0:06 65 million years
0:09 ago when the world was a different
0:15 place. One brave
0:17 bird gave up
0:22 wings for
0:25 flippers and has never looked back.
0:32 18 species of
0:34 [Music]
0:35 penguin have gone on to become
0:39 masters of
0:41 sea and land.
0:48 Now, from the greatest penguin colonies
0:51 on
0:52 Earth, new science
0:55 reveals, there's more to them than we
0:59 ever imagined.
1:01 That's good.
1:08 Their bird brains might be brilliant.
1:12 No way. They're working as a team.
1:17 That's one of the best things I've ever
1:19 seen in nature.
1:28 Bravery, their
1:32 superpower. And
1:34 here in Antarctica,
1:37 there we go.
1:43 the coldest place on Earth.
1:50 Good luck, little penguins.
1:54 As the Emperor Penguin's
1:56 world melts beneath their feet.
2:02 Come on, little chick.
2:04 [Music]
2:08 The untold story of a new generation of
2:12 chicks reveals how their bonds with
2:15 family and friends. Surely they can't be
2:19 thinking of going off
2:21 [Music]
2:24 there. Shape their destiny.
2:34 I'm the best.
2:37 [Music]
3:11 Every year when winter
3:14 begins, the sea around Antarctica
3:17 freezes
3:20 over, creating a vast platform of
3:25 ice. Here, 20,000 emperor penguins come
3:29 ashore to raise a
3:35 [Music]
3:40 family. Emperor chicks are the only
3:43 animals who grow up through the coldest,
3:46 darkest winter on the planet.
3:50 [Music]
3:55 But that's just the beginning of their
3:57 story.
3:58 [Music]
4:12 [Music]
4:20 Winter's over.
4:22 And this chick is now 5 months
4:25 old. Her parents have kept her safe and
4:30 [Music]
4:32 wellfed. But now they must
4:37 leave, returning to the ocean to eat and
4:41 gain strength to do it all again next
4:45 year.
4:49 [Music]
4:51 National Geographic explorer and
4:53 awardwinning cinematographer Birdie
4:56 Gregory is living with the
4:59 colony and documenting how this year's
5:02 chicks will face this defining
5:07 milestone. Oh, yum.
5:11 Make the most of that meal,
5:14 buddy. Cuz the next one you're going to
5:17 have to get
5:19 yourself. Poor chick. I mean, imagine
5:22 being fed your entire life by mom and
5:24 dad. And then all of a sudden, they say,
5:27 "Now we're going to stop and by the way,
5:29 your next meal is 30 miles that way in
5:32 the middle of the ocean. You're on your
5:34 own."
5:38 She doesn't yet know they won't be
5:40 coming
5:41 back, but she seems to sense something's
5:45 up.
5:48 [Music]
5:57 [Music]
6:00 Although she'll likely never see her
6:02 parents
6:04 again, they've prepared her for
6:07 this from the beginning.
6:12 [Music]
6:13 It's the biggest moment in their young
6:20 lives. Together, they're going to have
6:23 to figure out how to get to the sea, how
6:26 to hunt for
6:27 themselves, how to be a penguin, and
6:30 that's becoming harder every
6:35 year. Oh.
6:46 There's an absolute little tidler just
6:54 here. It's teeny tiny. It's so much
6:56 smaller than the other
7:01 chicks. I'm actually surprised the chick
7:03 that small has been left alone.
7:07 Maybe his parents didn't make it back
7:09 from an earlier fishing
7:17 trip. And while he is very, very cute
7:20 because he's so
7:22 small, I'm really worried cuz there's a
7:24 big storm that's that's forecast to roll
7:27 in and he's so much more vulnerable than
7:29 the bigger
7:32 chicks. Makes my heart hurt.
7:37 [Music]
8:01 [Music]
8:03 This wind's starting to crank
8:10 up. It is getting really
8:13 cold. I lost that tiny little chick. I
8:16 don't know where it's gone.
8:21 Adults survive storms by huddling
8:23 together to keep
8:27 warm, but most are gone. And the chicks
8:30 are spread out, rapidly, losing body
8:33 heat into the
8:37 air. They'll make it through if they
8:40 remember they need to move and help each
8:45 other. Heat. Heat.
9:15 [Music]
9:26 [Music]
9:28 It's really
9:29 interesting as this wind starts to
9:33 [Music]
9:34 fill. A lot of the chicks from before
9:37 were kind of scattered around. And as
9:39 the wind builds, they're all gravitating
9:55 together. But just like their
9:59 parents, the chicks are forming their
10:01 very own huddle.
10:03 [Music]
10:22 I've spotted the teeny tiny little chick
10:24 on his own in the edge of the group.
10:33 Come on little check.
10:39 [Music]
10:55 [Music]
11:04 Well
11:08 done. Well, he's managed to get himself
11:11 surrounded by some bigger
11:13 [Music]
11:14 chicks.
11:17 His parents might have
11:20 gone, but his friends are standing by
11:26 [Music]
11:35 him. I just hope this rookie huddle is
11:38 going to be enough to keep them all
11:40 alive.
11:48 Yeah, this is getting dangerous for us
11:54 now. Good luck, little penguins.
12:25 Oh, I really hope that little chick's
12:27 okay.
12:40 [Music]
12:57 Oh
13:05 [Music]
13:08 no. Poor little thing.
13:17 That is
13:25 heartbreaking. Looking at the size, this
13:28 one does look a little bigger than that
13:30 really small
13:31 one. Must have just been stuck out here
13:39 alone. It's just so sad. Not just for
13:42 the chick, but you know, the the
13:44 parents. The amount of effort that goes
13:46 into raising each of these
13:53 [Music]
14:02 chicks. Well, well, that little chick
14:06 sadly hasn't made it. I'm very relieved
14:08 that most of them have.
14:15 And together these chicks have overcome
14:18 that big
14:20 [Music]
14:27 [Music]
14:30 challenge. No way.
14:42 The little chick has made it through the
14:44 storm. What an absolute little
14:47 [Music]
14:52 trooper. Those other bigger chicks
14:55 huddling around. The little one helped
14:57 him get
14:59 through. Oh, well done.
15:02 [Music]
15:12 But this isn't the only relationship
15:14 they'll rely
15:17 on. Birdie and the team are discovering
15:20 the Emperor's entire existence depends
15:23 on their ability to forge connections.
15:32 And it all starts with their parents.
15:52 [Music]
16:02 At 4 years old, this young empress is
16:05 done growing
16:07 up. Now she's back home, and she's got 9
16:12 months to try and raise a family before
16:15 the platform of ice melts away again.
16:20 [Music]
16:26 She's equipped for the
16:29 challenge. At 4 ft, emperors are the
16:32 tallest and strongest penguins, but her
16:36 success depends on something deeper.
16:40 [Music]
16:43 Emperors don't meet for
16:45 life, but she'll still have to form one
16:48 of the strongest bonds in nature.
16:58 and she's found someone with
17:09 potential. Like some song birds,
17:12 emperors can produce two sounds at
17:17 once, giving each a unique voice.
17:21 [Laughter]
17:24 They're learning each others to show
17:26 they're
17:28 [Laughter]
17:35 serious. But emperor couples don't just
17:38 communicate with their
17:43 voices. They're playing copycat.
17:46 [Music]
17:55 It's their way of
17:58 saying you can count on
18:02 [Music]
18:07 me. The next stage of courtship is a
18:11 little less graceful.
18:24 In just two weeks, they'll face the
18:26 first big test of their relationship.
18:45 [Music]
18:51 Raising chicks through the Antarctic
18:53 winter is so hard. Emperors only lay one
18:57 egg a
18:58 year, the size of a
19:05 grapefruit. And in this society, it's
19:08 the fathers who look after them until
19:10 they hatch.
19:15 Keeping the egg off the ice in a
19:18 featherless patch called a brood
19:23 pouch. But getting it from mom to dad
19:27 tests their collaboration and
19:30 trust. If the egg spends much more than
19:33 60 seconds on the ice, the chick inside
19:37 will die.
19:47 For the young empress, there's still no
19:50 sign of an
19:54 [Music]
19:56 egg. But as the couple waits, the
19:59 National Geographic team captures
20:02 behavior never filmed before.
20:07 [Music]
20:12 A clue to how emperor's master the
20:16 [Music]
20:21 handover they practice.
20:26 [Music]
20:39 It's a sign of their shared commitment
20:41 to getting this
20:45 right. If the real thing does arrive,
20:49 [Music]
21:06 [Music]
21:18 [Music]
21:23 Her first egg.
21:27 [Music]
21:32 It's time for dad to step
21:35 up so she can go
21:44 eat. He's got to read her body
21:50 language. That means I'm ready.
21:57 like
22:13 [Music]
22:18 now. Come on.
22:29 Practice pays
22:34 [Music]
22:40 off. The life of their firstborn is now
22:44 in his
22:46 hands. Feet.
22:55 She must trust him with their egg for
22:57 two months as she regains her strength
23:00 at
23:09 sea. When she returns, the resilience of
23:12 their bond will make or break their
23:16 family's future.
23:21 [Music]
23:23 Until
23:24 then, he'll rely on a different
23:29 alliance, a ritual as ancient as the
23:33 emperors themselves.
23:53 For six weeks, the father to be hasn't
23:58 eaten or even laid down to sleep,
24:02 protecting his precious
24:05 egg. But now they face their biggest
24:09 challenge yet.
24:16 As the wind rushes off the ice shelf
24:18 onto the sea ice, it accelerates to 120
24:22 m an
24:24 hour, creating what's known as a
24:26 catabatic storm.
24:38 It's -
24:41 54° and there's only one way he and his
24:45 unborn chick will
24:50 [Music]
24:58 [Music]
24:59 survive. He must
25:02 join 5,000 other
25:05 fathers in a huddle.
25:08 [Music]
25:13 They've been practicing for this since
25:15 they were
25:17 [Music]
25:19 chicks. It's one of nature's greatest
25:23 [Music]
25:27 spectacles, but we're just beginning to
25:29 understand its mysterious power.
25:35 [Music]
25:37 They must stand as close together as
25:40 possible with only the tips of their
25:43 feathers
25:44 touching. Each penguin's feathers act
25:48 like insulation, trapping in a layer of
25:51 warm air. If they press against each
25:53 other, that warmth is lost.
25:58 But if they stand just millimeters
26:01 apart, the heat is shared between
26:06 them. The middle can reach
26:12 99°. But it's the dynamics of the huddle
26:16 that reveal an extraordinary truth about
26:19 emperor society.
26:27 The fathers move in
26:35 waves and they're not pushing to the
26:38 center to keep themselves alive.
26:45 They're shuffling
26:49 away step by
26:54 step. So even late
26:58 arrivals like
27:01 dad get their turn in the warmth.
27:07 [Music]
27:22 Because each takes only what they
27:26 need. They all
27:29 win. It means these
27:33 dads might keep a whole generation
27:37 alive by sharing through the coldest,
27:41 darkest winter on the planet.
27:51 [Music]
28:00 With the help of the brotherhood, the
28:02 young emperor has made it through the
28:11 [Music]
28:17 winter. And so has his daughter
28:21 [Music]
28:28 She could fit in a
28:36 teacup with a voice that would shatter
28:43 one. She needs food that only her mother
28:48 can deliver.
29:00 [Music]
29:08 Exactly how is still a mystery. But
29:12 after around two months at sea, a
29:14 hormonal change tells emperor mothers
29:18 it's time to come
29:22 home. They return with a meal within
29:25 just days of their chicks
29:33 [Music]
29:36 hatching. A voice he knows.
29:53 hers. But can she
29:57 identify his
30:10 [Music]
30:11 [Applause]
30:13 She has the rare ability to filter out
30:16 the cacophony of 20,000
30:22 voices to isolate just one.
30:44 [Music]
30:55 [Music]
30:57 Ah, he has not let her
31:00 down.
31:02 Her parents' partnership has kept her
31:06 [Music]
31:12 alive, but she won't be able to rely on
31:14 them
31:19 forever. And the team captures a clue
31:22 how they'll prepare her for
31:24 independence.
31:27 [Music]
31:34 [Music]
31:59 Scientists believe it's possible that at
32:02 just 2 weeks old, the chicks are already
32:06 being encouraged to make
32:08 [Music]
32:12 friends.
32:17 Their mothers bring them face to
32:21 face, perhaps so they can learn to
32:24 communicate the emperor
32:31 [Music]
32:33 way, even seeming to mimic each other as
32:36 adults do.
32:39 [Music]
32:42 It's a mommy and me
32:46 class and the empress has brought her
32:53 daughter. She's a little
32:57 [Music]
33:00 shy, but mom knows how important this
33:03 will be.
33:06 [Music]
33:17 At a month old, she's starting to stand
33:20 on her own two
33:26 feet with a little help from mom.
33:30 [Music]
33:35 [Music]
33:41 By 2 months, she's ready for
33:44 [Music]
33:48 daycare. She's making the bond she'll
33:51 need for the rest of her
33:53 [Music]
33:55 life. They will stick together.
34:02 Like it or
34:08 not, winter is nearly over and soon
34:12 she'll rely on them to keep her alive.
34:17 [Music]
34:26 [Music]
34:31 The chicks are now 5 months old.
34:37 Their parents have gone and they've
34:40 begun their own journey to the sea in
34:42 search of a meal.
34:47 Their drive is
34:50 unbelievable. And it's not just this
34:52 lot. There are groups of chicks
34:54 everywhere making their way to the sea.
34:58 [Music]
35:06 Bird's been tracking this tiny chick and
35:08 his friends since they survived the
35:13 storm. The chicks really are growing up
35:17 fast. They've started this amazing
35:20 transformation where they
35:22 mol. You know, that gray fluffy coat is
35:26 amazing for keeping warm on the ice, but
35:30 it's completely useless in the water.
35:33 They need to lose it and get their adult
35:35 feathers ready for their first
35:39 swim. They're following the oldest and
35:43 most confident of the
35:45 group. An internal compass takes their
35:49 brave leader north.
35:56 But they've run into
36:09 [Music]
36:14 trouble. As our climate warms, the sea
36:18 ice is breaking apart
36:20 earlier, melting beneath them before
36:23 they're
36:27 ready. If their baby feathers get too
36:30 wet, they can drag the chicks underwater
36:33 and drown them.
36:47 This is really difficult to watch. They
36:50 are fighting for their
36:53 lives. Go
36:56 [Music]
37:00 on. The only world the leader's ever
37:03 known is crumbling beneath her.
37:09 [Music]
37:25 Waiting for the tiny chick is becoming
37:27 dangerous.
37:32 [Music]
37:38 He's struggling to keep
37:42 [Music]
37:46 up with the ice melting rapidly. They're
37:50 all at risk.
37:51 [Music]
38:03 The leader does something no emperor
38:06 chick should ever have to
38:10 [Music]
38:19 do. Leave their friend behind.
38:23 [Music]
38:46 The others make it on to stable ice.
38:50 [Music]
39:06 [Music]
39:14 The little
39:15 chick isn't finished
39:18 yet.
39:20 [Music]
39:34 [Music]
39:37 His friends are in sight.
39:48 [Music]
40:07 together again.
40:12 Just when I think these penguins have
40:14 hit their
40:17 limit, they do something
40:23 [Music]
40:34 extraordinary. After three more days of
40:37 marching, most of the chicks have
40:39 reached the sea.
40:43 They've lost enough baby feathers and
40:46 they're ready for their first swim.
40:55 [Music]
41:01 But in the scramble to reach solid
41:03 ice, the leader has taken a wrong
41:08 path and other groups have
41:16 [Music]
41:26 followed. What on earth is going on
41:29 here?
41:35 Hundreds of chicks are
41:37 stuck on a towering shelf of
41:43 ice. That cliff has got to be 40, 50 ft
41:47 high.
41:51 [Music]
42:06 What was
42:09 that? There's killer whales. We've got
42:12 killer
42:26 whales. Wow. Fortunately for these
42:29 penguins, the killer whales look like
42:31 they're moving
42:36 [Music]
42:39 on. But now the ice is
42:49 cracking. A huge creasse is opening up
42:53 behind them.
42:57 [Music]
43:10 One last time, the leader steps forward.
43:16 [Music]
43:32 [Applause]
43:32 [Music]
43:33 I can't believe
43:35 it. She's made it.
43:40 [Music]
44:02 [Music]
44:03 [Applause]
44:11 [Music]
44:17 You know, we've seen that these chicks
44:19 stick
44:21 together. So, I think a lot are going to
44:23 start to
44:25 [Music]
44:28 jump. Here they go. Here they
44:32 [Music]
44:39 [Music]
44:43 go.
44:46 [Music]
44:48 Those first brave jumpers are giving the
44:52 rest the confidence to
44:56 follow. Some of them are even trying to
44:58 flap their
45:01 [Music]
45:08 wings. I had no idea that the chicks
45:11 would be able to make such a giant leap.
45:14 and then happily swim off together into
45:16 the southern
45:18 ocean. I really hope that tiny chick is
45:22 in there
45:25 [Music]
45:29 somewhere. In a world that's changing
45:32 fast, emperors face an uncertain future.
45:37 They'll rely more than ever on the bonds
45:40 they form with family and friends.
45:46 Good luck, little penguins.
45:52 [Music]
46:14 [Music]
46:16 Yeah. Yeah.
46:25 [Music]
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