Emperor Penguin
Aptenodytes forsteri
The biggest penguin — and it raises its chick in the middle of the Antarctic winter.
Emperor penguins do everything the hard way. They're the biggest penguins alive, and they breed on the sea ice around Antarctica in winter, when it can be colder than −35 °C. The fathers keep the egg on their feet for more than two months without eating a thing.
On the conservation status
Moved from Near Threatened to Endangered by the IUCN in April 2026. Emperors need sea ice that stays put until their chicks can swim, and it's breaking up earlier as the climate warms. Satellite pictures show about 10% of them were lost between 2009 and 2018, and the population is expected to halve by the 2080s.
- Weight
- Up to 40 kg
- Lifespan
- Some live past 40 years
- Diet
- Antarctic silverfish, krill and squid
- Dive depth
- Record 564 m
- Longest dive
- 32 minutes
- Population
- About 256,500 breeding pairs
The good stuff.
Dad takes the winter shift
The mother lays a single egg in autumn and the father takes over. He balances it on his feet through the worst of the winter until it hatches, 65 to 75 days later.
Four months without food
By the time the chick hatches, the father has gone about four months without eating and lost nearly half his body weight.
The huddle
In the worst weather the fathers pack together, up to 10 in every square metre. Outside it can be colder than −35 °C, but in the middle of a huddle it can reach +24 °C.
Counted from space
Scientists count emperor penguins using satellite pictures. The latest full count found about 54 colonies around Antarctica, holding roughly 256,500 breeding pairs.
When the ice breaks too early
Young chicks can't swim. If the sea ice breaks up too early in spring, a whole breeding colony can collapse into the sea before the chicks are ready.
Deep divers
Emperors hunt underwater for fish, krill and squid. Most dives last 3 to 6 minutes, but the deepest ever recorded went down 564 m and the longest lasted 32 minutes.
Wait, really?
- ✦
There are 18 species of penguin, and the emperor is the biggest.
- ✦
Winter blizzards around their colonies can blow at up to 200 km/h.
- ✦
A chick hatches weighing just 150–200 g, and needs about 42 kg of food from each parent to grow up.
- ✦
An adult eats 2–3 kg of food a day, and up to 6 kg when it's fattening up to breed or moult.
What it sounds like
You're hearing an emperor penguin colony in Antarctica.
Loud, trumpeting calls. Parents and chicks know each other's voices, which is how they find each other in a crowded colony.
Recording: stormpetrel · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Source
Where you might see one
Only around the coast of Antarctica, where almost nobody lives — so for most of us, it's documentaries.
The trouble
- Sea ice breaking up earlier in spring as the climate warms
- Losing the stable ice they need to breed, feed and moult
One real thing
Emperor penguins need cold winters and solid sea ice. Slowing climate change is the only thing that really helps them, and learning where your family's energy comes from is a good first step.
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