August is actually the coldest month, with temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius, if any chicks are abandoned they will freeze within two minutes. Mortality is low however, as most of the eggs do hatch. In emperor penguins feet, the warm arteries run beside the cold veins to heat the blood before it re-enters their body. Their flippers have similar heat exchanges and in their sinuses the air they breathe out warms up the air they breathe in which recovers 80% of the heat.

During their amazing four month fast, the males have eaten only snow for its moisture; they have survived off their fat. Although the male is running on an empty stomach, each father manages to feed his chick an oily secretion from his crop. Yet relief is on its way, the females sleek with fat and full of food return from their fishing trip. Now, the once larger male is the smaller of the pair and he is 45% lighter than he once was. At the moment of greeting, the mother had left an egg but returns to a full fledged chick.

At first sight, the male does not want to give up what he has guarded for nine weeks. Yet the female is keen to take over. The changeover is quick, so that the chick does not freeze. The bond between them is so strong that the male wont leave for a day or two, by the has to go off to feed.

The parents will keep on exchanging the chicks and feeding them in-between their legs until the chicks have reached an age of three months. Now, their down jackets are thick enough. When the cold bites too deeply, the chicks will huddle just as their parents do. This is an instinctive method of survival.