Episode details

Radio 4,20 Oct 2026,28 mins
Tom Hart on Antarctic wildlife and the power of penguin poo
The Life ScientificAvailable for over a year
How do you keep tabs on millions of penguins in the most remote places on Earth, when there's nobody there to do the watching? Tom Hart is a Professor of Conservation and Ecology at Oxford Brookes University and self-described "penguinologist". He's pioneered the use of remote camera networks, drones and AI to monitor Antarctica's wildlife on an unprecedented scale. He's also a founder of the award-winning Penguin Watch citizen science project, which has harnessed the power of thousands of volunteers around to world, to help with analysing this data - the results of which are helping scientists to understand how penguins are responding to the rapidly changing world… Tom tells Professor Jim Al-Khalili about how he first "caught Antarctica", hitchhiking on tourist cruises and why it's worth paying attention to penguin poo. Presented by Jim Al-Khalili Produced by Lucy Taylor A BBC Studios production
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