Journeys with Emperors

Nearly all emperor penguin colonies are extremely remote; of the sixty-six known, fewer than thirty have been visited by humans, and even fewer have been the subject of successful research programmes. One of the largest known emperor penguin colonies is found on a narrow band of sea ice attached to the Antarctic continent. In Journeys with Emperors, Gerald L. Kooyman and Jim Mastro take us to this far-flung colony in the Ross Sea, revealing how scientists gained access to it, and what they learned while living among the penguins as they raised their chicks.

The Ross Sea colony is close to the ice edge, which spares the penguins the long, energy-draining march for which other colonies are well-known. But life at this colony is not without movement. The proximity of the ice edge to the birds allowed researchers to observe the penguins as they came and went on their foraging journeys, including their interactions with leopard seals and killer whales.

What the scientists witnessed revealed important aspects of emperor penguin behaviour and physiology. For instance, they discovered that in the course of hunting for food, some of the penguins dive to depths of greater than five hundred metres (a third of a mile, deeper than any other diving bird). Crucially, most of the emperor’s life is actually spent at sea, with fledged chicks and adults making separate, perilous journeys across icy water—to mature or to feed before they must fast while they moult.

When chick nurturing is complete, the fledglings abandon the colony in large groups, heading north to the Southern Ocean. The adults leave at the same time, travelling one thousand kilometres eastward across the Ross Sea to a sea-ice sanctuary for moulting. During this journey, they must gain enough weight to survive the month-long moult, when every feather is replaced and the birds cannot enter the water to feed. After the moult, many if not most return to the colony to breed once again. For the males, this means another fast—this time for 120 days as they incubate their eggs.

Featuring original colour photographs and complemented with online videos, Journeys with Emperors is both an eye-opening overview of the emperor penguin’s life and a thrilling tale of scientific discovery in one of the most remote, harsh, and beautiful places on Earth.