Leung, a professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at North Carolina State University said, “They call it penguin perfume. Of course, they are also really cute and impressive.”
Leung traveled to Antarctica for three weeks from December 2019 to January 2020 as part of an expedition by the Ecuadorian Antarctic Institute. The Institute aimed to study whether people’s behavior – like standing, kneeling, walking, or talking – near two penguin species changes the birds’ behavior. While Leung hoped to go back for follow-up studies, the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible.
Leung and a team of international authors wrote in detail about the pandemic’s impact on tourism and research in Antarctica. Leung’s findings regarding how tourists can affect the chinstrap and gentoo penguins were published in the journal ‘Antarctic Science’.
Tags: Tourism in Antarctica
