# Q. about those nutty penguins
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 16, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904 "2006-04-16T19:52:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/1 "2006-04-16T19:52:39Z")
I was astonished at what the penguins go through after seeing _Marchj of the Penguins_. It’s a wonder to me that any have survived.
What was not noted, nor can I find, is whether **all** penguins in Antartica go through this ritual. Is it only this flock (school? bunch? batch?) of penguins that do this due to the large area of iceshelf seasonal meltdown where they live, or is it the same for each colony (?) of the birds?
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/2 "2006-04-16T20:18:53Z")
I posted this some time ago, but it never showed up. Gone to cyber-cyberland?
Try again: I was astonished to learn what the penguins go through each year after seeing _The March of the Penguins_. Is it only this flock (colony?) that does this due to the extensive shoreline ice meltdown? Or do all the penguins in Antarctica go through this ritual?
I could see no reason whatsoever for their picking the bleak, unsheltered spot they did to lay their eggs, so very far from the shoreline.
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### Author:  [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/3 "2006-04-16T20:30:01Z")
Not sure why this is in GD; looks more like GQ to me; so I’m going answer in that vein. The short answer to your question is that no one is quite sure why the Emperors do this, but it is presumed that it proved adaptive as a way of avoiding predators during their comparatively long hatching and fledgling process. Unfortunately, this understanding is based on resources no longer available to me. Looking around the Net quickly, I found [this site](http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/penguins/index.shtml) with a pretty good discussion of the various species and their breeding habits. [This one](http://www.biosbcc.net/ocean/AApenguins.htm) confirms my understanding about Emperors.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/4 "2006-04-16T20:39:00Z")
Ugh, don’t go by March of the Penguins, overly-emotional tripe. Watch “Life in the Freezer”, with David Attenborough and you will get info not only about all types of pengys but many Antartic creatures.
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### Author:  [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/5 "2006-04-16T21:12:48Z")
All [Emperor Penguins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Penguin) do this, but I’m not quite sure of the reason. If I remember rightly, it was something to do with the fact that they start breeding in the autumn, at which point the sea ice hasn’t formed - the trek happens when they need to get back to the sea in the middle of winter and early spring, when the ice hasn’t yet broken up. I might be very, very wrong here, and I’m sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me so, if I am.
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### Author:  [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/6 "2006-04-16T21:19:35Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#):
>
> I posted this some time ago, but it never showed up. Gone to cyber-cyberland?
Gone to [Great Debates](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=367600) it seems.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/7 "2006-04-16T21:19:47Z")
It’s only the Emperor Penguin that does this. It and the much smaller Adelie are the only penguins that nest on the Antarctic continent proper. (The other species nest on islands, or on the coasts of South America, Australia, or South Africa).
The Emperors trudge so far in from the coast so that they will be in the right spot once the ice breaks up in the spring. Once they have chicks to feed, they need to have the sea close at hand. But because they are large birds, it takes some time for the chicks to develop inside the egg and hatch out - nine weeks. They lay their eggs in the Antarctic autumn (May and June). If they laid their eggs at the edge of the ice where it is then, when the ice starts to melt the next spring it would reach the colony before the chicks were ready to go to sea, plunging them into icy water prematurely. By laying their eggs well in from the midwinter edge of the ice, the sea comes to them as the ice melts, and is in the right place when the chicks have developed enough to swim.
The colony shown in _March of the Penguins_ was actually quite small; some number in the thousands. While the photography was incredible, I didn’t think the movie did a very good job of explaining _why_ the penguins do what they do. (Then, I saw it in Spanish so I’m not sure what the English narration is like.)
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/8 "2006-04-16T22:36:34Z")
> [@PBear42](#):
>
> Not sure why this is in GD; looks more like GQ to me; so I’m going answer in that vein.
Yeah, I wondered why it never appeared in GQ, so posted another one. Obviouisly I had a brainfart and was in the wrong place and didn’t even know it, or I had a spell put on me by an evil penguin. :smack:
Can a kind moderator close this one down?
Thanks for the info about the birdies.
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/9 "2006-04-16T22:38:56Z")
> [@Scruloose](#):
>
> Gone to [Great Debates](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=367600) it seems.
Right you are. I obviously was in the wrong forum when I posted it. Must have been bewitched. Sorry 'bout 'dat. :smack: Hope a mod will close down the other one.
Thanks for the interesting info, guys.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/10 "2006-04-17T01:59:09Z")
\*\*[Moderator Mode] \*\*
The thread from **Great Debates** has been merged with this thread in **General Questions** in order to pick up **PBear42** ’s post and keep all the responses together.
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2006, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/q-about-those-nutty-penguins/352904/11 "2006-04-17T14:26:25Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#):
>
> I was astonished at what the penguins go through after seeing _Marchj of the Penguins_.
The weird thing about the penquin migration isn’t their long route–it’s that they are just so damn _cute_ about it.
Lots of birds migrate–but we just dont get astonished about 'em do we? Because, well, they’re birds, and they’re flying, and that’s what Nature intended 'em to do.
Most birds spend half their lives migrating vast distances. So Penguins aren’t doing anything special.
They just like to do it standing up. 🙂