On a wing and a prayer! Watch the nerve-wracking moment hundreds of baby penguins jump from a 50-foot ice cliff in Antarctica and miraculously survive
Incredible new footage has revealed the nerve-wracking moment hundreds of baby penguins jumped from a 15-metre high ice cliff in Antarctica.
A National Geographic film crew visited Atka Bay on the Ekstrom Ice Shelf and saw approximately 700 emperor penguin chicks gathering at the edge of a cliff.
To their surprise, the chicks began jumping from the top before landing in the icy ocean water below.
Fortunately, the chicks emerged from the stunt unscathed.
“This spectacular, heartbreaking moment has been seen by scientists before, but this is the first time this rare behavior has been filmed for television,” explains National Geographic.
Incredible new footage has revealed the nail-biting moment hundreds of baby penguins jumped from a 50-foot ice cliff in Antarctica
Antarctica is home to 66 known emperor penguin colonies, which usually breed and raise their chicks in winter.
Every January, when the chicks are about five months old, they undergo a process known as fledging.
During this process, the chicks lose their baby feathers and leave their colony for the first time, traveling to the ocean to swim for the first time.
Surprisingly, this swimming lesson takes place without the supervision of adult penguins.
“This is when they essentially learn to swim,” said Sara Labrousse, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
‘That’s not something their parents teach them.
‘When they first go into the water, they are very clumsy and insecure. They are not the fast and graceful swimmers that their parents are.’
A National Geographic film crew visited Atka Bay on the Ekstrom Ice Shelf and saw approximately 700 emperor penguin chicks gathering at the edge of a cliff.
To their surprise, the chicks began jumping from the top before landing in the icy ocean water below
Normally the chicks enter the water from a fairly safe height of about one to two feet.
However, satellite images have recently confirmed that some colonies are breeding and raising their chicks high on ice shelves.
This means that the chicks are forced to jump into the ocena from much greater heights.
In January, a film crew, led by BAFTA-winning cinematographer Bertie Gregory, headed to Atka Bay in the hope of witnessing this sublime exhibition.
“The team worked for two months in temperatures below 5 degrees and flew drones to the limits of their capabilities,” National Geographic explains.
‘The team continued through the point where the nearby ice broke off and drifted into the Southern Ocean, filming until a storm approached, ending all filming for the remainder of the Antarctic summer.’
Although scientists have seen the spectacular moment before, filming it proved quite difficult.
The team used a recently released camera drone equipped with a telephoto lens, which allowed them to capture the behavior from the air – importantly, without disturbing the pneuguins.
“Filming the emperor penguins’ fledging posed a unique set of challenges because the passage only occurs when sea ice reaches its most unstable time of year,” National Geographic said.
“Bertie and his team have taken every measure to ensure the safety of the crew and wildlife by assembling a world-class safety team.”
The incredible footage was shot for a new show, Secrets of the Penguins, premiering on Disney+ in April 2025.
“This spectacular, heartbreaking moment has been seen by scientists before, but this is the first time this rare behavior has been filmed for television,” explains National Geographic.
The incredible footage was shot for a new show, Secrets of the Penguins, premiering on Disney+ in April 2025.
EMPEROR PENGUIN IS THE LARGEST SPECIES OF FLIGHTLESS BIRD
The emperor penguin is the largest penguin species, growing to a height of about 1.2 meters and weighing between 22 kilos and 44 kilos.
They are recognizable by their distinctive black back and head, white chest and yellow spots on their neck.
The flightless birds live in Antarctica and huddle together to stay warm in the frigid climate, where temperatures can reach -90 degrees Celsius.
Emperor penguins breed and raise their young almost exclusively on sea ice, with females laying eggs before hunting for food, while males must incubate the egg.
Too little sea ice reduces the availability of breeding grounds and prey for emperor penguins, but too much ice means longer hunting trips for adults, meaning they can’t feed their chicks as often
After the chick is born, the parents take turns foraging at sea and caring for the newborn within the colony.
The birds’ diet consists mainly of fish, but they also eat crustaceans, such as krill, and cephalopods, such as squid. To facilitate hunting, the penguins can stay underwater for up to 18 minutes and dive to a depth of 550 meters.
The relationship between emperor penguins and sea ice is fragile.
Too little sea ice reduces the availability of breeding grounds and prey, but too much ice means longer hunting trips for adults, meaning they can’t feed their chicks as often.