How Beautiful | Emperor Penguins

How beautiful is the world of "Ice Worlds"? I can tell you, it is.

Penguins have a heavy life in Antarctica. The winters are hard, dark and cold. The breeding cycle of the King or Emperor Penguin begins in autumn (around April) when the sea-ice reforms and gets thick enough to support the thousands of penguins. The birds return year after year to the same location. The first thing they have to do is relocate their mates or, if they haven't bred before, find one! At this time there is a lot of activity in the colony with many penguins wandering around, singing their songs and performing courtship behaviours. These include a wide range of displays ranging from head bowing to head swinging and walking around in a most impressive manner.

Once a pair has (re-)formed and decides to breed they copulate and eventually the female produces a single egg. Emperor penguins breed on the sea-ice in bitterly cold conditions. There are no materials to build nests from but the eggs have to be kept warm until they hatch. So the female who leaves the colony over winter gives the egg to her partner who carefully puts it on his feet and covers it with a skin fold. In this way the egg is kept toasty warm at about 38°C while the outside temperatures can drop well below -35°C. In late May/early June, there is an exodus of penguins (mainly females) from the colony. Suddenly it becomes rather quiet. The singing of the courtship period stops and only occasional calls are heard. The females track across the fast-ice and head for the sea while the males stay behind to incubate the eggs. During the winter storms they huddle closely together to keep warm. They haven't eaten anything except a little snow since they arrived at the colony nearly two months ago and they cannot go out and feed with the egg on their feet. It takes 65-75 days for the eggs to hatch; by the time the chicks appear their fathers will have fasted for four months! The males rely entirely on the body fat that they laid down during summer to survive the long winter fast.

When the females finally return to the colony in July the males have lost nearly half their body mass and look quite skinny. The females on the other hand having been out hunting all this time are big and beautiful. Males and females recognise each other by their calls and it is remarkable how quickly a female can locate her mate among thousands of penguins when she comes home. She has to work quite hard to convince her mate to let her have the egg back or hand over the tiny chick. He has been looking after the egg all winter and although very hungry he is most reluctant to let it go.

I hope you like this video :D

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• How
• Beautiful
• Animals
• Antarctica
• Penguins
• King
• Emperor
• Ice
• Worlds
• Migration
• Breeding
• Cycle
• Chick
• Female
• Male
• Snow
• Cold

[RCMan89]

Wow...this video is beautiful...like the film March of the Emperor ;) I this video a part of a film you sell? and thanks for writing down the info ;)

[CharlieQH]

@RCMan89

Hey, thank you.. it isn't a part of March of the penguins. I cut the clips from the BBC Planet Earth serries. :D

You're welcome!

[crystal0angel]

what is the song u used its really nice

[CharlieQH]

I'm really sorry for the late reaction, I was on Holiday.

The music is from immedatie Music and names: World's Apart

[Pilgrimspass]

wow, amazing!! lov it! the music fits them so well! 5* an fav berith!! XD

[CharlieQH]

thank you!

[Gronkhisking]

oh god!!! its soooooo great i wish a whole farm of these fecking sweet penguins!!!!!!!!!

[Amazing1290]

@gecrowned love it how you follow me and every comment i put!! yes i got a gf!! sorry if you just hating! looks like you need 1 cuz ur just hating! go find 1 dude!!!

[gecrowned]

@Amazing1290 gf...dream on

[Amazing1290]

my gf loves penguins and i showed her this vid and she straight up looked in my eyes and she started crying!! thanks to this vid!! thank you so much

[LK190]

They are amazing!

[vashfan1gamer]

for school i have to study animals and i think i made the best choice to pick a penguin

[RCMan89]

@CharlieQH Thanks so much! i think it´s one of the best videos! the music you put in fits perfectly in time! Are the BBC planet earth videos also on a dvd do you know?

Cheers

[sundin404rs]

i need a video that gives me info on these penguins im doing a project!! but still i give 10