But I also love answering random questions. After noticing how many people stumbled back across my blog after I found the Dear Carbs/Love Letter video and pointed questioners in the right direction, I've paid a bit more attention to the questions that land people here. A couple days ago, a user got here by searching "what's an emperor penguin's gestation period?" The page they got, obviously didn't get them their answer, but I'm here to inform you all that it is indeed 63 days. (Am I the only one that that strikes as being an odd number of days?) While we're at it, here are some more things you might want to know about Emperor Penguins:
- After those 63 days, she'll lay a single egg...no more. She then hands it over to her mate and off to the sea to fish she goes. If you've seen Happy Feet, you already knew this, hehe.
- The male is unable to eat during the next 9 weeks while watching over the egg. ("Ha, you got me knocked up and now you're going to pay. Not only am I going to take a vacation, but you can't eat while I'm gone!")
- When she returns, he'll have lost up to a third of his body weight. Then guess what...he gets to make the journey himself, which could be up to 60 miles, to go get himself some food. That can't be a fun.
- Emperor penguins are the largest of all penguins.
- Emperor penguins have amazing dives, reaching up to 700 underneath the surface, and they're able to stay under for up to 18 minutes.
- And most importantly, Emperor penguin chicks are absolutely adorable!
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