THE EMPEROR PENGUIN!!!

The emperor penguin. The tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. Like all penguin species, emperor penguins have streamlined bodies to minimize drag while swimming and wings that are more like stiff, flat flippers. Join us as we learn a little more about this awesome species of penguin. The emperor penguin is the largest member of all the extant species of penguins and are native to Antarctica. They are known for their stately behavior in black and white coloration with yellow patches on their chest and ears. Adults reach lengths of up to 47 inches and can weigh anywhere from around 50 to 100 pounds, with the males being slightly heavier than females. The emperor penguin's dark plumage fades to brown from November until February during the Antarctic summer before the yearly molt in January and February. Molting is rapid in this species compared with other birds, taking only around 34 days. Emperor penguin feathers emerge from the skin after they have grown to a third of their total length and before old feathers are lost to help reduce heat loss. New feathers then push out the old ones before finishing their growth. The emperor penguin's diet consists mainly of fish, crustaceans and cephalopods, although its composition varies from population to population. Fish are usually the most important food source and the Antarctic silverfish makes up the bulk of the bird's diet. The emperor penguin searches for prey in the open water of the southern ocean, in either ice-free areas of open water or tidal cracks in pack ice. One of its feeding strategies is to dive to around 160 feet, where it can easily spot some pagic fish like the bald noto. Then swimming against the bottom surface of the sea ice, it swims up to the bottom of the ice and catches the fish. It then dives again and repeats the sequence about half a dozen times before surfacing to breathe. The only known predators thought to attack healthy adults and who attack emperor penguins in the water are both mammals. The first is the leopard seal, which takes adult birds and fledglings soon after they enter the water. Orcas mostly take adult birds, although they will attack penguins of any age in or near water. Although emperor penguins can breed at around three years of age, they generally do not begin breeding for another one to three years. The yearly reproductive cycle begins at the start of the Antarctic winter, in March and April, when all mature emperor penguins travel to colonial nesting areas, often walking 31 to 75 miles inland from the edge of the pack ice and the start of travel appears to be triggered by decreasing day lengths. The penguins start courtship where the A lone male gives an ecstatic display, where it stands still and places its head on its chest before inhaling and giving a courtship call for one to two seconds, it then moves around the colony and repeats the call. A male and female then stand face to face, with one extending its head and neck up and the other mirroring it, they both hold this posture for several minutes. The female penguin lays one egg usually around one pound in May or early June. After laying, the mother's food reserves are exhausted and she very carefully transfers the egg to the male and then immediately returns to the sea for two months to feed. Hatching may take as long as two or three days to complete, as the shell of the egg is thick. Newly hatched chicks are semi-altricial, covered with only a thin layer of down and entirely dependent on their parents for food and warmth. The chick usually hatches before the mother's return and the father feeds it a curd like substance composed of 59% protein 28% lipid, which is produced by a gland in his esophagus. The female penguin returns at any time from hatching up to 10 days afterwards, from mid-July to early August. She finds her mate among the hundreds of fathers by his vocal calm takes over caring for the chick, feeding it by regurgitating the partially digested fish, squid and krill that she has stored in her stomach. The male is often reluctant to surrender the chick he has been caring for all winter to its mother, but he soon leaves to take his turn at sea, spending three to four weeks feeding there before returning. So, what did you learn today about the emperor penguin? Drop a comment and let me know. Thank you for watching.