Original subtitles

At the bottom of the world, far from any human settlement,

rising from the waters of the cruel southern ocean...

there is an island.

South Georgia.

It's a harsh place battered by Antarctic weather.

But it is also a refuge.

As spring warms the shore and the snow melts,

all manner of characters come.

The albatross, which can circle the world in a single flight,

chooses to make its nest here.

The lumbering elephant seals haul their enormous bodies clear of the surf.

And fur seals come ashore in their thousands.

Their presence draws predators.

Patrolling offshore killer whales.

And savage leopard seals.

From the skies, thieving skuas.

And the bloodthirsty giant petrels.

Yet it is another group that dominates.

Penguins.

King penguins.

One of them, a young bachelor, is returning home.

This is his journey.

He hatched on this beach four years ago.

He's flanked by two loyal cousins.

The three of them have completed an epic voyage,

the one all king penguins make as soon as they're free of their parents.

They've barely set foot on dry land in almost three years.

But now, they're back.

The fur seals still make a fuss.

The elephant seals still hog the beach.

The skuas are still here, looking for whatever they can steal.

No, the old place hasn't changed much.

But these three have.

When they left, they were barely more than chicks.

Now, they're all grown up.

Well...nearly.

They make their way up through the suburbs.

Finally, it lies before them.

Penguin City.

Our bachelor heads straight in, and leaves his cousin standing.

First, he sees the established males, each guarding an egg.

There are thousands of half-grown chicks,

each one someone's responsibility.

Though they hatched several months ago,

it will be weeks before they're ready to leave.

There are young males here, squabbling over unattached females.

And everywhere he looks, there are couples.

This entire city is devoted to the business of breeding.

Our childless, footloose bachelor hasn't yet found his place.

Where he fits in exactly is not at all clear.

It's possible to be quite lonely in a crowd.

But then...

who's that?

She sees him staring...

and meets his eye.

They've clicked.

But...

he's got an itch.

He knows exactly what this is.

It's nature's way of ruining his chances.

And she is not impressed.

He's too distracted to notice that she's left.

And before long...

he's in the middle of it.

The moult.

Every single one of his feathers is falling out.

Of course, he's not the only one.

And he's joined in his misery by his cousins.

What began as a glorious homecoming

has become an endurance test.

His coat of new feathers isn't yet waterproof,

so he isn't going anywhere until this is over.

The moult takes two long weeks...

leaving our bachelor underfed and very fed up.

Only when it's finished can he go back to sea to find something to eat.

Three weeks have passed since our bachelor left,

skinny and beaten in a cloud of old feathers.

But now, he's back.

He's got one thing on his mind and he won't be stopped.

Certainly not by a gang of fur seals.

He's fished, he's fat and he's going to find that female.

This is a walk that talks. And though there are many females in Penguin City,

this is a message meant for just one.

She's almost certainly not where he left her.

What if she's taken up with someone else?

No, she's right there.

And she looks just as good.

She casts an eye over his brand-new feathers...

and turns her back.

Our king's not about to give up.

He rushes to get in front of her.

When he's sure she's paying attention...

he bows.

And she copies him.

That's a good sign.

And now he must stand tall.

He's shown what he has to offer...

it's up to her.

The choice is made.

This time, she makes the first gesture.

He's never done this before, but he knows how the ritual works.

And so does she.

This special strut is all for her,

while they look for a patch of ground to make a home and rear a chick.

This is the place. Intimacies can now commence.

Eventually, she feels his feet on the small of her back.

And there's a brief balancing act.

Our king and his mate are partners.

In the coming months, they will often be hundreds of miles apart.

But they will be linked by the same shared purpose.

To bring a new life into the world.

There's not much by way of a honeymoon.

Penguin couples aren't big on being alone together.

They're joined by dozens of others, playing in the surf.

This is one brief chance for the two of them to have fun.

Life is about to become a lot harder.

On the hillside, the albatrosses, like our penguins,

are romancing one another with a dance.

While far below, our king's life has been turned upside down.

12 days after that first encounter, he finds himself sitting on an egg.

Immediately after his partner laid it,

she passed it over to him to keep it warm.

Now, the couple must divide up the work.

When the chick hatches, it will need feeding.

One of them needs to collect a bellyful of fish.

That's for her to do.

His task is to sit tight and keep guard.

Off she goes.

While she's gone, he stays rooted to the spot.

It will be 55 days from laying to hatching.

One of the cousins has taken up a position next to our king, guarding an egg of his own.

The nights are bitterly cold.

He and his cousin and a thousand other males are all in it together.

His mate is out there alone.

And her journey to find fish takes her hundreds of miles.

Only a thin shell separates him from his chick,

and it can hear him.

It will hatch knowing his voice.

It's not always tranquil.

There are scuffles.

He had built up reserves of fat.

Now, with nothing to eat, he's losing weight.

And still, she keeps fishing.

She is no longer hungry, but she has to keep eating.

Back on the island,

the males have to stand no matter what the weather.

With every passing day, our king leaves his bachelor life further and further behind.

Skuas.

Two of them.

They want eggs.

Our king mustn't move.

A barrage of angry calls deflects one.

But not the other.

The skua taunts him.

If our king lunges, he will expose his egg.

And that is what the skua wants.

Our king's egg...

is still safe.

And now his partner is coming back.

Even in a crowd, he can recognise her voice.

But in his excitement, he's relaxed his guard.

He's got to get it back.

Here she comes.

Just in time.

He stood tall, and the egg is undamaged.

Slowly, summer creeps over the island.

Like our king, the albatross has been guarding an egg.

The fur seal pups have arrived and are growing fast.

And in Penguin City, life is as comfortable as it will ever be.

Our king keeps on talking to his egg

and he and his partner wait amongst the crowd.

For him and his cousin, fatherhood is a long time coming.

He feels a little movement on the top of his feet.

Their chick - tiny, bald and perfect.

Our new mother steps in, and for the first time she feeds it.

Both parents will have to work hard if the chick is to have any chance of survival.

There are more dangers here than mere cold and hunger.

Our king and his mate are now committed to a way of life.

One which means that they will rarely be together for long.

It's his turn to go, and hers to stay.

She will protect and feed their chick until he returns.

For the first time in a long time, he gets to leave Penguin City...

to swim, fish and eat. He is starving.

He can barely contain himself.

His cousin has not been so lucky.

His egg has remained silent.

Only when he dares to look at it closely

does he see that he has been sitting on a stone all this time

He and the other cousin might as well go fishing too.

They meet our king on the shoreline.

A crowd is gathering.

Our trio joins the party.

They all assemble in the shallows to set out hunting as a pack,

just as they did in their bachelor days.

But so much splashing attracts attention.

Though our king can't see it, there's something in the water.

It's a leopard seal.

Our king has had a very narrow escape.

He and the others bolt for the open sea.

Four days have passed since its father left,

and the chick is still begging for more fish.

It still has only the thinnest covering of feathers

and can easily become cold.

It's growing, though, and fast.

The skua is still prowling, but it won't do more than look,

not with Mum right there.

The chick has no sense of danger.

It's just inquisitive.

And it doesn't yet know what its wings are for.

And while the albatross, the biggest bird of them all, soars far above them,

it heads back beneath its mother for warmth.

The albatross is setting out on a hunting trip of its own.

It too has a chick to feed. Already bigger than a fully grown king,

waiting while its father heads far out to sea.

Here, our one-time bachelor is working hard.

Nothing beats diving at dusk.

A shoal of glowing lantern fish rises as if to meet him.

It's been two weeks since our king left.

Our chick begs for more of what little food remains in its mother's stomach.

The mother can't carry on like this for ever.

If her partner doesn't come soon, she will have to make a terrible choice.

Either she or the chick will starve.

But the fishing party is on its way back.

It's an orca - a killer whale.

If it catches them, it will rip them to pieces.

That was close.

If the orca had spotted them just a little further out to sea,

well, Penguin City would have three fewer penguins.

But in their haste to get ashore,

they have landed at the wrong end of the beach.

All the king wants to do is to get back to his partner and feed his chick.

But there is new trouble.

Elephant seals.

At least 20 of them.

60 tonnes of blubber and flatulence.

And they don't like being disturbed.

Well, they can't go back.

They can't go round.

The only option is to find a way through.

Our king seizes the moment and leads a death-or-glory charge.

Bad idea.

It's time to regroup.

Perhaps a more stealthy approach would be better.

Not that way.

Or that way.

Our king spots his chance.

He leads his cousins through.

A city full of penguins, each with its own cry.

Despite this, our king can call right across them

and still hear the answer he's hoping for.

In the time he's spent away, his chick has changed almost beyond recognition.

For the first time, he can take over.

Another step towards becoming a true king.

Between them, these two will do everything they can to keep their chick from hunger.

For our cousins, the homecoming has been rather different.

They watch how their old companion is taking to his new role as father.

It seems every male around them has made the same step.

So they're both a little lost.

This one really wants a chick.

That overpowering desire has never left him.

As the urge grows, he looks for any small chick that he might take as his own.

Best for the cousins to leave until it all blows over.

Our couple must prepare their chick for the first great test of its life.

They're using these short summer months to build up its strength.

It has a layer of fat and a thick coat.

And it will need both when the weather worsens.

But it will need something else too...

toughness.

It will have to stand and endure whatever the weather.

And it will only learn that by being left on its own.

They can hear its cries above the noise of the city,

but this is what they have to do.

And so their chick goes from being the centre of its parents' world

to become just one amongst many in a huge penguin creche.

Both go fishing now.

Their chick needs ever more food.

For the best chance of success, as soon as they reach open water,

they will head out in different directions.

The dangers of the ocean await them once again.

Their chick can only hope that its parents make it back.

The creche in Penguin City is the largest on earth.

There are thousands here.

With its parents gone, our chick's best option

is to join in with the others.

They're all the same age and all abandoned.

For now, this will be our chick's home.

While our king has gone out to sea, his cousins have stayed close to the shore.

They have only themselves to look after.

They only need a place to go while the fuss in Penguin City dies down.

They've never landed on this beach before

and they're met with a sound they don't recognise.

This is another city.

Different penguins, different rules.

This is the home...

of the Macaronis.

They live life at a faster pace.

They're a quarrelsome lot.

If the cousins were expecting a welcome...

they've got it wrong.

And for the second time they have to beat a hasty retreat.

The next bay along was once packed with fur seals.

Now, only the dead and the fatally weak remain.

It wasn't the skuas that did this, but something much worse.

Giant petrels.

They aren't scavengers, they're killers.

When giant petrels feed, all they leave behind is skin and bone.

Our cousins have seen enough.

They're heading straight back to Penguin City.

If the petrels find any creature that is weak or vulnerable,

any chick that's not properly protected...

they will attack it.

Autumn. Snow hits the island.

This is something our chick has never known.

Not so long ago its mother kept it warm.

Now, she is gone, and a coat of down is hardly a substitute.

And there are some things against which it offers no protection at all.

Over on the edge of the city, two birds our chick doesn't recognise.

It needs its parents.

Our mother is labouring away, catching fish.

But she's not finding many that are suitable for penguins.

She has no choice, she must keep going.

From out of the crowd, two familiar figures...

our cousins.

In spite of everything, they're welcome here.

There are dozens of chicks who need protecting.

Penguins rely on strength in numbers.

No such comfort for our king out at sea.

He's trying to head home, but a storm overtakes him.

He's alone, and the ocean is battering him.

Back on the beach, the cousins are in no mood to tolerate a skua.

They have greater dangers to deal with.

The few adults still here patrol the edges of the creche.

But they can't be everywhere.

Our king's two cousins take up their posts.

There are petrels on all sides.

At first they're just probing,

seeing how vigorously the adults will defend their charges.

Then they start to attack.

Nothing can stop them.

And without its parents, our chick is easy prey.

Free of the storm, our king seizes his chance and strikes out for a home.

The petrels are now amongst the chicks.

Now they can do as they please.

Our king is nearing the shore.

He can see the city ahead of him.

But the petrels are now in our chick's part of the creche.

The killers see no need to rush.

This one has picked its next target.

It wants our chick.

Our king spurs his cousins into action.

Together, they rally the other penguins to fight back.

Our king feeds his youngster.

And when it begs again, he feeds it again.

Leaving the chick has tested it.

Our king has been tested too...

and has proved himself.

But something is missing.

There are only two of them here. There should be three.

Where is his mate?

She is on her way back.

The sea is calm.

Calm enough for her to swim with ease.

Calm enough too for her to spot a tell-tale fin.

Our king waits...

but all there is now for him...

is his chick...

and a question.

How can he possibly raise his youngster to adulthood...

on his own?

Winter.

The macaronis feel it and start to leave.

And when the other creatures on the island see them going,

they know it's time for them to start leaving, too.

The last few seals will soon be gone,

but Penguin City will remain.

Our king must bring his youngster through the harshest of times.

It will be months before it can go to sea and fish for itself.

Our king feeds the youngster when he can, with what he can.

He can only hunt for short periods

but he must do so whenever possible, or his chick will starve.

They must battle both hunger and the cold.

In the depths of winter, the king penguins stand alone.

This is the time

when many parents fail.

And many chicks fall.

It's the last and toughest leg of our king's journey.

It takes four months until at last the weather eases.

A trace of green returns...

and the melting snow runs down to the sea.

The macaronis swarm back onto the land, bringing the spring with them.

The young albatross, now ten months old, takes its first flight.

Slowly, the whole island is coming back to life.

The same rituals...

the same faces.

And in Penguin City...

our youngster is alive and well.

Our king still has to feed his youngster, even though it's now almost a year old,

and it's almost as tall as he is.

He already knows about the next irksome phase.

The flapping.

The itching.

There's nothing he can do to help with this.

Our youngster joins our king and his cousins looking recognisably penguin.

Its first adult feathers. They Are waterproof.

They don't quite have the colours yet.

The beak will remain black for a while.

But it will do.

All its life so far has been spent on land,

but now the sea beckons.

Our youngster can now fend for itself.

He has to watch his chick leave.

He looks on as, for the first time, his youngster meets the water.

It's more than a year since our king, as a bachelor,

stepped through these waves to find his mate and father his chick.

Up until this moment, he has protected it.

He hunted for it.

And fed it throughout the winter.

Now his youngster can face the ocean alone.

This is the life he raised it for.

And when it's gone, his journey is complete.

He has found his place in Penguin City

as one of its true kings.