The life of ... an emperor penguin

Hello,

Today, we're looking at the fascinating lives of emperor penguins. These incredible creatures have adapted to survive in the extreme conditions of Antarctica, and in this post, we'll explore their incredible lives.

In late May to early June just before the Antarctic winter sets in, female emperor penguins lay a single egg. They then leave the colony and go on a two month hunt. The male rests the egg on his feet and covers it with warm, feathered skin called the brood pouch. He will eat nothing for these two months. The chick hatches in August and the female returned to take over. She has spent two months feeding and now regurgitates some food for the newly-hatched chick. The male leaves to feed himself as he has been living off his fat reserves for the past two months.

The female keeps the chick in her brood pouch until the sea ice close to the breeding site breaks up as the temperatures warm. The chick is now strong enough to learn how to swim and hunt for themselves. They will return in 5 years to rear their own chicks. Interestingly, 15% of adults will find the same partner from the previous year. We don't know how they recognise them, because there isn't a permanant nest or specific place for them to return to.

Emperor penguins survive the chilling Antarctic winds by standing close together in huddles. They take it in turns to be in the middle before moving back to the outside to allow another individual to warm up. Emperor penguins are amazing swimmers. In fact, they are the deepest-diving birds in the world, reaching depths of over 500m and staying under water for over 20 minutes. They feed on squid, krill and fish.

Emperors are classified as near threatened however, they face a couple of threats. They are eaten by orcas and leopard seals. However a much bigger and long term threat is climate change. As with most species in the Antarctic, climate change is a massive problem. Most of the food chain in Antarctica, relies on the sea ice. The sea ice that is now being rapidly reduced. Just this week, an article in ScienceDaily came out warning about a "Catastrophic Breeding Failure in Emperor Penguins", due to the loss of sea ice. Warmer water temperatures cause problems in fish migration and could lead to thousands of chicks starving each year or the females being too weak to produce eggs that actually have a chance to survive. So, as with all animals, humans are pushing a pretty stable and well adapted population ever closer to extinction.

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/emperor-penguin
https://www.britannica.com/animal/emperor-penguin

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230824110830.htm

Images:
Antarctica: Emperor Penguins, owned by Eli Duke (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Penguin Parents, owned by Christopher Michel (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

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