Discover the wildlife of Antarctica

Parts of Antarctica are heating up faster than anywhere else on the planet.

Scientists want to know how this will impact the region, its abundant wildlife and the rest of the world.

In seeking to do this, an international team of scientists spent three months – from December 2016 to March 2017 – circumnavigating the continent. A voyage like this has never been done before in one season and during the expedition the scientists discovered a huge underwater cavern beneath a tongue of a giant glacier.

They found that the seawater in the area was warmer than expected and there was surprising evidence of melt. They also discovered bubbles of salt water in ice cores drilled from the glacier, giving them valuable information about how warming ocean currents are affecting the ice.

The expedition performed the first aerial survey of a remote group of islands and saw predatory behaviour in a starfish-like creature for the first time.

They visited many places that are too remote for other scientists to reach, including some sub-Antarctic islands that have never been studied.

Click here for a 360-degree tour of Antarctica.