It is unusual behavior. They crowd around the edge of a high cliff that overlooks the sea. After a few minutes, they seem to become emboldened and prepare to fall. Penguins jumping off the cliff has been caught on video and is a fascinating event in nature.
The makers of a documentary series titled Secrets of the Penguins They captured this scene. It is extraordinarily rare. It was taken with a drone in Atka Bay, West Antarctica. “I can’t believe they recorded it,” says Michelle LaRue. She is a conservation biologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch (New Zealand).
jumping penguins
Typically, emperor penguins nest on floating sea ice that thaws and breaks away each year, not on the ice shelf, which is firmly attached to the land. But lately some colonies nest on the platform. It may be related to the increasingly earlier seasonal thaw due to climate change.
Gerald Kooyman is a research physiologist who has been studying emperor penguins in Antarctica for more than five decades. He says he’s only seen something like this once, more than 30 years ago.
Over the course of a couple of days, nearly 2,000 chicks gathered on a ledge. “Finally, they started walking down the cliff,” Kooyman writes. «They did not jump or jump. They would just go out and fall headlong, sometimes doing two somersaults before hitting the water with a loud plop.”
Threatened
Juvenile emperors often emerge from the sea ice, jumping just a few meters into the ocean. But the cliff-jumping penguins found themselves in a tough spot getting into the water. And probably very hungry. scientists say. Their parents had already gone out to sea, sending them the message that it is time for them to fish for themselves. “When they get to this cliff, they say, ‘Okay, I see the ocean and I have to get in there.’ It doesn’t seem like a fun jump, but I guess I’ll have to go,” they explain.
Scientists have been concerned about the sudden decline in Antarctic sea ice since 2016. It could have dire consequences for the long-term survival of emperor penguins. “They could disappear by the end of the century,” they say. “It’s heartbreaking to think that the entire species could disappear if climate change continues on the path it’s on right now.”
