LAST LOOK

Hard-knock Nursery

mperor penguin chicks, like these photographed by Jonathan and Angela Scott on Snow Hill Island in Antarctica’s Weddell C, amid raging winds. After 65–75 days, the chick emerges and is fed fat- and protein-rich “crop milk”. By the time the female returns from feasting on krill, squid and fish for two months (if she survives the orcas and leopard seals), the male will have lost almost half his body weight; only then can he return to the ocean to replenish his energy reserves. Parents take turns feeding and protecting the chick until November, when it will begin to grow protective feathers, and they will stop feeding it. In December, adults and chicks (now fully fledged in waterproof feathers) leave the colony and return to the ocean.