(Photo : Wikimedia Commons/Denis Luyten)
Hundreds of baby penguins were spotted jumping off a high ice cliff in Antarctica. The terrifying moment was captured on camera for the first time.
Baby Penguins Jumps Off From a High Ice Cliff
In 2009, baby penguins were seen heading to the ice cliff in Antartica, but what they did after reaching the peak remained a mystery. However, the secret was finally unveiled after National Geographic saw the penguin chicks jumping off the 50-foot ice cliff.
In January 2024, the team led by Bertie Gregory followed about 700 penguin chicks walking towards the ice cliff using a drone camera. They gathered at the cliff's edge and looked down the ocean below them. It took a couple of minutes until one of them jumped off the cliff and started swimming in the water. It didn't take long, and one by one, the remaining penguins jumped off, too, to take their first swim.
The video received several responses from netizens, with many expressing their amazement at what they witnessed. One jokingly said it was "peer pressure at its finest." Another said it was "the scariest" but also the "most bravest magnificent display of nature" they witnessed.
Several netizens noticed how the remaining penguins appeared relieved when they saw that the first one who jumped off the cliff was okay as it swam in the water. "First guy's the hero," another netizen opined.
Sara Labrousse, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, explained that when the chicks are around five months old, they undergo a process known as fledging. In this process, they will lose their baby feathers and leave the colony for the first time to travel the ocean and take their first swim. The whole process happens without any supervision from the adult penguins.
"This is when they are essentially learning how to swim," Labrousse explained. "That's not something that their parents teach them."
She added that the baby penguins were incredibly clumsy and insecure when entering the water. They do not swim as gracefully and quickly as their parents do.
Chicks normally enter the water from a safe height of about one to two feet. However, satellite images revealed that some colonies raise their chicks high up on ice shelves, forcing them to jump into the ocean from taller heights.
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Penguin Toy Saves Depressed Owl
In related news, a penguin toy saved a depressed owl that refused to live after its partner died in a car accident. The owl sat in a cage and had "his eyes closed and head down" following the loss.
Karen Ledger, a wildlife rescuer, felt that the owl would not survive if she would not intervene. So, she decided to give the owl a companion through a plush penguin toy. She placed the stuffed animal, roughly the size of the bird next to it.
Her strategy seemingly worked because the owl started to feel better. It opened its eyes and eventually recovered until it was strong enough to be freed.
Owls are monogamous. Despite their dispersed migratory species, they always return to the same nesting location during the mating season to reproduce and rear their young.
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