Curious Planet's video: Antarctica Population Explained - Who lives in Antarctica 3D Animation

Antarctica, is the southernmost & the fifth largest continent of our planet almost twice the size of Australia. On Average it’s the coldest, driest and windiest of all the continents. Due to the extremities of weather it has no native population & remains largely unexplored. Majority of the continent is an ice desert with almost 98% of it covered by ice all the year round. The continent was first discovered in 1820 by a Russian expedition. But it was not until 1895 when the first humans, a team of Norwegians, stepped on the continent. The early inhabitants of the place were primarily British & American sealers. They moved around in the proximity of the continent looking for whales. Does anyone live in Antarctica? What is the population size? What is the quality of human life there? Today, the only people living in Antarctica are those doing research on the continent. Their number ranges from a 1000 to 5000 throughout the year. The number generally goes down during the unforgiving winters, the stations are shut down. The work resumes during the summers. During winters, moving in & out of the place gets nearly impossible. The population density on the continent is not even 1 person per square kilometre. Scientists from 28 different nations conduct their experiments here, every year, which cannot be reproduced anywhere in the world. The teams of researchers include physicists, astronomers, meteorologists, oceanographers, biologists etc. Several countries have their permanent research stations on the continent. The smallest of them are operated by as less as six people & the largest, the McMurdo station can house upto a 1000 people. The stations also have a church, opened in 2004 at a Russian station & is manned by two priests all the year-round. Speaking of food, the only food available here is shipped from the native countries of the explorers & scientists. Ships also buy food from the on-route ports. The research stations have cooking facilities, they do grow little food via the hydroponic system. For now, this is pretty much it in this short episode. In the future there will be dedicated episodes about the research on the continent, the research stations, the discovery of the place & the climate etc. If you liked the episode, do hit that like button. Share it with your folks. Subscribe, Hit the bell icon to be notified on the new content on the channel. This is Curious Planet signing off, until next time. Music: Grassy Hill - Huma-Huma https://youtu.be/BKWmnTj8D0M Title: Grassy Hill Artist: Huma-Huma Genre: Alternative & Punk Mood: Bright