Wildlife from Space
Many populations of wildlife are remote, inaccessible or difficult to monitor. The advent of sub-metre, Very-High-Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery has enabled us study these animals in a much more efficient way.
Connor Bamford
Marine Ecologist
I’m a marine ecologist investigating the impact of climate change on crabeater seal populations on the Western Antarctic Peninsula using Very-High-Resolution satellite imagery and AI approaches to analyse these data. This project is jointly funded by NERC (UK) and the NSF (USA), with collaborators in both countries. I am based within the Ecosystems Team at the British Antarctic Survey, where I use both predictive modelling and Very-High-Resolution satellite imagery as tools with the long-term goal of informing conservation science and marine management in this region.
I completed my PhD at BAS with the University of Southampton, where my project focussed on habitat modelling of marine mammal species around South Georgia and the application of satellite imagery to survey whales in remote regions.
Prior to this PhD, I competed my MPhil in Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge in 2015, where my dissertation research investigated the spatial distribution of baleen whales in Eastern Antarctica. Preceding my MPhil, I graduated from the University of Southampton with a BSc (Hons.) degree in Environmental Sciences in 2014.
Fretwell, P., Bamford, C., Skachkova, A., Trathan, P., & Forcada, J. (2025). Model input and output statistics on fifteen-year assessment of emperor penguin breeding populations from the Bellingshausen sea to the Weddell sea from VHR satellite imagery, 2009-2023 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/c8d8ffe6-0aff-493c-b40f-e63f0c35f081
Bamford, C., Cubaynes, H., Kelly, N., Clarke, P., Longden, E., Weyn, M., Perry, G., Snead, H., Fouda, L., Macfarlane, G., & Jackson, J. (2025). Locations of features of interest from a multi-season (2018-2022) baleen whale-focused survey of Wilhelmina Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula, using WorldView-03 satellite imagery (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/ab19aaba-12d6-44a7-89a3-7b45af0343ed
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_30 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/236cbe3a-5f05-4cef-8e92-7145b0190f0b
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_29 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/2e870dac-9eb1-4f1d-a5ff-fe18090afd79
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_26 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/a6446ddc-d6bf-4267-9af6-599d2fcc2efa
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_25 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/5224ff55-e347-4d26-9cd5-28c9bb52a805
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_24 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/c8ddb9ad-a710-4cf3-b068-cf1c57ff31ae
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_22 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/e238f84e-63b2-4019-8308-7398a8ea204f
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_21 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/a0eac296-ccc6-4d25-b749-a96fec66d233
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_19 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/6e4a0ad0-8f43-4b8b-bca5-983db79d2627
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_17 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/fb560068-04ae-4afb-bbd1-86a1e0003474
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_16 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/865373e6-0b33-418e-9b80-9442dccbcd3e
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_12 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/c2346fb2-7ef0-421c-9511-6ba7701f0f0a
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_11 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/14b142da-9341-471b-af7a-8613f0fbbb25
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_10 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/9c4cb255-a754-4b6b-9748-d8b355e029de
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of Hound Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_31 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/6ecb7be8-6b68-44a7-8aac-abbbb591b4e5
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of Hound Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_23 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/85de16ff-a3b2-42b4-a898-aea94ee47b83
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of Hound Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_20 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/463ea06f-6c49-4d6e-a80b-21c88a71c3da
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of Hound Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_15 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/a0c38c31-694c-4f07-a178-66f219fca5d9
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of Hound Bay, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_08 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/f5139bb9-79b2-44e1-963e-c2755ffd1d01
Fenney, N., Coleman, J., & Bamford, C. (2025). Aerial survey of Gold Harbour, South Georgia, elephant seal colony during the 2023/24 season, flight DLPUS_214_32 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/47d0718d-7146-44d3-965c-60e62a48b8cc
Jackson, J., Kennedy, A., Bamford, C., Martin, S., MacDonald, D., & Carroll, E. (2023). Cetacean sightings in January and February 2019 near to Cumberland Bay, South Georgia (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/33204189-2ecb-4f6b-b3e2-e1b7bc4339db
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Read more of: Wildlife from Space
- South Atlantic Elephant Seal Population Assessment (SAESPA) – DPLUS214
- South Georgia Right Whale Project
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Monitoring whales from space
Read more of: Monitoring whales from spaceScientists have found that studying high-resolution images of whales from space is a feasible way to estimate their populations. A team, led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), compared satellite images […]
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Watching whales from space
Read more of: Watching whales from spaceScientists have used detailed high-resolution satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies’ DigitalGlobe, to detect, count and describe four different species of whales. Reported this week in the journal Marine Mammal […]
