Young emperor penguins brave icy, winter waters in their first year"Only months after their first ocean swim, young emperor penguins are braving Antarctica’s treacherous winter seas. GPS trackers strapped to 15 young penguins showed the birds venturing north to warmer waters beyond Antarctica’s pack ice in December 2013, and returning a few months later as the waters chilled.That finding surprised some scientists, who thought the inexperienced juveniles might play it safe closer to the Antarctic sea ice’s edge rather than risk freezing or drowning in the choppy open sea. After all, “they just learned how to dive a few months beforehand,” says marine ecologist Sara Labrousse at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts.
But within a few weeks of being on their own, at around 5 months old, these plucky penguins were already diving to depths of around 100 meters, like adult penguins do, the researchers report January 17 in Marine Ecology Progress Series. That’s just after they had shed their fluffy down, and before they had built up an insulating fat layer. "
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But within a few weeks of being on their own, at around 5 months old, these plucky penguins were already diving to depths of around 100 meters, like adult penguins do, the researchers report January 17 in Marine Ecology Progress Series. That’s just after they had shed their fluffy down, and before they had built up an insulating fat layer. "
Read More Here!