ATTENBOROUGH’S LIFE IN THE FREEZER 4
Life in the Freezer – The Door Closes
Opening shot of a pounding surf beating on rocks, underwater camera turmoil and penguins desperately rushing to the rocky shore. And then the waves slapping them back in the water. All they have are their small claws on their feet to hold on to land. It’s the end of summer and the Macaroni Penguins are struggling to feed their young. Autumn will get worse as massive depressions rush around the fringes of the Antarctic creating huge gales. The gales have a gust of 100mph. Then the temperatures drop to below freezing. So life is gonna have a race to complete breeding as ice starts shutting up shop on the continent again.

Over in the deep south where the ice remained frozen, the penguins will face a greater challenge. Over in Cape Royds, Adelie Penguins have to up the speed on breeding. The crammed colony has to get moving to introduce their young to water. “Baby, H2O. H2O, baby.” Their first swim is gonna be missions. It’s filled with sharp edged brash ice. Just getting to the water they have to do a bit of rock-climbing. The youngsters gather at the edge, all nervous and waiting for someone to go in first. To top that off, the brash ice spreads so far even the adults, returning from water with food, find it hard to get back. Uh-oh, parents turn back. On the upside, it forces the young ones to take a dip. It’s easier that way anyway coz they’re light enough to use them as stepping stones. Like ants crossing a slushpuppy. Oh snap! Seems like a seal decided to take advantage of this. Ok now the Leopard Seal is just teasing his meal. Lucky, dude got away.

Shot of Leopard Seal getting another. Like throwing a bowling pin. Tragic but very funny to watch. Then in gets sad as the seal seems to have no urgency in killing and starts playing cat an mouse kill penguin drowns from exhaustion. Not funny to watch. Next comes the stripping off of flesh. Seal mouths it in the air and shakes the shit out of it till rest of food flies off as he munches on the bit that didn’t. The carcass settles in the sea floor. Some flattened looking tentacle Peeks out between some rocks. A Nemertean Worm. OH NO! Not one of those! It detected penguin flesh drifting in the ocean. Scary Giant Isopod joins the fun, looks like a grab and 10cm long. So while the Isopod eats the normal way, claws and mouth etc. The worm bloody inverts its stomach and envelopes the grub. Within an hour the carcass is full of these worms. In a few days… the carcass is just a skeleton. (What a depressing episode?)

While the first snows of winter fall, the last chicks of penguins are doomed as their parents abandon them. The parents have to recover their strength. Shots empty colonies littered with shed feathers. It’s moult time! The penguins have to change their feathers for the winter. Over on Deception Island, Chinstrap Penguins stand motion less. They can’t feed till they’ve got the right outfit on. For three weeks they fast and lose weight to get their warm watertight coats. By the end of March most have left, the rest making their move. These guys also face formidable challenges to get food. Shots of brash icy waves trying to catch the penguins. Its -1.9 degrees, sea begins to freeze, slight swell on the surface begins to produce pancake ice. Looks like large scales. The ice above water grows into crystals. As they grow larger David calls them Iced Flies. The ice gets thicker and freezes fast to the lands. The pack ice turns to sea ice. The belt of ice around the continent grows… 2 miles a day and engulfing most islands.

Over to South Georgia. The water doesn’t freeze there, only once a twice in a century. 45 degrees South (As far as Britain is from the north), the immense size of Antarctica still controls the climate. Glaciers cover over half the island, blanketing the peaks. The tallest of which is 2700 metres high. In some places they run right down to the sea. In winter the temperature falls to -10 degrees. The need to complete breeding is still intense. 2 million come here to breed. The pups suckle for 4 months till late March. Longer than the Fur Seals father north. Basically means these guys gotta be stronger to survive. If the pup wants its milk it better recognise it’s moms call. 3 months earlier that was the same beach the males had battles on, the same place where pups are now having mock fights. Shot of adults in the water dancing around, splashing about, cleaning up.

Many of the young will not survive. They face a lot of challenges. Shot of corpse being ravaged by skewers and petrels. Shot of evil looking petrels fighting with Frankenstein-ish background music. Whalers used to call them gluttons or stinkers… obvious to see why. Ah ducks. They also join the feast. South Georgia Pintails have acquired a regular taste for meat. Shot of gooey mud with eyes. Shot of nostril. Shot of shiny dome. Shot of the Elephant Seal wallow (group of them just sleeping about). A female gathering. Just like the penguins they went to sea after feeding the young, feed intensively to recover the weight and now, they’re back to moult. Shot of large chunks of skin and hair peeling away. Couple of months of this and they’re back to the sea.

Shot of Grey-headed Albatross gliding on the spot. The use the island too and they stay longer as the sea is still ice free to catch fish well into Autumn. Some more of those lovely regurgitation feeding. Lol close up shot of the food transfer as David says ‘That was a squid and very nice too’. (Really, Mr. Attenborough?) Shot of Wandering Albatross nesting further inland on the meadows of tussock grass. This albatross starts his breeding process now? And for 2 years?! The females in her nest just blowing raspberries in the air. Looking for a partner involves dancing parties. Some wing spreading dance and more blowing raspberries. Young unmated birds do this for a few years before they settle for one. Then together they’ll start to make a nest mound. But as winter closes in these young have to return to sea.

As the sun moves away and the days darken. The temperature goes lower still. Life in the waters reduces. Krill funk off elsewhere. Basically it gets harder to find food. Looks like speed shots of fog/mist creeping and crawling in over mountain tops. (Surely clouds don’t move like that? Or are that texture? These are important questions folks!;) Winds rise to over 100mph, temperature -70 degrees, the sea freezes. The ice advances north even more covering 40,000sq mile a day and by the end of winter will have doubled the size of the continent. Lovely shots of all white rocks and cracks and then you got the random icebergs with a blue glow.

End of Autumn and all life has flown north… all but one remarkable creature sticks around. Tan-taran-taraaaa… The Emperor Penguin. The largest of penguins, standing a meter high and weighting 3 kilos. These guys go further south to. Underwater shot of them shooting up from the water and over water shot of them doing a belly flop on ice. They’ll then walk 10’s of miles to their breeding grounds. Shot of them walking away… they look like inmates. More on them next time.