ByEmma Bryce-Live Science Contributor2 days ago

For these gregarious animals, ‘alone time’ is a fantasy.

• https://www.livescience.com/largest-group-of-animals.html
• Also see: https://www.livescience.com/first-human-caused-animal-extinction.html

Wildebeests have large herd sizes, but they’re not the largest animal group ever recorded.(Image: © James Warwick)

In early 2020, ornithologist Noah Strycker found himself walking amongst several thousand chinstrappenguinson Elephant Island, a remote blip of snow-covered rock just off the Antarctic Peninsula. He was there to carry out a census of the island’s penguin colony, which hadn’t been properly surveyed since 1970. “I’ll never forget the sight, sound, and…smell,” joked Strycker, a graduate student at Stony Brook University in New York, as well as a professional bird watcher, and author.

The survey that he and his colleagues eventually produced revealed that chinstrap penguin numbers are in decline. But despite this, this species actually forms the biggest colony of penguins on Earth – gathering in the millions…