Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists. If awards were given for perfect timing, male king penguins would get the grand prize. To provide newborn penguin chicks with the vital nutrition that they need to begin life, a male king penguin will store food in his belly for up to three weeks, according to a study published in the Dec. 21 issue of Nature.
Starvation is a major cause of death for newly hatched penguins.
To feed their young, adult birds are forced to forage several hundred miles from their breeding colonies for weeks at a time to consume fat-rich myctophid fish. King penguins alternate in assuming the task of the hatching of a single egg, Le Maher explained. While one parent is fasting ashore and incubating the egg, the mate is foraging at sea. Usually, the male king penguin assumes the duty of warming the egg immediately before it hatches. If she is delayed, the chick may starve.