Adelie Penguins of the Antarctic (1956, sound)

ranging from 40in empera penguin down toen hay penguin all of them lonely places in the southern hemisphere but not all are from the Antarctic one lives and others are found off the coast of Southwest Africa and Australia and usting as the pack ice that guards that great Frozen SC [Music] during the hard Frozen winter scientific Expeditions can live on the south ory Islands but the penguins are far away on The Fringe of the ice where they can dive into the sea and feed on shrimp here on land the fauland islands dependency survey Expedition waited during the winter for the return of the Penguins to the breeding grounds in spring in October the beginning of the Antarctic spring the Adel penguins have started their long journey Direction toward the land a daily penguins have two means of locomotion on land walking and tobogganing propelling themselves with the feet and using the flippers as well there is a steady stream of arrivals sometimes the parties are large sometimes just a handful [Music] [Applause] [Music] here's easy [Applause] travel at last in sight of land these adeles are completing their Journey from their winter quarters in the pack ice this may be anything from 30 to 60 mil actually as much as 60 M homing ability of these little flightless birds no more than 18 in high is remarkable for they always return to the Colony where they have bred places avoiding the dips where the snow lies deep our party is now walking into a little corner of a vast colony which when fully occupied will number 20,000 Birds some colonies may even hold a million penguin yet by marking samples from these populations it has been proved that a daily Penguins will return to exactly the same sight and nearly always keep the same m one must live among them not far from The Colony the Husky dogs were used to transport stores from the British expedition's base two and a half miles away arrived at the breeding a long period of called the ecstatic display it is made only by the male the ecstatic display RS other males attracts females to the nest if the bird has no Nate here's the same display and sound made by the chinstrap penguin which nests in colonies alongside the a not a very glamorous sound fights are frequent at this time of year usually between young birds who fight for territory and for mates there they go hammer and TS battering each other with their Clippers and jabbing with their bills The Nest is built of stones one bird guards The Nest while the other searches scram it will have to return to its mate without a stone here it comes again searching well away from other nest [Laughter] sites this is an energetic bird willing to toel far to get Nest material claimed by no other and bring it back to drop by its mate but this one simply steals a stone from a neighbor's nest it is not until about 3 and a half weeks after the birds walked in over the sea ice that there had two eggs are laid during this time both male and female have been fasting the male now takes charge of the eggs while the female prepares to go off to Sea to feed but before she goes she has a little duty to perform aren't they wonderful Birds the way they walk reminds us so much of ourselves she's collecting a few extra stones to make sure the nest is well built up above the level of the surrounding snow or thorw streams here She is again with another Stone and so it goes on until she is satisfied the male is now alone with the eggs and continues his fast while his mate goes off to Sea to feed now it's November the sea ice is breaking up and she does not have far to walk for her food perhaps a few hundred yards rarely as much as 10 miles the lone male does his best to protect the nest sometimes a blizzard will bury him completely in snow at other times thw streams May pour right through half covering the eggs with ice water from the eggs despite their drastic chilling these eggs eventually hatched the bird sheath Bell and is a scavenger the sheath Bell is always was on the lookout for unguarded eggs and will peck through the shell and eat the contents and here are female Penguins returning from sea two and a half weeks later these superb shots were filmed by John Ashton an expedition member this female has just returned from sea she and her mate greet each other and we see another display the mutual display soall because the birds face each other and sway their heads from side to side this by the way is the nest relief ceremony or what is popularly called changing the guard the male appears reluctant to get off the edge and when he finally steps off she takes over quickly just in case one of those sheath bills is around to piler eggs notice how the male is holding himself stiffly he looks as though he'd been on the nest for quite a while you will remember that before the female went off to Sea to break her fast she collected stones to build up the nest now we see the male with the least effort possible performing the same Duty he just picks up the nearest Stone and plunks it down beside her in contrast we have the energetic type another male just relieved by his mate a conspicuous 26 painted on his flipper for identification and if you look very very carefully you'll see him steal a stone from the neighbor notice how fat the female is by contrast it's the male's turn now to put on a little weight off he walks to the Sea this male has had nothing to eat since he first arrived over the sea ice at the beginning of the Antarctic spring he spent about three and a half weeks at the colony with his before the eggs were laid and he has now completed a 2 and A2 weeks vigil alone over the eggs while she was feeding at Sea this makes a total of about 6 weeks without a bite of food he appears tired during his six weeks fast his weight has gone down from 13 lbs to seven he's lost about 40% of his body weight he joins other males who have also been relieved by their mates at the water's edge they wait but there may be a good deal of jostling before they make the final plunge these slow motion shots show how the penguins swim it's what's called purposing each time they leap and skim the surface they take a breath and their speed has been estimated up to 30 m an hour so they go their way to [Applause] feed the incubation period is about 35 days some days before the eggs hatch the male returns to the nest this allows the female to get away to seea again and bring back food in her stomach in Readiness to feed the newly hatched chicks on predigested shrimp she feeds by regurgitating the parents now alternate one must always be with the chicks protecting them and keeping them warm while the other is away at Sea collecting food they lie right on top of the chicks when the latter are very young but later as the chicks grow the parents Crouch over them a colony of chinstrap Penguins is alongside the adeles and they use the same paths notice the black line under its chin and its black cap when the adily chicks are half grown the chin strap chicks are just hatching the newly hatched chin strap chick is still very weak it begs for food and the parent regurgitates elephant seals sometimes share the penguin Community these are the largest known seals and males May weigh as much as 3 tons they don't eat the Penguins but like to come ashore at this time and lie around on the Rocks if they choose to lie among penguin nests there's very little a penguin can do but bravely stand its ground and perhaps give the seal a peck on the nose there in Dr slayden's researches he attached the greatest his Birds right from the beginning of the season now this is how he did [Music] it perhaps a trifle humiliating to the penguin but the best method of handling these very pugnacious creatures a special metal band is fitted Around The Flipper it will last a number of years and it has an identification number and address stamped on it paint marks are of course temporary they will wear off at sea but they serve a good purpose in identifying individual birds at a distance and there he goes slightly metal none the worse for his experience here is a marked family unit the parent with a band and painted number the chicks with red Celluloid bands the chicks are now five weeks old and both parents are away at Sea collecting food most of the time continuous guarding by the parents is over and now the young group together in the so-called crash or Nursery here it was believed that upon their return from feeding at Sea a parent would feed any chick on a first come first sered basis but by marking these family units Dr slayen was able to prove that even out of a crowd of a hundred or more chicks the parent recognized and fed its own chick the chicks are waiting for their parents to return from sea and here are the old birds is arriving now let's see if there will be recognition between parent and Offspring and off they go after her the right chicks after the right mother the parent will draw them away from the crowded crash this is a feeding chase away from the crash he gives them individual attention and also gives them their [Applause] fill young Penguins seem to suffer at times from overfeeding the chief enemy of the young adily at this stage our growth is the Stewart a large Brown Gull like bird the easiest prey is the emaciated chick which has been maneuvered out of the safety of the crash by a skewer this is the fate of many for the skewers have their own young ones to feed here's another weak Lane almost certainly deserted by its parents but watch how it faces up to the predator and actually hits back harried though this poor little chick may be it puts up a bold front and gets back to Safety in the crash at least for the time the parent penguins have different problems Great Waves crashing in late in the season make departure and Landing a precarious business and yet they must get food or else their young will starve and fall Ready prey to the skewers just swept in by the waves and they struggle to get away baracs this ad in the surge is trying to get in with food spr young and again it tries and again and a third time it seems incredible that they can survive such battery but there he is he's made it up to the crash he goes and watch how parent and chick recognize each other and run off for the feeding chase the season is now drawing to a close nine weeks after hatching the chicks are almost as big as their parents but they still demand food that's the chick on the left this will be its last feeding by its parents the old birds will return no more to the colony in this season now it's on its own exercising its flippers and after one or two days it will walk off to join other chicks in sight of the sea where they have many times seen their parents departing for the pack ice in search of food and for the very first time they plunge into the water quite independently of their parents and with no preliminary lessons from them what a contrast in swimming to the beautiful purposing of the adults that we saw earlier lurking in wait for these unsuspecting youngsters is the leopard seal of penguin's mortal enemy at Sea with a quick flash of the Seal's head the chick is skinned alive and swallowed the skin floats out and is later gulped down by the hungry leopard seal but plenty of young reach the feeding grounds in the pack ice where they will rejoin the adults and soon be feeding for themselves how beautifully adapted these adily penguins are to their environment of snow and and ice here on the PE ice at the edge of Open Water the Adel Penguins remain during the long Antarctic winter far from land they feed and sleep and quarrel and hear the young penguins of the past breeding season come to adulthood wintry winds sweep across the breeding grounds and the expedition's base on the south ory only men dogs and a lone Bill remain sure in the knowledge that when spring comes the ad Penguins will return [Music]