Penguins use poo to melt snow

Call it landscaping the penguin way: time-lapse footage from a colony of Antarctic Gentoo penguins appears to show the birds using their feces to melt snow in their breeding grounds. The images — captured by the University of Oxford's Penguin Watch initiative — show the snow piling up before the penguins arrive, ready to breed. They quickly blanket the area with what lookslike mud (here's a clue: it's not mud) and lo, the snow begins to melt.
whatever's going on, the penguins aren't doing it on purpose
Scientists studying the footage say it's possible that the darker color of the poo is helping to melt the snow by absorbing extra heat — a process known as the albedo effect. "This is something we're testing at the moment," says Dr Tom...
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