Fauna
The nearly continual frigid winds that blow across the Antarctic Plateau, especially in the wintertime, make the outdoor conditions there very inhospitable to life. Hence there is practically no natural life, even at the microscopic level.
No penguins live on the Antarctic Plateau because there is nothing there for them to eat. Few or no birds fly over the Antarctic Plateau, and if any arrive there, they have been blown in by huge storms - usually to their deaths by freezing or thirst. There are no land animals on Antarctica, except for human beings and their laboratory animals.
Any microscopic life that could be found on the Antarctic Plateau would be either dead or dying microorganisms blown in by the wind, or "hitching a ride" on human land vehicles or aircraft, carried in on food supplies, or microorganisms living in the digestive systems or bloodstreams of human beings, their laboratory animals, or their pets.
Read more about this topic: Antarctic Plateau
Famous quotes containing the word fauna:
“The whole fauna of human fantasies, their marine vegetation, drifts and luxuriates in the dimly lit zones of human activity, as though plaiting thick tresses of darkness. Here, too, appear the lighthouses of the mind, with their outward resemblance to less pure symbols. The gateway to mystery swings open at the touch of human weakness and we have entered the realms of darkness. One false step, one slurred syllable together reveal a man’s thoughts.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)