AllMovie

Antarctica's emperor penguins look alternately awkward and graceful, intrepid and vulnerable, as they go through life in a frigid, forbidding climate that very few living things could withstand. Equipped with effective down insulation, inborn modes of heat exchange, and a mysterious system for navigating, penguins survive and thrive -- and can even go without food for months, or trek for hundreds of miles across Antarctica's icy expanses. This Discovery Channel program visits a colony of emperors, where viewers can observe the penguins' mating rituals, watch as a chick leaves its mother for the very first time, and follow the young bird's progress as it learns to adapt to the rigors of life in a frozen yet fascinating environment.