Hundreds of emperor penguins a few months old crowded on the top of an ice shelf in Antarctica and jumped into the sea from about 15 meters high. It is the rare image that the filmmakers of a documentary series titled Secrets of the Penguins captured last January, from a drone view, which will premiere on Earth Day 2025 on Disney and National Geographic, according to this medium.
It was not a sought after image. On the contrary, the team of this production was surprised to see that these animals, in danger of extinction due to the melting caused by climate change, were moving to the edge of these large ice shelves. They rested there for a while, and then ended up jumping into the frozen water of Atka Bay, in West Antarctica.
Following the publication of the first images, the question arises as to the reason for this way of acting, which scientists are already analyzing. “I can’t believe they recorded it,” Michelle LaRue, a conservation biologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, told National Geographic.
As seen in the video, a large group of emperor penguins approaches the edge of this frozen block. The others, although with reservations, follow the most daring one. The animal looks out and looks at everything that remains below it, 15 meters high.
At first, the penguins resist falling off the cliff and back away. However, seconds after what is seen in the video, one of the chicks jumps and falls into the water. He leaves the water and many others follow him, flapping their wings to reach dry land.
According to experts consulted by this media, the chicks could have reached that point by having followed one or two wandering adults who chose the “wrong path.” Once there, they would follow in the adults’ footsteps and be encouraged to look for food for themselves.
In any case, speaking to National Geographic, Peter Fretwell, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, does not believe that the cliff jumping incident was directly related to climate change warming Antarctica, one of the most pressing problems for these animals.
Several studies suggest that the loss of sea ice, caused by climate change, is causing catastrophic effects among emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica, affecting their reproduction and subsistence.
According to research from the British Antarctic Survey published in Nature Communications Earth
