When Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance succumbed to the Antarctic pack ice on November 21, 1915, he and his crew began one of the most gruelling survival attempts in history. Since the explorer led his 27 men to safety more than a century ago, there has been no sign of the ship. But now, in an echo of the golden age of exploration, the race is on to the Antarctic once more – as two rival expeditions hunt for the lost vessel. A British-led team from Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University, along with universities in South Africa and New Zealand, plans to launch autonomous underwater vehicles almost two miles under the ice. The multi-million pound expedition will set out in January 2019 in research ship SA Agulhas II, The Times reported.

Scientists filming in the South Ocean off the coast of New Zealand captured this stunning footage of a blue whale eating a mass of krill. When you weigh 200 tons, even the smallest body movements require a lot of energy. That's why blue whales, Earth's largest animal, are picky eaters. Stunning new drone footage shows exactly how these massive mammals maneuver to feed on only the most nutritious patches of krill--providing insight on how they make these choices. Captured by a research team led by National Geographic Explorer Leigh Torres from Oregon State's Marine Mammal Institute, footage filmed in the Southern Ocean near New Zealand shows the moment a whale spots a patch of krill and sizes up whether it's worth expending energy.

One small flight for drones has the potential to be one giant step for science ... just ask researchers at Oregon State University. A group of scientists at the university recently captured rare footage of blue whales feeding in the Southern Ocean off New Zealand via drone. The stunning footage, narrated by Leigh G. Torres, expedition leader and principal investigator with the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State, provides a great deal of insight into what whales eat and how they decide what food is worthy of their time. SEE ALSO: Serene underwater footage shows whale's-eye view of Antarctica In a press release, Torres explained the footage clearly shows the blue whales' "lunge-feeding" process of suddenly lunging forward to eat a massive pack of krill. "Our footage shows this [lunge-feeding theory] in action," said Torres.

Over the Southern Ocean and remote Australian grasslands, there are flying robots -- drones, actually, but they're not for purposes of counterterrorism or Amazon deliveries. Rather, these unmanned aerial vehicles are being used by research scientists to sidestep time-consuming, labor-intensive work that was once done by foot, boat, or via expensive plane flights: tracking animal behavior. While humans have always been curious to learn about the habits of animals, such research is more pressing than ever. Habitat loss and climate change are having dramatic impact on almost all species -- estimates suggest as many as 1 in 6 species may go extinct due to global warming. The need to know more is urgent, and drones are changing the game by allowing scientists to be more ambitious and efficient with their studies.

The expedition in the Southern Ocean found that stocks of krill under the ice were five times more concentrated than those in open waters. The shrimp-like species is a key food for penguins, whales and fish. The importance of sea ice as a nursery for krill has long been suspected. However, these findings are the first large-scale measurements of the breeding ground's existence. The discovery was made by UK scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, the Open University and the Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen.

Penguins living in the Antarctic Ocean are under threat from a variety of factors including climate change, fisheries and human disturbance. In spite of studying the region for over a hundred years, scientists have still not developed a way to measure changes in penguin populations. Now researchers have developed a new way to keep an eye on penguins, using 50 cameras and the help of the general public. Penguins living in the Antarctic Ocean are under threat from a variety of factors including climate change, fisheries and human disturbance. The Penguins Lifeline project at the University of Oxford has been running since 2009.