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Introducing the Emperor of Antarctica

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Introducing the Emperor of Antarctica Read the passage. Then answer the question below. Introducing the Emperor of Antarctica A plump five-foot figure, wearing what looks like a tuxedo, walks across a frozen landscape. Suddenly, the figure drops to its belly and paddles its limbs as if swimming. Sound strange? Actually, it is the emperor of Antarctica…the emperor penguin, that is. One could easily argue that the emperor penguin is the king of survival. These amazing creatures live in the harshest climate on earth. Temperatures in Antarctica regularly reach –60°C and blizzards can last for days. But in this frigid world, the emperors swim, play, breed, and raise their chicks. Although emperor penguins are birds, they are unable to take flight. Rather, they do their “flying” in the water. Their flipper-like wings and sleek bodies make them expert swimmers. Emperors are able to dive deeper than any other bird and can stay under water for up to 22 minutes. The emperors are so at home in the water that young penguins enter the water when they are just six months old. Like many birds, the emperor penguins migrate during the winter. This migration, however, is very different. Each year, as winter approaches, the penguins leave the comfort—and food supply—of the ocean to begin a 70-mile journey across the ice. Walking single file, the penguins waddle along for days, flopping to their bellies and pushing themselves along with their flippers when their feet get tired. Along the way, colonies of penguins meet up with other colonies all headed for the same place—the safety of their breeding grounds. Amazingly, each year the penguins instinctively find their way to the same breeding ground where they were born. Once at the breeding grounds, the penguins begin looking for mates, with whom they will raise chicks for the next year. The emperors begin singing to each other, hoping to find a perfect match. Penguins each have a unique song, and once they’ve chosen a mate, the song will enable them to identify each other amongst thousands of other penguins. A female emperor lays just one egg per year. After laying her egg, she carefully passes the egg to her mate. The father’s job is to make sure the egg stays safe and warm until it is ready to hatch. An egg that falls onto the ice or is exposed to the cold will freeze within minutes. To keep it warm, the father, assuming a paternal role, carefully holds the egg on top of his feet. He covers it with a fold of skin on his belly. Because the breeding grounds are so far from the water’s edge, the penguins have to go months without eating. While the fathers stay huddled together against the cold to protect their eggs, the mothers hike back to the ocean to find food and regain their strength. During that time, the fathers will have had nothing to eat for about 115 days and will lose about half of their body weight. Eventually spring arrives and the mothers return. The fathers call to them and transfer the egg back to the mother until it hatches. The fathers then walk back to the sea to eat for the first time in four months. Once the chick hatches, the parents take turns caring for it and walking back and forth to the water to feed. The chicks hatch with a fuzzy gray coat of feathers that they eventually lose as their “suit” of black and white feathers comes in. By the time summer begins, the chicks are five to six months old. Both parents eventually leave the chicks behind and return to the ocean. By instinct, the chicks know what to do. They begin the long walk to the sea together. Although they have never left the breeding grounds before, they know where to go to find their way to the ocean. They spend the next four years there until they reach their full size. Then they begin the cycle again. Each winter they come back to land to make the long trek back to the place where they were born to find a mate. “One could easily argue that the emperor penguin is the king of survival.” Write an essay explaining how the statement is true. Use evidence from the passage to support your response. .
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