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Preparing to launch from the sea to the sea ice, an emperor penguin reaches maximum speed.
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An airborne penguin shows why it has a need for speed: To get out of the water, it may have to clear several feet of ice. A fast exit also helps it elude leopard seals, which often lurk at the ice edge.
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An emperor’s dense feathers—about a hundred per square inch that overlap like roof tiles—seal out water and trap air in a downy underlayer. When released, the air coats the bird in lubricating bubbles.
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After hunting at sea to get food for their chicks, adult penguins swim at the surface, which loads their plumage with air. Then they’ll dive deep, gather speed, and race toward their exit hole.
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At a colony on the frozen Ross Sea, emperor parents and chicks bask in the brief summer sun. The distance to open water varies with the season; in midwinter birds may have to cross many miles of ice to feed.
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Life is safer at the colony, where predators are few and company is close.
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The danger of ambush by leopard seals is greatest when entering the water, so penguins sometimes linger at the edge of an ice hole for hours, waiting for one bold bird to plunge in.
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Emperors can bolt away for any number of reasons, as photographer Paul Nicklen discovered when he spooked this group. “A tenth of a second after I took this picture, all I could see were bubbles.”
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“These penguins have probably never seen a human in the water,” says photographer Paul Nicklen, “but it took them only seconds to realize that I posed no danger. They relaxed and allowed me to share their hole in the sea ice.”
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Emperor penguins are Olympian swimmers, capable of diving to 1,750 feet and remaining underwater 20 minutes on a single breath. “I was mesmerized by their beautiful bubble trails,” says Nicklen, who braved 28°F water to capture these images.
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Emperor penguins mill in the depths as they prepare for their swift ascent to the sea ice. “Once they start to launch,” says Nicklen, “within 30 seconds they’re all standing on the ice.”
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Without the safety of numbers, a lone penguin corkscrews to get a 360-degree view of its surroundings. When it leaps from the water, it will land with a thump and a squeak and leave its most graceful moves behind.
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