Читать книгу Nature’s Babies - Mike Dilger - Страница 12

Not only is the Emperor penguin content with being the tallest and heaviest of all living penguins, but it is also the only species tough – or crazy – enough to breed during the Antarctic winter – surely the most challenging environment on earth in which to raise a family.

When temperatures drop to below -40 °C (-40 °F) and polar winds gust at over 190 km/h (120 mph), the only way that these penguins are able to survive during the breeding season is by being very sociable: they crowd together in large groups and thus protect themselves from the elements. These huddles move constantly so that the birds along the colder edge can eventually shuffle into the middle of the group, thereby temporarily exchanging places with the warmer birds in the centre, who must then take their turn on the chilly periphery.

Emperor penguins stay faithful to their mate each breeding season. After an elaborate courtship, the female lays a single, thick-shelled egg, which is then carefully deposited onto the feet of the male to incubate in a special pouch. She then promptly deserts him for two months to feed out at sea. Together with his fellow abandoned males, the male fasts for the entire 65 days of incubation, until the female arrives back to feed the newly-hatched chick on a rich diet of regurgitated fish, krill and squid. It is only then that the half-starved males are allowed to leave and feed out at sea.

To begin with the young chicks are not well insulated and so they must stay sheltered in their mother’s brood pouch for at least 50 days before they join crèches with other youngsters. Here they keep warm by huddling and learning the skills that they will eventually need to survive as breeding adults.

© Frans Lanting/FLPA

‘Brrr! It’s cold out there.’ A baby Emperor peers out on its icy world.