The March of the Pegnuins

Did you watch the documentary "The March of the Penguins" on Arts Central channel 10pm 13 Jul 2008?

The place was somewhere in Antarctic. There were thousands of penguins who arrived on a very large piece of ice land. They walked for days and weeks to reach their preferred place to start a new life. The walk was lonely and long, facing the harsh weather conditions.

Upon reaching this place, they danced to look for one to mate. At times, two male penguins might fight over a female. A new life has started after the mating occurred. An egg was born. The female would transferred the only precious egg very carefully to the male. The egg was handled with great care because when it was exposed to the coldness, the whole egg would freeze and this year would be wasted.

Somehow I saw that the female penguin carried the egg with much ease as compared to the male. When the male penguin carried the egg, he has to curl up his feet to prevent the egg from rolling out from his thick feathers. Both adult penguins have been without food for 3 months. The mother penguin was very hungry and started walking back to the sea where she came from to look for food for herself and the unborn chick.

It was a journey with a hungry stomach. She was weak yet had t watch for for any seals. If the seal caught her, not only her life was gone and also her unborn chick. Once she reached the ocean, there was plenty of food and she basked in the ocean. When she had enough food, she started her third journey back to her mate.

The chick has already hatched and screaming for food. The male penguin was exhausted and hungry, being without any food for 4 months. He knew that if she did not return soon, both he and their chick would die of hunger.

Very soon, he saw her. They hugged for one last time before he left for the ocean. His journey was a journey of hunger. A lot of his friends died during this journey due to the hunger. His chick was raised by the mother.

I am truly amazed by these penguins! They are small yet have great determination to fight against the mother nature.