LEAP OF FAITH Hundreds of emperor juveniles survived jumping into the sea from a 50-foot ice shelf last year. The impact may have been minimized by their small size, plentiful feathers on their belly, and strong breast muscles.

How Antarctica’s penguins became nature’s daredevils.

From diving off cliffs to starving for months, emperor penguins are continuing to surprise scientists with their ability to adapt to one of the world’s most extreme environments.

By Rene Ebersole

Photograph by Bertie Gregory

PUBLISHED APRIL 17, 2025

“Oh my god, this thing’s going to die.” That was the thought running through the mind of wildlife filmmaker Bertie Gregory when he saw the first juvenile emperor penguin jump off a 50-foot cliff. The bird plummeted downward, splashing into the frigid Southern Ocean. After a few suspenseful seconds, it bobbed to the surface and then swam off toward the horizon. The National Geographic Explorer couldn’t believe it.

What came next was even more shocking: More penguins from the crowd of several hundred huddled at the edge of the towering ice shelf plunged one by one into the sea. “There was a moment when it was just raining penguins off this cliff,” says Gregory, who captured rare footage of the event with a drone camera in Antarctica’s Atka Bay last year while filming Secrets of the Penguins, a new National Geographic documentary series. “It was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen.” Some did graceful swan dives; others slipped and tumbled headlong into the waves. Miraculously, nearly all survived the leap.

When it’s time for the penguins to return to the sea ice, they release air bubbles from their feathers. This reduces drag and allows them to accelerate out of the water. The icy impact can knock the wind out of them, sometimes producing a squeak.

Photograph by Bertie Gregory

Normally, young penguins jump only a couple of feet from floating sea ice into the water when they fledge, says Michelle LaRue, a conservation biologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. The cliff-diving chicks that Gregory observed may have been raised on the permanent ice shelf and likely took a wrong turn, finding themselves in a tricky location for a water entry while simultaneously motivated by hunger and an ocean brimming with fish beckoning below.

The scene was a true demonstration of the penguins’ fortitude. These fascinating birds have evolved over millions of years to survive on the coldest, windiest, driest continent on Earth.

In the ocean, emperor penguins can dive deeper than any other species, reaching depths of more than 1,600 feet. They also can remain submerged for over 20 minutes.

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic Image Collection

Many of their most incredible traits can be seen during nesting season, which runs through the most challenging time of year. Female emperor penguins lay a single pear-shaped egg early in the Antarctic winter when temperatures can dip to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit and winds can reach hurricane force. Needing to replenish their energy reserves, they quickly shuffle the eggs to their mates to assume caretaking while they trek out to the ocean to feed.

Male emperor penguins spend the next two months incubating the eggs balanced atop their webbed feet and shielded from the cold by a flap of the penguin’s abdominal skin that forms a pocket, or brood pouch. The soon-to-be fathers will go nearly four months without food, losing roughly half their weight during breeding season. Eggs typically hatch by August, just as the females are returning to provide their young with a first meal. Then the chicks will be fed and warmed by their parents over the next five months.

By mid-December, as the Antarctic summer approaches, the chicks have started to shed their fluffy down for waterproof plumage. Soon they leave their colony and find food on their own. Juveniles like those Gregory filmed take a literal leap of faith into the sea. It is a pivotal moment when they begin their life in the ocean, where they’ll spend an average of five years before returning to breed.

Dense, overlapping feathers and a thick layer of insulating body fat shield emperor penguins from the biting Antarctic cold. To defend against the extreme conditions while incubating eggs, hundreds of males huddle tightly together.

PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANS LANTING, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION

Scientists do not think the cliff-jumping incident was directly related to climate change, but at least one expert speculates that warming temperatures may force more emperors to breed on permanent ice shelves instead of sea ice, increasing the chances of juveniles fledging from tall heights. This incident underscores a stark reality: Under some climate scenarios, scientists predict, 80 percent of Antarctica’s emperor penguin colonies will disappear by the turn of the century.

But LaRue remains hopeful about the emperors’ ability to adapt, and she considers the recent high dive a testament to the penguins’ hardiness. “They’re incredibly resilient,” she says. “They have been around for millions of years; they’ve seen lots of different changes in their environment. It’s a question of how rapidly they’re able to deal with the changes that are happening—and how far they can be pushed.”

On land, where their waddling slows them down, emperor penguins often resort to tobogganing— sliding on their bellies while pushing with their flippers and feet. This efficient mode of transport allows them to cover vast distances across the icy expanse as they travel to and from the sea.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BERTIE GREGORY