March of the Penguins

Yesterday, I went out with my dear friend to watch the March of the Penguins. This documentary movie was very well-filmed. After watching the entire documentary, I think penguins are the only animal species that suffered the most during its mating season. What makes it interesting is that the penguins had their yearly dance in which both male and female penguins will dance with each other and eventually mate to have their offspring. Each pair of penguins can only have 1 chick at a time.

The entire documentary shows how the penguins came out of the water and marched in a single file to their mating destination which was very far away. Some of them didn't make it to their destination as they either wander off from the pack or are too old to carry on with the journey(though the documentary din explicitly mention that). After they have reached their destination, they started to look for their mate and most of them got their mates. Just as the natural instincts, male penguins will fight with each other for the female that they wanted to dance with.

After each pair of the penguins have found each other, they continued with their dance (ie their mating session). Right after that, they became very silent and waited for the time (coz the female penguins were being fertilised and the egg in each female penguin started to form). This entire process took 3 months. After 3 months, every female penguin will start to lay their egg and another dance started. This time, the egg will have to be passed on to the male penguin which will in turn look after the egg and warm the egg until it hatches. Some of the pairs didn't manage to pass the egg and the egg got frozen and that's the end of a life. Sad huh.. wait on.. Anyway, the male penguins were the most amazing ones here.

After the egg has been passed to the male penguins, the females will move out to look for a place where they can find food to replenish their bodies and also to bring back for the chicks to feed on. Right after the females moved off, the main scene was back to the father penguins. They have to stay on to look after the eggs for the next 4 months. During the 4 months, the males have to endure a lot of hardship, esp during the harsh winter climates and the low temperature plus wind. Interestingly, all the male penguins will gather together in an area so that heat can be regulated within. Sadly, there are some who cannot withstand the harshness of the environment and ended up having to sleep forever.

The worst part of the entire mating season is when the male penguins had to protect the eggs from cold and yet they have to suffer in the cold. All for the sake of just one egg.. which is one life.. After the 4 months were over, the chicks will start to pop out from their shells. They are still very vulnerable to the cold and they have to constantly hide in their daddys' pouch. At the same time, they waited for the mommy penguins to come back.

Well, some of the mommy penguins didn't make it back coz of the travelling to and fro the mating grounds. Some of them were also attacked by the predators. But majority made it back on time to feed their chicks. After they arrived at the mating ground, I'm very amazed that they can actually recognise their own family. Something which is really totally amazing. After the female penguins found their family, the father penguin will then pass the chick back to the mommy which will in turn, feed the chicks. There's always a lot of skills involved while passing the chicks from one parent to another. However, some of the chicks ended up frozen when the parents were unable to move them fast enough.

After the chicks were safely back in the mommy's pouch, the daddy penguin will have to set out to feed themselves. Otherwise, they will die of hunger. During their absence, the mommy penguins took over to look after their chicks. As time passes, the chicks grew bigger and stronger. Until their juvenile stage, the mothers allowed their chicks to gather as a group and play. At this time, the predators knew that it was time to strike for their food and some of the chicks ended up food to the predators.

During this while, the climate of the place was still very unpredictable. It so happened that there was another last round of extreme cold wind that took even more lives. Some of the chicks became victims of the harsh cold and died. At this time, the mommy penguins that lost their chicks became mad with grief and they became wild. They will try to snatch a chick from another mommy penguin so as to replace the dead chick. It was a very sad scene to see. The pain that the mommy penguin has to go through of losing its own chick. Gee.. I can't imagine how Daddy God will feel when He sees us suffering over here. Thank God that His Son Jesus, paid the price for us all that we don't have to suffer anymore or even face death.

ok. back to the penguins.. After 2 months, the father penguins came back to the family and amazingly again.. they were able to find their family through the voice of their chicks! This reminds me of this verse "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. John 10:27" Cool..

Well.. this spells happy reunion of the entire family until the chicks were big enough to look after themselves and were also out of their weaning stage. At this time, the parents will move off and leave the chicks alone to explore. Pretty cute is that the chicks will gather together as one and they start to explore the world as one, just like a big family. From there, the entire cycle starts and the dance continues...

I simply love the way this documentary was being filmed. I would definitely encourage people to watch this documentary. Imagine the penguins have to face so much hardship to have just 1 chick. Imagine the same that our parents also went through having to bring us up.. I thank Daddy God for my parents. The only thing I want to see both of them holding hands and have a more abundant life and also my dad being saved.. :P