Sunday, May 7, 2006

Movie 2006.05.07 - March of the Penguins

March of the PenguinsWith this documentary, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Basically, the movie traces and Morgan Freeman narrates how a typical breeding season is for the emperor penguins. Every year, they march over something like seventy miles of ice to get to the breeding grounds. Once couples have paired off, they mate, and the female produces the egg. Egg production consumes about a third of the mother's fat stores, so she has to head to the sea to get food. The egg is protected from the Antartica's extreme cold by the mother's flesh and feathers. Before she leaves, she needs to transfer the egg to her partner. This part is tricky because if they don't do it right, the egg gets exposed, and after a few seconds, the shell cracks due to cold and the chick within dies.

The fathers stay with the eggs until they hatch, and for the meantime, they feed the chicks with food they have kept in their stomach. This is only gonna last for a couple of days, so if the moms don't make it back in time, some of the chicks will go hungry. When the mothers come back, everybody starts calling out as they identify each other by voice. Now, it's the fathers' turn to get food from the sea. Before they leave, everybody calls out again, memorizing each other's voices. Eventually, the mothers have to leave the chicks to find food. The fathers come back, a huge commotion ensues, and so on and so forth.

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