Just finished watching the documentary ‘March of the Penguins‘. I know… I should be sleeping or if not studying. But this is really a good documentary. It talks about the life of a penguins. Real penguins in Antartica. As said by Morgan Freeman in the trailers, ” They have wings, but cannot fly. They are birds that think they are fish. And every year, they embark on an impossible journey. To find a mate.”

It all started with a march. A march that aims to find their destined mate. They walk and the glide all the way for 20 days and 20 nights to reach a breeding ground which is able to withstand the sun until the next summer so that they can make sure it will not melt when they are on it. But the weather there is extremely harsh and there is no food near that breeding ground. But yet, they are on a mission that is so important that they rather be hungry in order to pass down their lives. They then begin to look for their soulmates. * no, they are not mating yet * After they are all paired up, they will start fondling and kissing each other. ( yes, you see it right ) After some foreplay, they will then start mating. After the process, it’s all waiting. They wait and wait, and wait…

Until the egg is finally laid. The female penguins are hungry by now, hence they will transfer the egg to the male penguin and let him hatch the egg instead. The female will then walk 70 miles away the breeding ground to the sea to proceed on hunting food back for the young and the male will be the one protecting the egg from cold and hatch them. It will be until the baby penguin is hatched, the female penguin returns with a belly full of food. The male penguin will then be the one in turn to look for food. The female and male will each take turns by going back and forth the 70 miles to take care of the lil penguins and go look for food. Until the lil penguins is fully grown up and is able to take care of itself. The whole family will separate and live their lives apart from each other.

I find this show interesting as it is really showing the every aspect of lives of a penguin, even though for those that just laid an egg and the egg is sacrifice when the female penguin tries to transfer the egg to the male penguin. When the egg is cracked, the cruel cold. will froze the inside of the egg immediately and all the long march and mating and laying egg will be in vain. The other real life aspect was, as the penguins is very hungry or it’s too cold, some might not even be able to protect themselves and hence they died in that process.

The one that gives me the deepest impact is the one that lose her child. After the newborn baby is being passed back to the mum, the weather is still very cold. The baby penguin might not be able to stand the cold and died. The mum calls the froze son, but yet the son will NEVER respond anymore. As she can’t take the fact that her son is dead, she goes and try to steal the other penguin’s son. You can see the same traits of protective mum in the penguins as well as in our human. It really touches me alot when I see that. It felt just like a mum has lost his son and she has gone crazy being too upset about it.

Another one is that the newborn child will be hunt by some sort of eagle like bird and the elder penguins can do nothing about it. In this documentary, it shows the strong lives. Eventhough at such harsh environment with such extreme weathers, the penguins can still manage to survive. I see lives. The vicious circle of lives when I watch this movie. Life is harsh and cruel. You do not have all the control over it but you can live through it if you have the will strong enough.

Anyway, when the little penguins are big enough, they will then have their first taste of sea. Eventhough they have not swim before, but yet, they can swim like they have swam for all of their lives. 4 more years later, they too will start their own March of the Penguins.

All in all, this is really an awesome documentary. Watch it if you have the time. Here’s the must watch trailer from apple.com if you are interested in finding out more about the documentary. March of the Penguins Trailers

Official Poster for March of the Penguins


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Anyway, here’s some facts about Penguins. You can have a look at it if you don’t know yet.

Facts about Penguins.

1. Penguins are birds.

2. Penguins don’t fly. Penguins swim.

3. Penguins lay eggs. Female Penguins lay eggs however Male Penguins Hatch them.

4. Most penguin chicks have fluffy feathers.

5. Penguins live in large groups called colonies or rookery.

6. Penguins use their wings like paddles for swimming.

7. Penguins do not live at the North Pole.

8. All penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere. Some live in Antarctica, Coast of South America, South Africa, Galapagos, Southern Australia and New Zealand.

9. Penguins forage in the ocean for their food, which may be fish, squid, or shrimp-like krill.

10. Most penguins can swim about 15 miles per hour.

11. Penguins keep warm with insulating layers consisting of tightly packed feathers, air, skin, and blubber.

12. Penguins hold their feathers tightly against their bodies to keep warm and fluff them out away from their bodies to cool off.

13. There are at least 18 different species of penguins. There may be as many as 100 million penguins in the world.

14. Though plentiful, penguins are threatened by oil spills, water pollution, and the over harvesting of ocean fish.

through Penguins Facts

Here’s a quote of the synopsis by the official website of March of the Penguins.

Each winter, alone in the pitiless ice deserts of Antarctica, deep in the most inhospitable terrain on Earth, a truly remarkable journey takes place as it has done for millennia. Emperor penguins in their thousands abandon the deep blue security of their ocean home and clamber onto the frozen ice to begin their long journey into a region so bleak, so extreme, it supports no other wildlife at this time of year. In single file, the penguins march blinded by blizzards, buffeted by gale force winds. Resolute, indomitable, driven by the overpowering urge to reproduce, to assure the survival of the species.

Guided by instinct, by the otherworldly radiance of the Southern Cross, they head unerringly for their traditional breeding ground where - after a ritual courtship of intricate dances and delicate maneuvering, accompanied by a cacophony of ecstatic song - they will pair off into monogamous couples and mate.

The days grow shorter, the weather ever more bitter. The females remain long enough only to lay a single egg. Once this is accomplished, exhausted by weeks without nourishment, they begin their return journey across the ice-field to the fish-filled seas. The journey is hazardous, and rapacious leopard seals a predatory threat. The male emperors are left behind to guard and hatch the precious eggs, which they cradle at all times on top of their feet. Subjected to subzero temperatures and the terrible trials of the polar winter, they too face great dangers.

After two long months during which the males eat nothing, the eggs begin to hatch. Once they have emerged into their ghostly white new world, the chicks can not survive for long on their fathers’ limited food reserves. If their mothers are late returning from the ocean with food, the newly-hatched young will die.

Once the families are reunited, the roles reverse, the mothers remaining with their new young while their mates head, exhausted and starved, for the sea, and food. While the adults fish, the chicks face the ever-present threat of attack by prowling giant petrels. As the weather grows warmer and the ice floes finally begin to crack and melt, the adults will repeat their arduous journey countless times, marching many hundreds of miles over some of the most treacherous territory on Earth, until the chicks are ready to take their first faltering dive into the deep blue waters of the Antarctic.

through March of the Penguins