miles per hour for twelve hours. To put that in perspective, a very large, thousand-pound wooden box was lifted and carried about a half mile down the glacier from our hut by the wind that afternoon.

“A very large, thousand-pound wooden box was lifted and carried about a half mile down the glacier from our hut by the wind that afternoon.”

What was it like to have very little communication with the outside world for three weeks?

It was wonderful, actually (especially as it was the month leading up to the election)! I have a practice of disconnecting for shorter periods of time throughout the year on sailing or hiking trips, as a way of getting reconnected with nature and myself, and this felt like a natural extension of that practice. It was nice to have some limited email connectivity during this trip though to be sure everything was going well with the sustainability program and students. It was a real treat to have this access since in past field camps I have been completely disconnected from the outside world for months at a time.

And lastly, when and where will we be able to see the finished film?

I believe the film will come out on Earth Day in 2018 or 2019, and it will be screened in mainstream theaters. It will be a full-length feature film.

Article originally published by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design on December 15, 2016. All photos courtesy of Cindy Gilbert.