Christina Firmenich
Explainer
Emperor Penguins
Astonishing Superpowers
Paul Nicklen
Emperor penguins sacrifice nearly everything to bring life into the world.
Paul Nicklen
John Weller
Before winter strikes, the female leaves the colony to hunt for food, giving a solitary egg to her male partner who carefully rests it on his feet.
It takes 65 days for the egg to hatch. By the time the chick appears, their father has fasted for four months.
Paul Nicklen
The diving physiology of emperor penguins is even more astonishing. They are the deepest-diving birds in the world, reaching depths of nearly 2,000 feet.
Right before a dive, an emperor penguin pumps its heart rate up to 250 beats a minute, saturating its body with oxygen. Then, over the course of a long dive, its heart slows to just 6 beats a minute. Upon resurfacing, it immediately accelerates its heart rate back to 250. With each dive, this sequence replicates the stresses of a human heart attack.