By Emma
Bryce, Live Science Contributor | February 14, 2019 06:31am ET
They've
become the stars of many a nature documentary and cartoon, beloved for their
fluffiness and impeccable waddle. Yet, when it comes to breeding, you might say
that emperor penguins have
drawn the evolutionary short straw. As if life weren't already tough enough in
the mostly frigid Antarctic landscape they inhabit, these birds also have to
breed in the dead of winter, when they must shield their eggs from snow and
roaring winds, lest the eggs turn into ice cubes.
This
week's episode of BBC America's "Dynasties" follows
a colony of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) as they contend with this
inhospitable climate to keep their fragile eggs alive.
The
emperor is actually the only penguin species that follows the risky strategy of
breeding solely in the winter, which they do in huge colonies of several
thousand birds. While the female birds head
out to sea for months to replenish themselves with fish after
each one lays an enormous egg, the males stay behind and each incubate an egg
as temperatures grow increasingly frigid on the flat sheet ice where they live.
[In Photos:
The Emperor Penguin's Beautiful and Extreme Breeding Season]
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