The emperor penguin is the largest of all penguins. His average weight is 30 kilograms and he can be 1.15 meter tall. The emperor penguin can be recognized by his black head, his long beak, the orange spots on the ears and the breast. The emperor is the only penguin that breeds on the shelf ice (he never comes to land). Only when the other penguin species already raised their young, the emperor starts breeding. End April the animals gather in colonies and organise a courtship that lasts 3 to 5 weeks. End May, early June the female lay one egg. My job is done, she says and she leaves her husband alone with the egg. She has gone to the sea for a holiday of two months. The male emperor holds the egg on his feet and covers it with his belly. When the egg is hatched out, the female is back again. Meanwhile the male has lost half of his weight. As soon the chick is born, his father leaves and goes to the sea for a while to recover. Because of the long distances the parents have to cover to find food, sixty percent of the chicks die before they are grown up. The eggs were hatched during the coldest period of the year with temperatures of -40° to -60° Celsius. The advantage is that the chick can grow up in Summer. Emperor penguins still are shrouded in mystery. The reason is that they are not seen a lot. Their breeding colonies are almost unreachable. Emperor penguins are very untrue. After one year 78 percent of the couples separate.

Geographic Distribution