The invention relates to an emperor penguin population quantity remote sensing estimation method. Landsat 7 satellite images in a corresponding time period are preprocessed, strip noise, geometric distortion and atmosphere influences are removed, afterwards, emperor penguin feces are pre-extracted, and areas obviously without population targets are eliminated. Through multiple tests, it is discovered that brightness differences between the emperor penguin feces on thermal infrared images and other natural objects are obvious, and therefore, emperor penguin population feces candidate areas are obtained by performing image segmentation on the thermal infrared images after pre-extraction. After true color synthesizing and wave band operation are performed on each emperor penguin population feces candidate area, it is determined that candidate areas satisfying all corresponding conditions are emperor penguin feces areas, i.e., emperor penguin population positions, and latitude and longitude coordinates of the positions are recorded. The same operation is completed on other remote sensing images of coastal zones of Antarctica in the corresponding time period, all the emperor penguin population positions are obtained, and finally, the emperor penguin population quantity and corresponding geographical coordinates of the whole Antarctica are obtained.