Why are emperor penguins' legs so short ?

 

     Do you ever wonder why emperor penguins' legs are so short? Actually they have longer legs than we can see from the outside because their legs are mostly hidden up by their body and feathers to keep their eggs, chicks and probably themselves warmer.  

     After watching some emperor penguin videos from BBC and Adventure World of Japan, I started to understand more about emperor penguins and their babies. 

     Penguins keep their chicks between their bellies, with a special type of skin called brood pouch, and their feet. They carry their eggs or chicks above their feet when they need to walk.

     When we look from their outside appearances, their legs look short, hidden behind their brood pouch to keep their chicks warm in between. If penguins' feet are long like hen's or geese's, wind will pass through more under their bellies, then the chicks will feel much colder, and they couldn't survive in the extremely cold weather in Antarctica.

     Because of 'shorter' feet, emperor penguins walk much slowly than many other types of birds. This also gives them a special walking gait that makes them look so cute. They walk even more slowly if they carry an egg on their feet. 

     In Antarctica, penguins can't build nests like other birds, there are virtually nothing except ice and snow. So they can only use their own body's brood pouch as the 'nest' for their eggs and to keep their chicks warm enough. 

     I think these are the Creator's designs specially for a type of bird that lives under the extremely cold climate in Antarctica.

     The following video from BBC is about a baby emperor penguin's brave first steps, how the parents took care of it, and what were the unexpectable dangers. The video was taken by a robotic penguin that could come close enough to the penguins without alerting or disturbing them:

     One interesting fact about emperor penguins is that the father, rather than the mother, is responsible for hatching and rearing the egg laid by the mother. It is because after laying an egg, the mother has to walk 100km to the sea for food and walk 100km back to join the baby and its father (Their habitat is 100km from the sea coast! A return journey is 200km in total by walking!)

     So it's the father emperor penguin who takes care of the egg and the baby penguin (after the egg was hatched) until the mother comes back with food.

     Another reason why people praise emperor penguins is that the mother doesn't eat while she is laying eggs, and the father emperor penguin doesn't eat while it warms and hatches its egg until its wife returns, bringing food to the chick. In other words, the father and the mother emperor penguins take turn to take care of their eggs and chicks for months, without eating and mostly standing during the time. 

     This video is about the transfer of the baby penguin from its father to its mother. The duration must be short, otherwise the chick wouldn't be able to withstand the coldness.

     In the beginning, the fathers all lined up for the mothers to recognize. They recognize each other by their unique calls. The baby is then transferred to the mother's care:

     This video showed an emperor penguin carrying an egg while it was  walking. It walked more slowly than usual and the special walking gait made the audience laughed, until they surprisingly found out the reason and the hidden egg:

     This video from Adventure World of Japan recorded the first 100 days of a baby emperor penguin, hatched from an egg, fed, and was reared up carefully by the staff:

     Here's another longer record of a baby emperor penguin's first year in Adventure World, very lovely and cute. People said they wanted to hug the baby emperor penguin:

      A baby emperor penguin sleeps facing downwards in the beginning. Life is fragile :

      A baby penguin reared by mankind was meeting its father for the first time and the mother was watching outside the transparent compartment. While the chick was standing, it started dozing off like human beings and then woke up again, very cute scenario. Penguins twist their heads to one side when they sleep in the standing posture:

      

      The chicks have pairs of big feet when they are compared with the sizes of their heads. Penguins' feet have strong claws that are specially designed for walking on the icy land to prevent slipping, and blood vessels of their feet are special to withstand the coldness under their feet.

      Penguins can stand up easily after falling flat on the ground. This video showed how a penguin stood up again with its beak and a pair of flippers as support:

      We can't see the facial expressions on penguins' faces, but even babies can express their feelings by nodding their heads vigorously or flapping their flippers, as shown in this video:

      Penguins also have particularly long neck muscles because the adult penguins need to feed their chicks supported by their feet. Even chicks show relatively long necks when they extend their necks or nod their heads. These neck muscles are like rings of fat below their head and beak, as shown in this video of a baby emperor penguin only 26 days after its birth:

Reflections

      Although in the Bible Jesus said, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"(Matthew Ch.6:26), yet I think I appreciate the emperor penguins most as they have to live and rear their chicks in such a challenging environment.

      Emperor penguins are one of the good examples of perseverance in the natural world.