Animal · Antarctica
Emperor penguin
Aptenodytes forsteri — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all penguins, living and breeding on the frozen sea ice around Antarctica. It huddles together in huge colonies to survive the coldest winters on Earth.
Picture credit: Denis Luyten (Public domain) · Denis Luyten (Public domain) · Denis Luyten (Public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the emperor penguin live?
Home: The sea ice and coasts of Antarctica.
In the wild you find it in: Antarctica.
Conservation status from the IUCN: endangered.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 1.1–1.3 m tall. It weighs about 30 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
Emperor penguins are the only animals that breed during the Antarctic winter, when temperatures drop below minus 40 degrees. The male carries a single egg on his feet for about two months, keeping it warm under a fold of skin while the female hunts far out at sea. Thousands of males huddle together in a tight circle, taking turns on the freezing outer edge so everyone gets a chance to warm up. When the chicks hatch, both parents take turns diving deep beneath the ice to catch fish and squid. Warming seas are melting the sea ice these penguins depend on, and scientists now list them as endangered.
Find it on the globe
Emperor penguin is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How deep can an emperor penguin dive?
Emperor penguins can dive deeper than 500 metres, deeper than any other bird. They slow their heartbeat to save oxygen and can stay underwater for up to 20 minutes while hunting fish and squid.
Why do emperor penguins huddle together?
Huddling lets thousands of penguins share body heat during Antarctica's freezing winter storms. They take turns moving from the cold outer edge to the warm centre, so every bird gets a turn to warm up.
Are emperor penguins endangered?
Yes, emperor penguins were reclassified as endangered in 2025 because melting sea ice is destroying the places where they breed and raise chicks. Scientists worry many colonies could disappear if the Antarctic keeps warming.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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