Wildlife on ice Gallery

Michael S. Nolan / SpecialistStock

A lone adult Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) on an ice floe just north of Snow Hill Island in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. The Emperor is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 122 cm (48 in) in height and weighing anywhere from 22?37 kg (48?82 lb). Fish form the bulk of its diet, which can include crustaceans, such as krill, and cephalopods, such as squid. In hunting, the species can remain submerged up to 18 minutes, diving to a depth of 535 m (1, 755 ft). The Emperor Penguin breeds in the coldest environment of any bird species; air temperatures may reach -40 8C (-40 8F), and wind speeds may reach 144 km/h (89 mph). Water temperature is a frigid -1.8 8C (28.8 8F), which is much lower than the Emperor Penguin's average body temperature of 39 8C (102 8F). The Emperor Penguin was described in 1844 by English zoologist George Robert Gray, who derived its generic name from the Ancient Greek a "without" pteno"able to fly" or "winged" and dytes"diver". Its specific epithet is in honour of the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster, who accompanied Captain James Cook on his second Pacific Voyage and officially named five other penguin species

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