March of the Penguins

It was a Sunday afternoon, the husband had just came back from work and we were having tea in front of the telly. I was flicking through the various channels and stumbled on a movie/documentary called March of the Penguins. The movie followed the journey that emperor penguins take every year to breed. What caught my attention initially was the small chick that sat huddled underneath its father's feet to seek comfort and protection from the intense weather in Antarctica. Ultimate cute-ness.

However, as the movie went on, I found out that there were so many things I could learn from these tiny, amazing creatures. They only breed once a year and they have to travel over 100km of ice to get to their breeding ground. The female will only lay one egg, and immediately transfers it to the father for him to tend to, while she returns to sea to get food for her family. No confinement in this community, it's straight back to work for mummy.

She will be out at sea for 2 months, and during this time, the male penguins will huddle together to keep themselves warm while waiting for the eggs to hatch. Once hatched, the father will try to feed their chick with as much food as they can, as they would only have limited supply themselves from not going out to sea for 2 months. They hope and pray that the mother would come back soon to feed their starving family.

Sure enough, the mothers return home, full of food in their bellies. They get reunited with their partners, and meet their newborn chicks for the first time. Mother and chick will have their first bonding moment when the mother feeds the chick for the first time. Once happy that his chick is in safe hands, the father says his goodbye and leaves to find food for himself.

This continues on for the next few months, mother and father taking turns to take care of their chick while the other goes away to find food. In the mean time, the chicks grow stronger every day, and learn to fend for themselves.

Throughout the first year of the chick's life, the family is reunited for only a few hours every couple of months. Can you imagine taking care of your newborn without your partner with you? I feel so sorry for the mother. At the same time, I am amazed at how both male and female alternate between themselves to find food for the family. It's like mummy and daddy taking turns to be housewives/house husbands. 

There was a scene in the movie where one of the chicks died following a snow storm. When the mother found the chick dead, she wailed and cried for it. Despite only caring for her little one for a short period of time, she was able to develop a strong bond with her chick. When she sees the other females with their chicks, she gets jealous and tries to steal the chicks from them. However, the other mothers intervene and pushes her away.

At the end of the movie, the chicks are all grown up and they can now swim into the sea and hunt for themselves. Their parents work is now done.

It's amazing how even in the animal kingdom, positive family values are still in place. Partnership, love, sacrifices, trust. I hope that when we have a baby, I'll remember what the female penguin had to endure, and be thankful that Tesco is only 5 minutes away.