Sea Bird Tries to Attack Antarctic Penguin Chicks — but Watch an Unlikely Hero Coming to Their Rescue
There is a reason why your parents asked you not to step out of the home without their permission. The world is a spooky and harsh place where hungry monsters are waiting to gobble you down. One colony of emperor penguin chicks surpassed this warning and wandered out of their house without their parents. It was their first and the biggest step towards this goal. But as their parents had warned, the hungry monster popped in: a Southern giant petrel.
Flapping its majestic black feathers and staring at them with its vicious eyes, the petrel pounced upon the young chicks, who were obviously frightened by the bully. But as every inspiring movie shows, a hero materialized out of ice and defended them against the aggressive black sea bird – a feisty Adelie penguin. BBC Earth (@BBC Earth) shared footage of this episode as part of its Spy in the Snow series in 2018.
The footage unfolded into a vast, icy Antarctic ice shelf. Huddled together, the colony of emperor penguin chicks started scrambling on the vast, icy terrain. The young penguins seemed to be conquering their fears, progressing towards their goal. But suddenly, a full-fledged predator – a Southern giant petrel arrived. These petrels have a wicked reputation for being aggressive and predatory. They hover above these icy lands, waiting for the right opportunity to grab a young penguin and feast upon it. This time, too, a petrel darted through the cold air and confronted the young chicks.
Undeterred, the chicks kept moving forward, intending to flee the monster as quickly as possible. The energy was terrifying, and the ground, slippery. One chick lost its balance and dropped down, its chest slapping the ice shelf. It wriggled its feathers, in agitation and fear, to run. But before it could catch its balance, the petrel smelled the opportunity. It rushed to the fallen chick, grabbed the chick by its mouth, and started assaulting it with its pointy beak. Luckily, as it moved, the penguin freed itself from the beak’s grasp, sliding backwards.
The petrel didn’t fly away, though. Its voracious appetite and predatory belligerence wouldn’t allow it to do so. It lingered on the ice, bobbing up and down in the air, facing the group of emperors. The innocent emperors positioned themselves in a defensive circle. The black bird tried to poke its beak into the circle and grab a quick kill. The chicks tried their best to defend themselves. One chick even spread its wings, becoming a wall to guard its fellow chicks. But nothing seemed to work. The petrel remained there, clinging to the ice, blocking their path.
Then the moment of climax arrived, the hero: a feisty Adelie penguin. The tiny Adelie positioned itself between the chicks and the petrel, like a mother protecting her baby from a malicious man. As weird as it may sound, the Adelie baby succeeded in shooing away the petrel. The seabird looked hither and thither and then slowly packed its bags to flutter back to the sea, starved and defeated. The juvenile emperors plunged into the wild waters where a whole new world awaited them to be explored. There are indeed monsters in the wild, but if you are fearless enough, you'll arrive at your goal irrespective of the monster.
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