The Most Adorable Penguin Chicks | Secrets of the Penguins | National Geographic

The untold story of a new generation of chicks reveals how their bonds with family and friends shape their destiny. It's the biggest moment in their young lives. Together they're going to have to figure out how to get to the sea, how to hunt for themselves, how to be a penguin. A rockhopper mom and a macaroni dad make rockaroni chicks. Filmed in the wild for the first time ever. Rockaroni chicks are bigger so they need more food. Like rockhoppers, macaroni fathers are dedicated stay-at-home dads so their mother has to do all the fishing. When two species come together like this it introduces new genes into the next generation. One in a million couples like this can really reshape species. We're literally witnessing penguin evolution before our eyes. They've got the best of both their parents. They don't know it yet but their unconventional rockaroni family might just be the future. At two and a half feet tall they're the third largest of all the penguins. Like all gentoos, this father has twins. It doubles his chances of passing down his genes but it's twice the work. Normally one parent alone can't meet this demand but there's been no sign of the twin's mother for days. Each chick needs 700 calories a day. He's got a belly full of food yet he's not giving it up. Regurgitated krill, he's determined to make it work on his own. There's an absolute little tiddler just here. It's teeny tiny, it's so much smaller than the other chicks. I'm really worried because there's a big storm that's forecast to roll in and he's so much more vulnerable than the bigger chicks. The little chick has made it through the storm. What an absolute little trooper. Waiting for the tiny chick is becoming dangerous. He's struggling to keep up. The leader does something no emperor chick should ever have to do. Leave their friend behind. The little chick isn't finished yet. His friends are in sight together again. This pelican's massive mouth's full of water and fish. It's got to push that water out its mouth and hold on to the fish and that's the point at which they're vulnerable. No way. Stealing fish right out the beak of the pelican. And it's not just the mother who knows this trick. What's magic is seeing lots of young penguins in with the older penguins. They can't hatch out their eggs knowing how to do this. They must have to learn it by watching the older penguins. This little penguin has got a lot of learning to do. He's like, I don't know what to do yet. It looks like he's full of attitude so I reckon he's got it in him. Whether they live in the icy wilds of Antarctica or the lava rocks of the Galapagos, the environment is changing faster than they can keep up with. Penguins have always shaped their own destiny but now their future lies in our hands.