OverviewOverviewSize:
120 cm.
Weight: 20 to 45 kg
Distribution: Antarctic coasts
Reproduction areas on the archipelago: one single colony on the ice-shelf
between Carrel Island and the nunatak.
Right:
Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes Forsteri) chick asking for food. It
starts by going 'Piu!', 'Piu!' with a head motion from front to back. Then when
the adult looks down, the chick touches its beak which triggers a feeding
reflex.
Left:
a young emperor losing his down feathers in spring. In about a week he will take
to the ocean and won't come back for a few years. After they loose their down
their collar has got only a black and white color. After a year it turns yellow
and goes to darker orange as the penguin ages.
Arrival:
April
Egg laying: May
Hatching: July
Departure of chicks: December-January
Food: squid and fish
Distribution at sea: stays near the ice
Particularity: after the laying, males take care of the sitting. During
their 4 months fasting they loose half their weight (20kg). In order to minimize
heat loss, the males gather together in 'turtles' that can be as dense as 10
individuals/mē during storms. After August, both partners take care of the only
chick, recognized by its voice, taking turns at sea every 2 weeks.
They breed during Antarctica's harshest season, so that when their young become
independent, five months later, the climate will be more favorable. Emperors are
the most unfaithfull of all penguins: 78 percent of mating pairs go their
separate ways after only one year !
Right:
When the temperature is high, the penguins spread over the ice but always remain
near each other. There are about 3000 couples in DdU's rookery, most of them
with a chick. They are noisy and smelly !
Left:
An incredible picture of flying penguins ! Well, they are just emperor
penguins underwater. I took about 4 rolls of pictures in order to have barely 2
or 3 decent pictures, and I froze my hands big time. I put my camera in a
homemade plastic bag with a piece of glass up front and held it underwater while
laying on sea-ice. After this experience I designed an infrared trigger that'd
work underwater and fixed the camera on a pole.
They
are really fast, up to 60 km/h. The deepest dives recorded are 16 minutes at
534m for a male, and 15 minutes at 477m for a female (source Kooyman &
Kooyman, 1995). The average dive is 5 to 6 minutes around 100m. Depth and
duration of a dive vary from place to place and availability of surface food.
Left:
An Emperor penguin chick noisily requesting his dinner.
Right:
Couple of emperor penguins with their chicks warmly stuck under their belly.
After I took this picture, the right chick started beating the left one.
