Difference between revisions of "Emperor penguin"

Hatching may take as long as two or three days to complete, as the shell of the egg is thick. Newly hatched chicks are semi-altricial, covered with only a thin layer of down and entirely dependent on their parents for food and warmth. If the chick hatches before the mother's return, the father feeds it a curd-like substance composed of 59% protein and 28% lipid, which is produced by a gland in his esophagus. This ability to produce "milk" in birds is only found in pigeons, flamingos and male Emperor penguins. The young chick is brooded in what is called the guard phase, spending time balanced on its parent's feet and sheltered in the brood pouch.

Hatching may take as long as two or three days to complete, as the shell of the egg is thick. Newly hatched chicks are semi-altricial, covered with only a thin layer of down and entirely dependent on their parents for food and warmth. If the chick hatches before the mother's return, the father feeds it a curd-like substance composed of 59% protein and 28% lipid, which is produced by a gland in his esophagus. This ability to produce "milk" in birds is only found in pigeons, flamingos and male Emperor penguins. The young chick is brooded in what is called the guard phase, spending time balanced on its parent's feet and sheltered in the brood pouch.

The female penguin returns at any time from hatching to ten days afterwards, from mid-July to early August. She finds her mate among the hundreds of fathers by his vocal call and takes over caring for the chick, feeding it by regurgitating the food that she has stored in her stomach. The male then leaves to take his turn at sea, spending around 24 days there before returning. The parents then take turns, one brooding while the other forages at sea. If the incubating parent is not relieved by its partner before its own energy reserves are depleted, then it returns to the sea to re-feed, abandoning its doomed egg or chick at the colony site. Abandoned chicks do not survive.

The female penguin returns at any time from hatching to ten days afterwards, from mid-July to early August. She finds her mate among the hundreds of fathers by his vocal call and takes over caring for the chick, feeding it by regurgitating the food that she has stored in her stomach. The male then leaves to take his turn at sea, spending around 24 days there before returning. The parents then take turns, one brooding while the other forages at sea. If the incubating parent is not relieved by its partner before its own energy reserves are depleted, then it returns to the sea to re-feed, abandoning its doomed egg or chick at the colony site. Abandoned chicks do not survive.