At McMurdo Station, America’s main Antarctic base, temporary residents keep themselves busy with work and the station’s many amenities: a music room, bars, gyms, and a library. But even with the recent installation of Starlink internet connectivity, morale can be difficult to keep up during the months-long winter nights.
From mid-February through August, the station is isolated and dark, with the population dropping from thousands to a few hundred, and far fewer supplies being brought in. Beginning in April the sun doesn’t appear above the horizon, the temperature outside drops to below -50º F, and blizzards can unleash gusts of above 70 mph.
There is very little privacy, and a lot of stress. It’s no wonder some residents begin to badly miss the comforts of home. Stuart Behling, a winter research associate at McMurdo during the 2024 winter season, was missing his cat Luna, who recently died during his deployment.
With Luna in mind, Behling created an exhibit for the station’s annual winter science fair that argued the benefits of adding one more resident: a station cat. “I had vague ideas about the health benefits cats can provide,” he said, “and I remembered Shackleton had a ship cat they all loved, so [there was] some historical precedent of a sort.”
Ginger, the ship’s cat, with Roddey Bonner on the Antarctic relief ship, the John Biscoe. Cats, dogs, and other domesticated animals have previously reached Antarctica aboard exploration vessels.
Photograph by Smith Archive, Alamy Stock Photo
Since nautical exploration was the only way Antarctica could be reached up until very recently, the story of Antarctic pets is closely connected to the stories of animals finding homes at sea.
As Behling recalled, explorer Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 Endurance expedition had a cat—the carpenter’s pet Mrs. Chippy,
Most of the expeditions during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration at the turn of the 20th century carried cats, including the Discovery expedition’s Poplar and Blackwall and the Belgica’s Nansen and Sverdrup.
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Discovery also had a pet dog Scamp; and Captain Scott’s Terra Nova expedition had a pet cat, rabbit, and guinea pig onboard ship, in addition to the working dogs and ponies that were as beloved as the non-working pets.
The history of Antarctic animals supports Behling’s idea, but the laws of the Antarctic Treaty do not.
In April 1994, the last sled dogs were removed from their home on the continent, after a provision in the Antarctic Treaty came into full effect enforcing a rule that no foreign species be introduced or kept on the continent (apart from humans).
That makes his quest to get McMurdo a station cat a long, uphill battle.
The risks of pet ownership
Before Behling’s proposal, there was already an active Antarctic Cat Club. Founded 14 years ago by U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) coordinator Phil Jacobsen, the club’s rules are simple: if you left a cat behind when you came to Antarctica, and someone sends you a photo of the cat, you have to share it with other members, ending all emails with the word “meow.”
“Leaving your pet behind to go to Antarctica is one of the most difficult parts about deploying,” Jacobsen said. He was last deployed five years ago, and has worked remotely since then, but his cat still hasn’t forgiven him. “Your friends and family know you’re leaving for six months, but a cat—a cat just thinks you’re going to PetSmart when you walk out the door.”
The Antarctic Cat Club, with its own logo and traditions, is more of a loose confederation than a club: the group rarely meets up in person, as befits the solitary profile of cat people, preferring to trade pictures and cat news digitally. “If you’d like to be part of a group with regular meetings, might I suggest getting a dog?” Jacobsen said.
It’s been over 30 years since non-native animals have lived in Antarctica.
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By the 1980s, sled dogs were replaced by snowmobiles, but small populations had been kept on by various Antarctic stations, including the British and Argentinian bases, mainly for morale and companionship.
However, they were a threat to the native population of seals, which were at times killed in order to feed the dogs. Seals can also contract diseases like canine distemper from close contact with them.
The Antarctic Treaty’s strict environmental protections have since restricted new pets from arriving. Visitors, whether tourist or worker, are prohibited from approaching or touching native animals, and from even walking over lichen or moss-covered areas. Just as in the case of the sled dogs, a pet cat could introduce the risk of transmitting diseases to local wildlife— toxoplasmosis, fleas, or parasites.
Ultimately, the Antarctic Treaty’s aim is to minimize human impact on the continent in every way possible, leaving it the undisturbed preserve of science, research, and international cooperation.
A pet cat as a science experiment
In his poster, Behling lays out the loophole in the treaty that might do the trick.
Hidden in Subpart C of the Treaty’s Antarctic Conservation Act, is a description for a permit to introduce a non-native species, if it can be considered a lab or research animal. An experiment that tests how a pet cat affects the health and morale of long term base residents could qualify as precisely that.
“Keeping the cat indoors prevents disease and predation, and keeping records of people’s experience with the cat provides research data useful for both the [National Science Foundation] and probably NASA as well, which would justify a permit to bring the cat on station,” Behling said.
A McMurdo cat would be well-taken care of, adds Phil Jacobsen.
“If McMurdo Station had a cat, it would be the most spoiled, loved, cared after cat in the world,” he said.
But he warns that the Treaty protections do exist for a reason.
“We know that we don’t know how fragile the Antarctic environment can be,” he points out: a single microscopic parasite from the cat’s litter box could hypothetically wreak havoc on an entire population of penguins if it broke containment.
Regardless of potential downsides, Behling hopes to reach a critical mass of support that will bring the campaign to the attention, and eventually the approval, of the NSF and the Antarctic Treaty’s Committee for Environmental Protection.
Below his poster, he constructed a small diorama of the room he imagines the cat would be kept in—including an airlock-style door that would help avoid a potential cat jailbreak and the contamination that might ensue. It would require a lot of wrangling and work, but he believes it’s very possible to overcome the challenges, and give McMurdo a new furry friend for the first time in decades.
What would an Antarctic cat be called?
Behling said it would probably have to be decided by community poll. “I would probably submit something Antarctic related, either an explorer, or one of their ships. Maybe Mrs. Chippy for continuity.”
Jacobsen agrees Mrs. (or Mr.) Chippy might be a poll-winning name, but he has a different idea: “I’d want to call this cat ‘The Coolest’ because if Antarctica were to get a cat, it would be The Coolest cat in the world.”
