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"Bring science home" all
撰文 | Skin
Proofreading | Ah Xian
These are hundreds of emperor penguin babies, they are staggering forward on the iceberg and stop in front of a cliff that is 15~20 meters high.
Live hit! We can see that although the penguins in the back are squeezing forward, as if chirping "jump down", the penguins in the front row who are leading the way are scared and start to put their bellies against the ice to make some resistance, or lean forward to see how high the ice shelf is, but quickly shrink back.
The front row of penguins is a big move of "whoever loves this cliff will go down". ｜youtube
In the end, a brave baby penguin jumped first, and the scene fell silent at first, and the baby penguin began to swim freely and happily in the water, and then, another little penguin also spread its wings and even ran two steps and jumped down.
More little penguins began to jump down, and the show was very exciting, with some penguins performing "double goose diving"; There are also little penguins that are still flapping their wings and legs when they are in the air; A few penguins even spun around in the air...... Of course, there are also some baby penguins who are pushed down by their companions, while some accidentally slip on the edge of a cliff and perform a surprise on the spot (?).
Suddenly, there were more items to perform. ｜youtube
This scene is both spectacular and cute, and since it was released a few weeks ago, it has become a popular video on the Internet, and in the hot comments, everyone has been shocked and moved by this group of brave baby penguins, saying that the penguins also have peer pressure? (peer pressure), good friends are to jump together......
The rare scene was filmed for the first time in a documentary released on Earth Day called "The Penguin's Secret," and scientists say it's the first time an emperor penguin has been filmed jumping off such a high cliff.
In fact, this spectacular scene is the first swimming lesson for the baby penguins since they were born.
It can be said that the penguin becomes a goose ceremony. ｜Flickr
For a baby emperor penguin, growing up means being separated from their parents and leaving them alone with the skills to survive in Antarctica. In May~June every year, a pair of adult penguins will lay a penguin egg and begin to hatch, and may hatch a penguin baby around August.
At this time, the penguin cubs still have only a thin layer of fluff on their bodies, so they can only hide under their parents to keep warm and receive feeding from their mouths. Penguin pups also form a "nursery" where they huddle together to keep warm while their parents go out foraging.
They haven't grown enough feathers to survive on their own. ｜coolantarctica.com
Around November, the baby penguins will start moulting, and this process will take 1~2 months, and the pups will be replaced with waterproof adult penguin feathers. These feathers are key to their ability to swim and forage in icy waters.
Once the emperor penguins have changed their waterproof feathers, they leave their parents and head out to sea for their first swimming practice, a ritual also known as "fledging".
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution say that when the baby emperor penguins first practiced swimming, they were actually "embarrassed" and had no confidence in themselves. They have not yet become swimmers as fast and graceful as their parents. ｜WHOI
However, at this time, emperor penguin cubs only need to dive into the water from low ice floe, which may be less than a metre in height. That's why the aforementioned video is so rare, as it's the first time they've been seen diving on such a high cliff.
It stands to reason that the first swim of a baby penguin should be like this. ｜YouTube
Why do baby penguins jump off a cliff? There is speculation that this may have something to do with climate change.
As the climate warms, the oceans may be unusually warm, atmospheric conditions will be abnormal, and the Antarctic sea ice will change. In 2016, researchers found that Antarctic sea ice had declined dramatically, and in climate modelling studies, it was found that this was caused by El Niño and storms caused by the global climate as a whole.
It can be seen that in the life cycle of penguins, November ~ January of the following year is the period when baby penguins need to stay on the sea ice to moult. Ref. 6
In other words, Antarctic sea ice is related to global climate changes. Researchers predict that the Southern Ocean will eventually begin to warm, and in the long term, sea ice will continue to decrease. But it is also worth mentioning that it is difficult to predict how sea ice changes from year to year.
Emperor penguin cubs that haven't changed their feathers yet but are already facing the melting sea ice coolantarctica.com|
This unpredictable change will pose a serious threat to the baby penguins, with an estimated 10,000 baby penguins dying in Antarctica at the end of 2022.
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey monitor the penguin colony using satellite imagery, and they can see penguins that look like black dots on the image. At the end of 2022, it was discovered that some sea ice near Africa had disappeared, and at the same time, four colonies of penguins had also disappeared.
Adult penguins swim and may survive the anomalous disappearance of sea ice, and November is the moulting season for penguin cubs, who may drown or freeze to death as the sea ice breaks down before they have time to develop waterproof feathers. This also means that there will be fewer penguins in the coming year.
When the sea ice disappeared, so did the black dots (the penguin colony) on the picture. Ref. 6
Nowadays, in order to keep baby penguins alive, it has been observed that some penguin parents lay their eggs directly on higher ice shelves. Scientists predict that this behavior may become more common, and that baby penguins may have to make themselves braver, (forced) to practice diving and swimming from high cliffs.
Resources:
[1]https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photography/article/emperor-penguins-chicks-antarctica-jumping
[2]https://www.washington.edu/news/2017/08/31/record-low-2016-antarctic-sea-ice-due-to-perfect-storm-of-tropical-polar-conditions/
[3]https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/penguin-chicks-are-dying-off-as-antarctic-sea-ice-disappears/
[4]https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00927-x
[5]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PwDFddpo4c