Emperor penguin chick and parent
- Aptenodytes forsteri
Penguin chicks are kept warm and safe under the
parents "brood flap" a sort of floppy beer belly of skin, fat and
feathers that covers first the egg and then the chick. They are supported
beneath by the parents feet that keep them away from the ice. This chick
is in the process of being fed by the parent by re-gurgitating some
of it's recent meal. The parents take it in turns to protect the chick
like this until it is large enough to regulate its own temperature,
by which time it is too large to fit under the brood flap anyway.
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This picture by Jerome Maison. © 2005 Bonne Pioche
Productions / Alliance De Production Cinematographique.
From the
Warner Brothers film The March of the Penguins used here by permission
of Warner
Brothers.