Researchers Need Your Help Looking at Pictures of Lovable Penguins

If you need a break at work, trying counting penguins: An oddly addictive website called Penguin Watch will show you a photo from Antarctica and ask you to tag baby penguins and adults, all in the name of science.

Scientists at Oxford University recently launched PenguinWatch 2.0, and they are asking the public to help them observe penguin colonies in Antarctica in order to see how climate change is affecting them. (Yes, that includes penguin chicks.)

According to BBC, the team has over 75 cameras set up across Antarctica and sub-Antarctic islands, and each one automatically takes a photo per hour. “We can’t do this work on our own,” said lead researcher Tom Hart. That’s where you come in.

All you have to do is log in to PenguinWatch 2.0, and identify any adult penguins, chicks and eggs in the photo. “Every penguin that people click on and count on the website—that’s all information that tells us what’s happening at each nest, and what’s happening over time,” said Hart.

“The team is also analyzing climate, pollution, and fisheries research from the area, and will combine this with the results from PenguinWatch 2.0 to look for any patterns in what’s affecting populations,” reported BBC. That means every single click is helping protect those cute little birds and is also giving researchers a better scope of what’s going on in the continent.

Over three million photos have already been classified thanks to volunteers—so go forth and binge-click on penguin pictures. After all, it’s in the name of scientific research.

Agencies/Canadajournal