Emperor penguins at the ice edge.Questions for Scott Base - 2005
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They breathe the same as other birds. Their nostrils are on the top of their beaks. They breathe air and hold their breath while diving for fish and krill.
Some of the adults can be 1.25 metres (4 feet) tall and weigh up to 45 kilograms (100 pounds). They are the biggest of all the penguins.
Emperor penguins at the ice edge.
Sometimes this is the fastest and easiest way to move over the snow and ice. Walking in snow can be very tiring to them.
Emperor penguin sliding.
Yes they do. Emperor penguins lay one and the Adèlie penguins can sometimes have two. Adèlie penguin parents share the duties of looking after their eggs and chicks. The female Emperor penguin goes off to sea after she lays her egg leaving the male to incubate the egg alone for months until she returns to take over. The male can lose up to half his body weight feeding the chick until the female returns.
Adèlie penguin on its nest.
Believe it or not, they "fly" through the water using their flippers, which are really wings. They "flap" them up and down like other birds and move through the water quite fast - up to 60 km/h (37 mph). They dive very deep sometimes - 16 minutes to reach 534 metres (1750 feet). The average dive is 5 to 6 minutes to around 100 metres (325 feet).
Emperor penguins swimming.
They sleep out of the water. Some sleep on icebergs and some sleep on land. In the Ross Island area, Adèlie penguins have large rookeries at Cape Crozier, Cape Royds and Cape Bird and that is where they sleep. Emperor penguins have a rookery at Cape Crozier and the males spend all winter there with the eggs, so that’s where they sleep.
That's hard to figure out. I suppose just hanging about keeping their eggs or chicks warm while their partners are off having a good time in the sea could be classed as being bored. To keep themselves busy Adèlie penguins become thieves. Their nests are built of stones and pebbles and while one penguin’s back is turned others will steal the pebbles for their own nests. They are also very curious and will often approach humans to check out what they are doing. I have seen Emperor penguins approach a helicopter with the engine running because they had never seen one before and were curious about the big noisy "bird".
Emperor penguins checking out the scientists.
Adèlie penguins eat krill, which are small shrimp-like crustaceans. Emperor penguins eat fish and squid, as well as krill.
The Emperor penguin is the biggest one – see the answer to question 2.
Just about anything that we would be able to eat back home. We have a big supply of frozen meat and vegetables and lots of tinned food and cereals. During the summer, when planes are flying here every second day, we can get fresh fruit and vegetables delivered. In the winter we can get a small supply of fresh salad vegetables from our hydroponics unit.
We have very good chefs at Scott Base. They make sure that we always have very nourishing food and plenty of it. During summer there are two chefs and during winter there is one.
No, we don’t. In winter, when it is colder, we have to wear coats outside on most days, but some days we can go outside for a short time without wearing a coat. In summer there are a lot of days when we can go outside without a coat. Because Antarctica is so dry and there is very little moisture in the air you don’t feel cold if the wind is not blowing and the sun is shining. People can sunbathe if they want to and can also get badly sunburnt.
Icestock music festival at McMurdo Station.
There are no plants at the South Pole. Mainly this is because it is too cold. Also, at the South Pole there is about 12,000 feet (3700 metres) of ice and snow sitting on top of any soil that may be there, so there is nothing for plants to grow in. Hundreds of miles from the South Pole is where the first plants can be found and they are small mosses and lichens. Some of these are very small and hard to see, but others are quite colourful as they flower in the summer warmth.
Moss growing at Cape Geology.
No, we are very lucky to live inside a warm building with very thick walls that keep the cold out. During our training in Antarctica we do learn how to make an igloo and snow caves so that we can build an emergency shelter if we are outside and there is no other shelter.
Snow shelter during field training.
Sad to say, it would die. Whales are so big and heavy that they need to be in water to support their body weight. If they get stranded on land their great weight causes their body to crush itself. They also need water to moisten their skin and keep it soft – just like we do – and without the water their skin cracks and dries out.
They can be any size really. There are some small ones that are less than a mile wide and there are some really big ones that are hundreds of miles long. Five years ago the biggest iceberg ever recorded broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf. It was about 230 miles (375 kilometres) long and 30 miles (50 kilometres) wide. That iceberg broke up into smaller pieces and we have had the biggest bit hanging around the Ross Sea area ever since because it is too big to move away from where it got stuck. That piece was more than 80 miles (140 kilometres) long and has finally started to break up and move north.
Iceberg calved from the Barne Glacier.
B-15A iceberg is 140km long.
No, the only people in Antarctica are research scientists and staff running the scientific bases here.
Yes, if the ice is very thin. Around Scott Base this will only happen when new ice is forming. I have seen an orca (killer whale) breaking holes in the ice to breathe on its way back to the open sea.
No, they are mammals and must breathe in air. They can hold their breath for a very long time and can dive quite deep, but must return to the surface to breathe.
Our huskies were taken away from Antarctica nearly 20 years ago. This was because the Antarctic Treaty required that no animal or plant species foreign to Antarctica be taken there and those that were already there had to be removed. Our huskies were found good homes in the United States and Canada.