Brave Penguin Chicks Dive Into Unknown From Sheer Cliff Face

Emperor penguin chicks face a tough challenge at just six months old. Their parents leave them to fend for themselves, and the young penguins must find their way to the ocean and learn to swim. After spending their early lives in groups called creches, the chicks naturally stick together as they begin their march toward the sea. Traditionally, they only need to hop 1 to 2 feet from the sea ice into the water. However, in this YouTube video, several hundred penguin chicks take their very first swim by diving off a 50-foot cliff into the icy water below!

A Leap Into the Unknown

Emperor penguins usually return to the same areas of sea ice to breed and raise their chicks. This ice melts and reforms seasonally, but due to climate change, there are considerably fewer floating ice platforms each year. With the increasing melting, some penguin colonies have had to move to alternative, more stable sites. While this provides a temporary solution for the first few months, it makes reaching the open ocean far more challenging, especially for the young chicks.

Jumping from a piece of sea ice into the water can be a bit nerve-wracking for the young chicks. Even though it’s only a 1 to 2-foot jump, they have never been in the ocean or swum before. But just imagine having to take your first swim by leaping off a 50-foot cliff! Yet, scientists have observed penguin chicks bravely marching to the edge of these cliffs and taking an incredible leap of faith into the icy water below.

However, this YouTube video is the first time this astonishing and rare event has been captured on film. As the footage shows, the penguin chicks certainly are not thrilled about the jump, but driven by their gnawing hunger, all 700 chicks march to the very edge of the cliff. After much hesitation, one brave chick finally takes the plunge. Amazingly, it survives the fall and immediately begins swimming toward the Southern Ocean to hunt for food. Gradually, the other penguins follow, awkwardly tumbling into the ocean for their first swim. These young penguins will spend several years at sea as they hunt, grow, and learn. Eventually, they will return to the same area again to breed.

The Desperate Plunge of Cliff-Jumping Penguin Chicks

What could possibly compel a young penguin chick to dive off a 50-foot cliff into the unknown? Two surprisingly powerful forces: instinct and hunger.

Emperor penguins are devoted parents and care for their chicks for several months. However, when the chicks are about five months old, the parents must prepare for their seasonal molt.

Molting is a major undertaking for emperor penguins. During this process, they shed and replace all of their feathers, which requires a tremendous amount of energy. Because they lack their usual waterproof feathers while molting, they cannot go into the water to hunt for food while molting because they lack their usual waterproof feathers during this time. To survive, adult penguins must first build up significant fat reserves.

This creates a delicate dilemma for penguin parents. They don’t want to abandon their chicks too early, as the chicks would not be ready to survive on their own. However, if the parents wait too long to leave, they won’t have enough fat reserves to safely complete their molt, putting their own lives at risk.

Soon after their parents leave, the young chicks begin their journey, diving into the ocean from the sea ice to find food. However, with less sea ice available each year, many chicks now face a much longer trek to reach the open ocean. As seen in the video, some penguin chicks even have to make incredibly dangerous dives from enormous cliffs to reach the water.

How Climate Change Threatens Emperor Penguins

Scientists have long known about the challenges emperor penguins face due to climate change. However, it was only recently that this extraordinary cliffside diving was captured on film by Bertie Gregory, who used a drone to avoid disturbing the birds. While such events are rare, some scientists suggest they are becoming more common as rising temperatures in Antarctica reduce available sea ice.

Fortunately, penguins are resilient and are finding new ways to adapt to their changing environment. However, their world is changing rapidly, presenting them with unprecedented challenges.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists emperor penguins as a near-threatened species. However, many recent studies suggest that their status is even more dire and suggest that emperor penguins be uplisted to Vulnerable or Endangered due to worsening threats from climate change. Their population is steadily declining, primarily because of the ongoing climate crisis and increasing temperatures in Antarctica. For example, in 2022, thousands of emperor penguins died when melting sea ice broke up before they developed waterproof feathers, leaving them unable to survive in the ocean. Alarmingly, temperatures in Antarctica are increasing almost twice as fast as the rest of the world, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

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