Antarctic Creatures


Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth, so you would imagine that it is pretty inhospitable for life. However, the seas are plentiful, supporting huge populations – vast colonies of penguins and plenty of predators who lie in wait for them.


Penguins


How has a bird that can’t fly managed to be so successful? In Antarctica, penguin colonies contain hundreds of thousands, even millions of birds – bigger than many of the world’s cities! They are able to survive because they have few predators. There are seventeen species of penguins in the world but only six are found in Antarctica, including the largest – the emperor penguin.


Although they can’t fly, they are superb swimmers and can hold their breath for 20 minutes. Under the water, they need to keep alert to avoid leopard seals and killer whales but on land, chicks and eggs are in danger of becoming prey to the skua seabird. Penguins have an outer layer of oily, waterproof feathers, which cover soft down feathers and under that a thick layer of fat, all of which protects them against the harsh year-round cold.


Krill


One of the most important creatures in the Southern Ocean is one of the smallest; at around 6 centimetres long, these small, shrimp-like creatures are the fuel that runs the engine of the Earth’s marine ecosystems. Without krill, most of the life forms in Antarctica would disappear. Pink and opaque, Antarctic krill gather in huge shoals which, at certain times of the year, can be seen from space. Krill eat phytoplankton (tiny, single-celled plants that drift near the ocean’s surface) but they themselves are eaten by a large number of creatures; whales, seals, penguins, squid and fish.


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