Protecting

penguins

In winter, Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth and there’s nothing but ice for miles around! But I love it here studying the emperor penguins – it’s like a dream come true! Every year, emperor penguins get together to breed on the thick Antarctic ice. They hang out in huge colonies made up of thousands of birds. The colony I study has 8,000 penguins. I’ll never forget the first time I met one – it had never seen a person before, so it came right up to me. I was filled with wonder!

Now I spend all my days alone with the penguins. My job is to watch the colony and record the birds’ behaviour, even in blizzards! I learned really quickly to never let a glove get blown away by the wind! The good thing about very cold and windy days is that they make the emperor penguins huddle together to keep warm, which is a beautiful sight. The penguins can be very graceful but sometimes they’re so funny and clumsy – they fall over and slide around on the ice!
 

The emperors raise their young together. When the fluffy grey chicks are two months old, their parents can leave them in nursery groups called creches while they walk back to the sea to find food. At night, the chicks huddle together to stay warm. It’s like one big group hug. The Antarctic is getting warmer, threatening the emperors’ way of life. But we’re working to protect them from the effects of climate change.