Go Inside an Antarctic 'City' of 400,000 King Penguins — Ep. 4 | Wildlife: Resurrection Island

In one of the world's largest king penguin colonies, chicks must be able to make it through the winter without food. This chick can expect one of three fates. Be eaten alive, starve to death, or hang on one more day until their parents return with food. Here they are, look at all their bellies, they're all stuck. How is it possible that life can come back from the dead? The island of South Georgia was the scene of one of the worst wildlife massacres in history. Species driven to near extinction, the whaling stations were abandoned. This is an awe-inspiring story of how, if given the chance, nature can bounce back on a scale you're not going to believe. My name's Bertie Gregory and I'm a National Geographic wildlife filmmaker. This is Resurrection Island. Less than 100 years ago, the penguins of South Georgia were being used as kindling for whaling station fires. But now, we've finally made it to Sandwich Bay, you know, the busiest beach on the planet. You know, it's funny, when you read about king penguins on paper, you know, you read they dive to 300 metres, 1,000 feet in some of the roughest ocean in the world and then they come back to here, this kind of blizzard, snow-covered, mountainous island to breed and you meet them and they're just totally unfazed. Hello. Some of these adults might not have set foot on land for five months to see their chicks and with a belly full of fish, that's no easy task. The worst part is over. Just a nice stroll to find the kids. Great. A blubbery roadblock of elephant seals. You ready? Ready. Here we go. 400,000 king penguins. I mean, my hometown has less people than that. In a way, it's almost like a city. It looks, to start with, like just a mass sprawl of penguins, but it's almost organised. I mean, you've got that big swimming pool in the middle, prime swimming for a little wash when you're all stinky. Then on the left, there's a bunch missing a load of feathers. They're in the process of molting, so in our city comparison, I guess we could say that was the hospital. And then you start to see a bit of movement. I guess that's their highways through the coldie and then the biggest supermarket in the world, packed full of lanternfish, which is their primary prey here. But my favourite part is the crash. When the chicks are five weeks old, their parents leave them in a kindergarten. Food becomes scarce during the winter, so both of the parents have to go out into the open ocean to hunt. Depending on their luck, they might not return for months. So what do you do when mum and dad aren't home? Get up to no good, of course. They just have the most amazing fluffy coats. I think with good reason. The adults take over a year to raise the chicks, so the chick has to sit here during the ostril the Antarctic winter. So imagine sitting here in blizzards and ice and snow, waiting for mum and dad to bring you food. I mean, I can't feel my fingers, so I kind of wish I was in his coat right now. The parents' absence and the brutal weather conditions make the chicks vulnerable. And that's what the giant petrels are here for. Giant petrels hunt king penguin chicks by spotting a weak one that strayed away from the crash. Luckily, this time they have strength in numbers, and the giant petrel can't single one out. Finally home, each adult calls their chick. And then the chick's like, all right, enough with the showing off. Now give me some food. And scientists actually found that towards the end of the foraging trips, the bellies of the penguins drop significantly below 37 degrees, which is their normal body temperature. And so they think it's almost like a cool box in their belly to keep the fish fresh for now to regurgitate it to the chick. Oh, you totally saw the food come out. That's wicked. Slash a bit gross. Now that the chicks have had a few mouths full, the adults need to go back to the ocean and start again. If only it were as easy as that. They must negotiate a long line of pecky adults protecting their eggs. Peck, peck, peck, peck, peck. Oh, he's going for the double. That's brilliant. What an awesome tactic. They must get paired together. And the one behind is using the one in front as a shield. The front one's getting absolutely hammered. But the back one, I actually know the back one's getting hammered too. It's a rubbish tactic. Back out to sea, off to get another belly full of fish for their chick. And to think that, you know, such a clumsy bird on land can then dive to 300 meters, 1,000 feet is pretty spectacular. This place is just unbelievable. In 1925, just 1,100 king penguins were counted here. And now there are over 400,000. This is what happens when environmental conditions are right and you protect a place. And if this isn't justification for looking after wild places, then I do not know what is.