 Price$100 |  Duration1 hour |  DeliveryOnline |  StartsAnytime |
About this course
Explore the ecology, adaptations and conservation of Antarctica's seabirds. The course begins with how to recognise the seabirds you are most likely to encounter on an Antarctic voyage, then moves beyond identification to examine how they feed, breed, survive the cold and travel across the globe.
This comprehensive short course is part of the Antarctic Insights Course Series, an educational partnership between HX and the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS). The series brings peer-reviewed polar science to anyone with an interest in the far south, whether you are preparing for a voyage, remembering one, or simply curious. This course stands alone, so no prior HX | UTAS study is required.
The course is organised into four parts, each building on the last. Optional drop-down boxes offer more detailed identification guidance for different seabird groups and will feel familiar if you have completed the HX | UTAS Introductory Antarctic Course. Where a topic is covered in more depth elsewhere, such as disease and human impact, you will be directed to the relevant companion course.
The course takes around one hour to complete, excluding optional content. By taking this course, you are helping to fund the next generation of Antarctic researchers. A portion of your enrolment supports travel grants that enable researchers to reach departure ports, join HX expedition vessels and conduct new research, contributing to Antarctica's future as a continent for peace and science.
Course Structure
Meet the tubenoses, skuas and sheathbills that share the skies and waters of the Southern Ocean.
This part introduces the flying seabirds you are most likely to encounter around the Antarctic Peninsula, from soaring albatrosses and tiny storm petrels to the scavenging giant petrels, skuas and snowy sheathbill. It explores how each group navigates, feeds and breeds, including how tubenoses use an acute sense of smell to find food across open ocean. Optional drop-down boxes provide more detailed identification guidance.
Discover how the penguins of the Antarctic region feed, nest and raise their chicks.
This part compares the brush-tailed, crested and great penguins, looking at diet, breeding strategies, clutch size and how parents share the workload. It examines how breeding calendars are tuned to food and sea ice, and why changes in either can affect species quickly but unevenly, including the recent uplisting of the emperor penguin to Endangered.
Learn how seabirds stay warm, stay afloat and hunt beneath the surface in one of the harshest environments on Earth.
This part explores the physical and behavioural adaptations that allow seabirds to survive cold, wind and life at sea, from waterproof plumage and counter-current heat exchange to salt glands and economical flight. It compares three diving designs, those of penguins, shags and diving petrels, and considers the marine predators that penguins must avoid.
Follow Antarctic seabirds across the globe and see what tracking technology reveals about their lives and the pressures they face.
This part explores how biologging has transformed our understanding of where seabirds travel and how deep they dive. It follows the long-distance migrations of albatrosses and the Arctic tern, and examines how tracking data informs conservation priorities, including fisheries bycatch, habitat loss, changing prey availability and disease
What you will learn
Learn how to recognise Antarctica's seabirds, how they feed and breed within the short polar summer, how they are adapted to cold, ocean and diving, and how tracking technology is shaping conservation priorities.
You can work through the four parts at your own pace, in one sitting or one part at a time. The course includes a glossary to help you understand specialist terminology, and a quiz that allows you to test your understanding. Completing the quiz with a score of 50% or higher makes you eligible for a Certificate of Completion, and you can attempt the quiz as many times as you like.
You can also combine this course with others in the Antarctic short course series to build your own bespoke Antarctic learning journey.
Interested in further study?
Expand your Antarctic knowledge with our Antarctic Insights Course Series.