Barcoding Penguins

ETHOS News: Monitoring of penguins on South Georgia

On the main route favoured by the penguins in their journey from colony to the sea, a series of fake rock platforms has been built which disguise a weighbridge. The birds move along the flat ‘rocks’ which are set at different heights, ensuring that the bird will hesitate before moving to a different level. So far, about 200 penguins have been tagged with electronic barcodes which are scanned as they pass the weighbridge, recording the identifying number of the penguin, its weight and the time and date of the record.

And how, precisely, does one put a barcode on a penguin in the first place? At least it would make it easier to buy them in supermarkets.

“I can’t scan this penguin… price check for a Macaroni penguin on aisle 3…”