Watch These Cute Penguins Take A Massive Collective Poop To Melt Ice

This literal shitstorm can actually help the species have sex. Isn't science beautiful?

Meet the gentoo penguin of Antarctica. Unfortunately, these cuddly little guys are on the decline.

Tim Laman / Via youtube.com

Oxford University scientists wanted to find out exactly how human behavior and climate change are affecting penguins, so they set up a massive citizen science project with the help of over 1 million volunteers called Penguin Watch.

Project Penguin Watch set up a bunch of remote cameras throughout Antarctica and asked volunteers online to flag any images showing "strange or surprising" penguin behavior.

Penguin Watch / Via penguinwatch.org

And they came across this unusual time-lapse video of a penguin poo party. In fact, the beautiful sea of penguin poop was so large that it actually melted ice.

Penguin Watch / Via penguinwatch.org

The darker color of penguin poo absorbs more heat than the lighter color of snow, which causes the ice to melt, according to the University of Oxford. Scientists think that penguins may unintentionally use poo to melt the ice.

Gentoo penguins breed on rocky surfaces rather than ice, so they need the snow to melt in order to have sex. Basically, poo helps them get laid.

BBC / Via media.giphy.com