What is this? Tens of thousands of little penguins in Antarctica line up to jump off a 20-meter-high ice cliff

Tens of thousands of emperor penguin babies staggered on the icebergs, and finally gathered at the top of an ice sheet, which was about 15 to 20 meters above the sea. These emperor penguin babies were only a few months old, like a group of teenagers crowded on the top of the cliff, waiting to see which one was brave enough to jump into the water first.

In a documentary titled "Secrets of Penguins" released on Earth Day, people filmed this rare scene. Scientists said that this is the first time that emperor penguins have been filmed jumping off such a high cliff. Why do emperor penguin babies jump off the cliff? People speculate that this may be related to climate change.

A "shocking" swimming lesson

Since it was released a few weeks ago, the video of the emperor penguin baby jumping off the cliff has become a hit on the Internet. In the video, the penguins at the back are pushing forward, but the penguins in the front row are afraid to press their bellies against the ice to make some resistance movements, or they lean forward and quickly pull back when they see the height of the ice shelf.

Finally, a brave emperor penguin baby took the first step, fell headfirst, and hit the water with a loud noise. The scene fell into silence at first, and then another little penguin spread its wings and even took two steps to jump down. Then more penguins began to jump down. In the hot comments on the Internet, everyone was shocked and moved by this group of brave emperor penguin babies.

In fact, this spectacular scene is the first swimming lesson for the baby penguins since they were born. For the baby emperor penguins, growing up means leaving their parents and mastering the skills to survive in Antarctica on their own. Their parents have already gone to the ocean to convey to them the message that it is time to fish for themselves.

Penguin chicks gather on top of an ice sheet

In May and June every year, a pair of adult emperor penguins will lay an egg and begin to incubate it. The baby penguin may hatch around August. At this time, the emperor penguin chicks only have a thin layer of fur on their bodies. They can only hide under their parents to keep warm and accept food from their parents. The penguin chicks will also form a "nursery" where they can huddle together to keep warm while their parents go out to find food.

Around November, the emperor penguin babies will begin to molt, a process that takes 1 to 2 months, and the pups will be replaced with waterproof adult penguin feathers. These feathers are the key to their ability to swim and forage in the cold sea water. After the emperor penguin babies have replaced their waterproof feathers, they will leave their parents and go to the sea for their first swimming practice, and start foraging for their own food, filling their stomachs with fresh fish, shrimp and squid.

However, generally speaking, when swimming for the first time, emperor penguin babies only need to dive into the water from low floating ice, which may be less than 1 meter high. This is why videos of emperor penguin babies jumping off cliffs are so rare.

The disappearance of the emperor penguin colony

Emperor penguins usually nest on floating ice, which is free-floating. Ice sheets are tightly attached to the land, and emperor penguins generally do not choose to nest there. But in recent years, some colonies have begun to make their homes on ice sheets. Scientists theorize that this shift may be related to the increasingly earlier seasonal melting of sea ice caused by climate change.

Generally, emperor penguin chicks simply dive into the water from low-lying ice floes.

As the climate warms, the oceans may become unusually warm, atmospheric conditions may become unusual, and Antarctic sea ice may change. In 2016, researchers found a sharp decrease in Antarctic sea ice, and in climate simulation studies, they found that this was caused by a combination of factors, including the El Nino phenomenon caused by the overall global climate.

That is to say, Antarctic sea ice is related to global climate change. Researchers predict that the Southern Ocean will eventually begin to warm up, and in the long run, sea ice will continue to decrease. But it is also mentioned that the changes in sea ice every year are difficult to predict. And this unpredictable change will pose a serious threat to emperor penguin babies. At the end of 2022, about 10,000 emperor penguin babies died in Antarctica.

A recent survey by the British Antarctic Survey shows that the area of ​​Antarctic sea ice hit a record low in the spring of 2022 and lasted for a whole year. The reduction in sea ice means that the ecosystem is directly affected. Among them, the breeding of emperor penguins, the largest member of the existing penguin family, will be seriously threatened by climate change.

Antarctica is the only continent with about 300,000 pairs of emperor penguins. Researchers said that of the 62 known emperor penguin colonies, 19 were affected by the decline in sea ice in 2022, and 13 of them may experience breeding failures.

Especially in the Bellingshausen Sea, the reduction of sea ice is unprecedented. Scientists used satellite images to study the five emperor penguin habitats near this sea area, four of which had no sea ice in December 2022. This led to the failure of emperor penguin breeding in four of the five emperor penguin habitats.

Penguins on ice floe

Emperor penguins need stable sea ice to breed. During the abnormal disappearance of sea ice, adult penguins can swim and may survive, but November is the molting period for penguin chicks. They may not have time to grow waterproof feathers and be drowned or frozen to death by the sea water as the sea ice breaks. This also means that the number of penguins will be even smaller next year.

Today, some emperor penguin parents lay their eggs directly on higher ice shelves in order to ensure the survival of their chicks. Scientists predict that this behavior may become more common, and the chicks may have to become braver and practice diving and swimming from high cliffs.

Since 2016, scientists have been concerned about the dramatic decline in Antarctic sea ice and the consequences it could have on the long-term survival of emperor penguins. If climate change continues on its current trajectory, the entire species will die out, but some are hopeful that emperor penguins can adapt, and they believe that high-altitude diving is proof of their strong will. Emperor penguins have survived for millions of years, through all kinds of changes in their environment, and have incredible resilience. But no one knows how quickly they can adapt, and how hard they can work, in the face of the changes that are taking place.