Honorable Mention
Happy Feet
DESCRIPTION
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size. They spend their entire lives on Antarctic ice and in its waters. These flightless birds breed in the winter. After a courtship of several weeks, a female emperor penguin lays one single egg then leaves! Each penguin egg's father balances it on his feet and covers it with his brood pouch, a very warm layer of feathered skin designed to keep the egg cozy. There the males stand, for about 65 days, through icy temperatures, cruel winds, and blinding storms. Finally, after about two months, the females return from the sea, bringing food they regurgitate, or bring up, to feed the now hatched chicks. The males eagerly leave for their own fishing session at sea, and the mothers take over care of the chicks for a while.As the young penguins grow, adults leave them in groups of chicks called crèches while they leave to fish. There is a reason for the timing of emperor penguins' hatching. By December, when the Antarctic weather has warmed somewhat, the ice the penguins occupy begins to break up, bringing open waters closer to the nesting sites. Now the chicks are old enough to take to the seas and fish for their own food.
The offspring grow rapidly in summer when food at sea is plentiful. By December, the chicks are on their own. Five years from now, if they survive in their ocean home, the young penguins will return to become parents themselves.
This chick has grown old enough to take to the seas and fish for their own food.
AUTHOR
My name is Thomas Vijayan, I am basically an Architect hailing from Kerala, India also known as God’s Own Country, was brought up in Bangalore and later moved to Canada, where I am now settled with my family. I have travelled all round the world for photography which is my passion but not my profession. The big cats have always been my favorite. To me there is nothing called "perfection" in any photography, every click to me is an experience and the more I click I feel I have learned something new from it, and I give more importance to quality pictures than quantity. I love nature and I can never be bored by staying in nature for long, photography to me is a combination of my love for nature, travel, practice, patience, passion, care, friends and gear; more than anything else, its a blessings of the creator to be able to witness the special moments in nature. My love for photography has made me a Brand Ambassador of the most renounced brand Nikon from 2015 until now for Middle East & Africa.
With my little experience I can say we can learn a lot, when we spend time with the nature and start seeing the life cycle of the tangible living things which belongs to this beautiful world, it can also help us become a better person, who would then understand the necessity of respecting nature and maintaining the stability of our eco-system. For the same realization I would like to use this passion to bring the beauty of nature to the common man so that they can start loving and respecting the Mother Nature and stop exploiting it.
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