The nature of humans

Photo by Angie Scott. Her comment, "The captain of our Russian icebreaker wedged his ship against the ice in Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea, so we could step off. Almost immediately, a young emperor penguin appeared. We were probably the first humans it had ever seen. The picture I took is a statement on our world, its wild inhabitants and the nature of humans."

Weighing about the same as domestic sheep, emperor penguins are the largest of the penguins. To protect against the cold, they huddle together in groups. They breed during the long darkness of the Antarctic winter, but instead of building a nest the male keeps the egg on its feet, covering it with a warm fold of abdominal skin.

Entry in Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Mother and child

"IMG_1922 copy.jpg" uploaded by renidens

The ice-hoppers

Photo by Maria Stenzel. Her comment, "I was shooting from the boat, on an unusually calm, sunny morning. Weaving among the icebergs, we could see chinstraps everywhere, many of them perched on the ice, resting from feeding or, in the case of juveniles, probably just hanging out. They are incredible athletes, able to scale the steepest of slopes, digging into the ice with their crampon-like claws."

The South Sandwich Islands are home to the world’s largest colony of chinstrap penguins. Every summer, two million or so pairs arrive on the island of Zavodovski. They immediately start mating and laying eggs. This gives them time to raise their chicks before winter. They fatten the chicks on krill, small prawn-like crustaceans in the sea, before winter comes and the ocean freezes over.

Entry in Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year