It's Hard Out Here For A Penguin

Last night I watched the Academy Award Winning Documentary, "March of the Penguins", gently narrated by Morgan Freeman. I have wanted to see this movie since the buzz began last summer. Unfortunately, I was far too busy seeing Crash a million times and enjoying not being an actor for a few months.

So, as an animal lover, I thought surely this would be a delightful way for me to spend a Monday evening - watching & learning all about the Emperor Penguin. And for the most part, it was. After all, those penguins are darned cute. Especially when they have stored up lots of food for the winter and their bellies drag on the ice when they waddle to and fro.

They live in "the coldest place on Earth" - the ice deserts of Antarctica. During the winter, this area is so cold, that it is unable to support any wildlife other than these amazing birds. It is during the winter months that they all flock together to embark on an annual journey to the place in which they were all born. Because of changes in the formation of the glaciers (largely due to global warming, I'm sure), the route can change significantly from year to year. But they still manage to find their way. The sole purpose of their trek is to find one other penguin to mate with.

At first glance, this seems like your ordinary, run-of-the-mill procreation deal. But the courtship dance that takes place prior to mate selection squashes all of that. These penguins go to this sacred ground to find monogamy (until the next year, when they go back to find monogamy with a new penguin). The mates are chosen, the deed is done (they even make this look graceful - none of that wild, reckless humping you see on National Geographic) and the egg is laid. After months of just sitting around waiting in 50 below weather with no food or shelter, mom hands off the egg to dad & goes all the way back to where they came from to get a bite to eat.

At this point in the film, Morgan Freeman has told me, at least 3 times that not all of them will make it. Some will "lie down on the ice and disappear" during the initial journey. Some of the females will not get pregnant, and since there's no other reason for her (or her mate) to be there, she (and her mate) will go back home. "Some will not make it", says Mr. Freeman. The egg handoff is particularly tricky because the eggs can only survive a few seconds if they are not covered by the "pouch" of one of the parents. So while watching a botched handoff, I hear him say again, that "some will not make it".

So the moms get together & leave the dads in care of the eggs. During this mom journey, Mr. Freeman tells me AGAIN that "some will not survive". He means the moms. He also means the dads. He also means the eggs. All three have some pretty serious obstacles in their paths.

It was about this time in the film that I said (probably out loud) "(expletive) a pimp, it's hard out here for a penguin". I didn't do it on purpose. I mean everybody is singing that song after Sunday's rousing performance at the Academy Awards, right? Whether you want to or not (mark me down for "or not").

I mean, really - I can't think of any other animal that has that much trouble 9 months out of the year just staying alive. Granted, I don't know much about many animals. I did do a speech about the opossum in the 2nd grade, followed by a brief obsession with cheetahs a few years later. Based on that research, plus what I know about cats, dogs and humans, turns out the Emperor Penguin has got the survival-of-the-fittest thing locked down.

Don't get me wrong - I realize that animals living in the wild have that whole circle of life thing to contend with. And certainly the ongoing genocide in Darfur puts the survival of the Sudanese people to the test.

But the Emperor Penguin stands out among these and other survivors.

Their struggle is not only for life, but for love. They travel for weeks to a place where there is no shelter, food or entertainment so that they can kiss, cuddle and make love. Watching the courtship dance and seeing each family dance and sing with joy when they are reunited, I know that their struggle is not only about procreation, but about family. If one member of their family unit does not "make it", the entire family is sure to meet the same fate. They are entirely dependent on one another for their survival, both physical and emotional. Their struggle is not about trying to get from one part of the continent to another, it is about living a life that is quiet, graceful and simple.