Baby Penguins: 17 Photos of Chicks Waddling, Sliding and Diving

A penguin chick is a ball of down on two oversized feet, and these seventeen photos and animations catch chicks and adults doing what penguins do best: waddling, tumbling, sliding and diving. Behind every clumsy moment is an animal superbly built for one of the harshest environments on the planet.

Where penguins live: eighteen species, almost all in the south

The International Ornithologists’ Union recognises eighteen penguin species in six genera. Nearly all of them live in the Southern Hemisphere. The Galápagos penguin reaches just north of the equator, and there are no wild penguins in the Arctic at all.

The range in size is striking. The emperor penguin averages about 1.1 m tall and 35 kg, while the little blue penguin of Australia and New Zealand stands just 30 to 33 cm and weighs around 1.2 kg.

How penguin chicks grow up

Most penguins lay two eggs, while emperor and king penguins lay one. In every species except the emperor, both parents share incubation. The emperor penguin is the extreme case: the male holds the egg on his feet under a fold of skin called the brood patch for about 65 to 75 days through the Antarctic winter, huddling with other males against winds that can reach 200 km/h.

• Hatching: an emperor chick weighs about 315 g and wears silver-grey down with a black head and white mask.
• Guard phase: the chick rides on a parent’s feet, tucked under the brood patch for warmth.
• First meal: if the mother has not returned from the sea, the father feeds the chick a protein-rich secretion often called crop milk.
• Crèche: at about 45 to 50 days, chicks gather in groups called crèches, from a dozen to several thousand birds, while both parents fish.

The fluffy grey chicks in many of these images are at exactly this stage: too heavy to be carried, not yet waterproof, and still learning to control their own feet.

Why penguins waddle, slide and hop

Penguins walk upright with short legs set far back on the body, which produces the famous side-to-side waddle. To move faster or cross rocks, they jump with both feet together.

On snow and ice they often drop onto their bellies and toboggan, pushing with feet and flippers. It saves energy and is surprisingly quick. Several of the animations here show that switch from waddle to slide, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not.

Penguins in the water: built for speed and depth

Clumsy on land, penguins are transformed in the sea. Gentoo penguins reach up to 36 km/h underwater and dive 170 to 200 m deep. Emperor penguins go to about 550 m, deeper than any other bird. The leaps into the water in this collection are the moment a penguin moves from its awkward world into its natural one.

More penguin stories on Snow Addiction

For penguin moves set to music, watch GoPro’s Penguin Dance-Off: How an Edit Creates the Joke. For another young polar animal meeting people, see Juha Salo’s seal-pup encounter, and for the science behind a famous viral clip, read the viral “cheating penguin” story.

Related reading

• Penguin Bloopers from Spy in the Huddle
• A Penguin Slip, a Perfectly Timed Sound and a Short Winter Clip
• Gentoo Penguins at Neko Harbour: When a Glacier View Changes Scale
• One Lively Penguin in a Quieter Group

Sources