The day I landed, I spotted a lone emperor penguin near the ice runway. Just like me, the emperor penguins will have to work through the harshest winter on Earth. Every year the emperor penguins come back to Antarctica from the frigid ocean to prepare for a remarkable season of birth. But it's too short for emperor chicks to mature. So the females lay their eggs at the very start of the Antarctic winter.
Males huddle together to keep warm as they incubate their eggs.
The birds at the center of the huddle are pushed out by those around them in a slowly circling whirlpool of penguins. This lets all the emperor dads take turns being in the warmer center of the group. The birds must conserve energy, because they don't eat a thing while tending their eggs. After nine weeks, the females return to find their mates and feed the fuzzy new chicks. That's when the males head for the ocean to feast and rest up.