Emperor penguins quick facts
- Emperor penguins are the largest penguins, standing up to about 1.2 m tall.
- They are the only bird that breeds during the Antarctic winter, when it drops below −40 °C.
- The male holds the egg on his feet for about 65 days and does not eat the whole time.
- The deepest recorded dive is about 565 metres, deeper than any other bird can manage.
- Scientists count emperor penguin colonies from satellites by spotting droppings on the ice.
The emperor penguin does something no other bird on Earth attempts. It raises its chick in the middle of the Antarctic winter.
Temperatures drop below −40 °C. Winds reach 145 km/h. The sun does not rise for weeks. And the emperor penguin stays.
The basics
| Scientific name | Aptenodytes forsteri |
| Height | up to about 1.2 m |
| Weight | 22–45 kg |
| Lives | Antarctica only |
| Eats | fish, squid and krill |
| Lifespan | about 20 years |
| Status | Endangered (since April 2026) |
Emperor penguins are the largest penguins alive today. An adult stands about as tall as a seven-year-old child.
They are the largest of the 18 kinds of penguin. At the start of the breeding season an adult can weigh up to 40 kg. Emperor penguins usually live for 15 to 20 years, and a few have lived to more than 40.
The dad does the hard part
The breeding season starts in autumn, around April, when the sea ice freezes again. The penguins gather at their colonies on fast ice, which is sea ice held in place by the coast, islands or grounded icebergs. After a courtship lasting several weeks, the female lays her egg.
The female lays one egg, then leaves. She walks back to the sea to feed, which can be 80 km away.
The male stays behind with the egg. He does not build a nest. There is nothing to build one from.
Instead he balances the egg on his feet. A flap of warm skin called a brood pouch folds down over it. If the egg touches the ice for more than a moment, it freezes.
He holds it there for about 65 days, through the darkest part of winter. He does not eat the whole time. Across courtship and incubation a male can go around 115 days without food, losing nearly half his body weight.
When the female returns with a stomach full of fish, the male finally walks to the sea to feed himself.
From then on, the parents take turns. They bring food back up from their stomachs to feed the chick. While it grows, a chick needs about 42 kg of food from each parent, and a single trip to find food can take a penguin as far as 1,000 km.
The huddle
No single penguin could survive that winter alone. So they huddle.
Thousands of males press together in a tight group. Inside the huddle it can reach 24 °C, even while the air outside is far below freezing.
The clever part is that the huddle keeps moving. Penguins on the cold outer edge slowly shuffle inwards, and warm ones drift outwards. Everybody gets a turn in the middle.
What emperor penguins eat
Emperor penguins eat fish, Antarctic krill and some kinds of squid. Krill are small, shrimp-like animals that swarm in huge numbers in the Southern Ocean.
An adult eats 2 to 3 kg of food a day. When it needs to fatten up, before its yearly moult or at the start of the breeding season, it can eat as much as 6 kg a day.
The sea is dangerous too. Leopard seals hunt emperor penguins in the water, so every fishing trip carries a risk.
Champion divers
Emperor penguins cannot fly, but they are extraordinary swimmers.
They dive deeper than any other bird. The deepest dive ever recorded was about 565 metres. That is deeper than the Shard in London is tall.
Most of the time, though, they hunt between 150 and 250 metres down. A typical dive lasts 3 to 6 minutes, and the longest ever recorded lasted 22 minutes.
They can also hold their breath for more than 20 minutes. Their bones are solid rather than hollow, which helps them sink instead of bobbing back up.
Chicks and the crèche
A chick hatches covered in soft grey down. That down is warm but not waterproof, so the chick cannot swim yet.
Once it is big enough, it joins a crèche: a group of chicks huddled together while both parents fetch food.
Parents find their own chick by voice. Each penguin has a call the others in its family recognise, even in a colony of thousands.
By December, the Antarctic summer has warmed things up and the sea ice starts to break apart. By then the chicks are old enough to head out to sea and catch their own food.
Three common mix-ups
Penguins and polar bears never meet. Penguins live in the southern half of the world. Polar bears live in the Arctic, at the top. They are separated by the whole planet.
It is the father who keeps the egg warm, not the mother. In most birds it is the other way round, or the parents share it.
Emperor penguins do not live at the South Pole itself. They breed on sea ice around the edge of Antarctica, close enough to reach the ocean.
Counted from space
Antarctica is far too big and too cold to count penguins on foot. So scientists count them from satellites.
They do not look for the birds. They look for the brown stains their droppings leave on the white ice, which are visible from orbit. That is how new colonies keep being discovered.
Colonies can be as small as a few hundred pairs or bigger than 20,000 pairs.
Satellites have also shown how quickly things are changing, because scientists can compare the same colonies from one year to the next.
Why their future depends on ice
Emperor penguins breed on fast ice, the sea ice attached to the shore. They need it to stay frozen from about April until December.
If that ice breaks up early, chicks end up in the water before their waterproof feathers have grown. In 2022 several colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea lost almost all their chicks this way.
It is happening across Antarctica. Satellite images show that the number of emperor penguins fell by about 10% between 2009 and 2018. That is more than 20,000 adults.
Without big, fast cuts to the gases that are warming the planet, the IUCN expects the population to halve by the 2080s. Emperor penguins need fast ice not only to raise their chicks but also to moult, when they replace all their feathers.
In April 2026, the IUCN moved the emperor penguin from Near Threatened to Endangered on its Red List. In 2022 the United States listed it as Threatened under its Endangered Species Act.
Next, meet another animal built for extremes in our guide to the box jellyfish, or read about the giant panda.
Did you know? Emperor penguin colonies are found from space, but not by looking for the penguins. Satellites pick out the reddish-brown stains their droppings leave across the white sea ice. Several colonies nobody knew about have been discovered exactly this way.
Try it
Stand up and balance a rolled-up sock on top of your feet. Now try shuffling forwards without letting it touch the floor. A male emperor penguin does that with an egg, in the dark, for about 65 days.
Knowledge check
Which parent keeps the emperor penguin egg warm?
Show answer
The father. The female lays one egg and walks back to the sea to feed. The male balances the egg on his feet under a warm flap of skin called a brood pouch for about 65 days, and eats nothing the entire time.
Do penguins and polar bears ever meet?
Show answer
No. Penguins live in the southern half of the world, and emperor penguins live only in Antarctica. Polar bears live in the Arctic, at the top of the world. The two are separated by the whole planet.
Frequently asked questions
How big is an emperor penguin?
Emperor penguins stand up to about 1.2 metres tall and weigh between 22 and 45 kilograms. That makes them the largest penguin species alive today, roughly the height of a seven-year-old child.
Where do emperor penguins live?
Only in Antarctica. They breed on fast ice, the sea ice attached to the shore, around the edge of the continent. They do not live at the South Pole itself, because they need to stay close enough to reach the ocean to feed.
Why do emperor penguins huddle together?
To survive the Antarctic winter, when temperatures fall below minus 40 degrees Celsius. Thousands of males press together, and inside the huddle it can reach 24 degrees Celsius. The huddle slowly rotates, so penguins on the cold outside edge shuffle inwards and take a turn in the warm middle.
How deep can an emperor penguin dive?
The deepest dive ever recorded was about 565 metres, which is deeper than any other bird can manage. They can also hold their breath for more than 20 minutes. Their bones are solid rather than hollow, which helps them sink instead of floating back up.
What do emperor penguins eat?
Fish, squid and krill, all caught at sea. A parent returning from the ocean carries food in its stomach and brings it back up to feed the chick.
Are emperor penguins endangered?
Yes. In April 2026 the IUCN moved the emperor penguin from Near Threatened to Endangered, because early break-up and loss of sea ice is harming its breeding. Its population is expected to halve by the 2080s without big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
How long do emperor penguins live?
Emperor penguins usually live for 15 to 20 years in the wild. A few have lived to more than 40 years.
How far do emperor penguins travel to find food?
A single trip to find food can take an emperor penguin as far as 1,000 km. Parents take turns making these trips to feed their chick, which needs about 42 kg of food from each parent while it grows.
Sources
- Britannica: emperor penguin — size, diet, incubation on the male’s feet and diving depth.
- Australian Antarctic Program: emperor penguin — size, diving, food, breeding season, how much a chick needs, colonies and lifespan
- Oceana: emperor penguin — the brood pouch, chick crèches and feeding at sea.
- WWF: penguins — threats from sea-ice loss in the Southern Ocean.
- IUCN (9 April 2026): emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal now Endangered — the move to Endangered, the decline since 2009 and the projection to the 2080s
- National Geographic Kids: emperor penguin — courtship, feeding trips, how chicks are fed, when chicks go to sea, predators and lifespan
