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Emperor Penguin

Sir David Attenborough presents the emperor penguin from the Antarctic Peninsula.

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Sir David Attenborough presents the emperor penguin from the Antarctic Peninsula. With temperatures down to minus 50oC, midwinter blizzards scouring one of the most inhospitable places on the planet, this is not an obvious location for raising young. Yet at the heart of this landscape, the world's largest penguin, the emperor, stands guard over their young. Tightly-packed colonies of hundreds or sometimes thousands of birds huddle together, to conserve heat. The male broods the single egg on his feet, protected under folds of bare abdominal skin. Females travel up to 100km from the colony in search of food, using a technique called tobogganing which is far more efficient than walking on their short legs. Harsh though the landscape is in midwinter, all this activity is co-ordinated to allow the young to fledge into the relatively warmth of an Antarctic summer.

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1 minute

Last on

Sun 27 Mar 2022 08:58

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Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri)

Webpage image courtesy ofΒ Sue FloodΒ / naturepl.com.

NPL Ref  © Sue Flood / naturepl.com

Broadcasts

  • Fri 26 Sep 2014 05:58
  • Fri 2 Oct 2015 05:58
  • Fri 28 Oct 2016 05:58
  • Sun 12 Jul 2020 08:58
  • Sun 27 Mar 2022 08:58

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