Danish researchers see the funny side of Antarctic penguin poop

Nitrous oxide is a chemical compound that has various uses in the medical industry, with applications including anaesthetic and pain-killing medications. However, the colourless gas is also known as laughing gas, with some even inhaling it to attain a euphoric effect.

That second bit is particularly interesting here. Danish researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management recently shared that Antarctica king penguins emit huge amounts of nitrous oxide through their faeces.

Apparently, researchers went “cuckoo” from being around penguin poop while studying penguin colonies on the Atlantic island of South Georgia. As a result, one researcher began to feel ill after several hours, with “symptoms” including a headache.

Professor Bo Elberling, who lead the researchers in the study, explained:

“Penguin guano produces significantly high levels of nitrous oxide around their colonies.

After nosing about in guano for several hours, one goes completely cuckoo. One begins to feel ill and get a headache.”

The high amounts of laughing gas emitted from penguin poop is linked to krill and fish—that form the penguin diet—which has high percentages of nitrogen. When penguins excrete their faeces onto the ground, bacteria in the soil then plays a role in converting the nitrogen into the nitrous oxide gas.

But on a more sombre note, the report also states that nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, is 300 times more polluting to the earth’s environment compared to carbon dioxide. However, Elberling explains that the nitrous oxide emissions found during their study aren’t copious enough to affect the earth’s “energy budget”.

Instead, the research merely shows that large penguin colonies can and will affect the environment around them. And with penguin colonies expanding, the discovery is worth considering for future research into greenhouse gases and the effect they have on the environment.

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