Young penguins are protected from the cold by their loving parents as they huddle together in Antarctica

• The breeding colony of Emperor Penguins were pictured in Antarctica
• They had trekked up to 75 miles over ice to reach the breeding spot
• Images show penguin parents huddling around young to keep them alive

By Sam Matthew for MailOnline

Published: 23 December 2014 

Huddled together trying to stay warm, these heart-warming images show that penguins really do make the best parents.  The adult Emperor Penguins surround their young as they struggle to survive the freezing temperatures and deadly winds. This breeding colony were captured clustered together in Antarctica where they face a daily battle to keep their young alive.

Scroll down for video 

Huddled together: Adult Emperor Penguins surround their tiny young as they struggle to survive the freezing conditions in Antarctica

Perfect parents: Mothers and fathers face a daily battle against the harsh condition to keep their young alive

This tiny snow speckled chick is being looked after by his father while his mother goes off for two months to look for food

The tiny fluffy chicks cluster together to keep warm as the temperatures plummet

Is this the real life Mumbles for the animated movie Happy Feet? The tiny chick braves the cold to move away from the other chicks

A group of young penguins play together on the ice in Antarctica

Keeping each other warm: These youngsters are around 40 to 50 days old

Speckled with snow, the tiny chicks, keep close to their mothers and fathers in the midst of the icy blast. The tiny chicks bare an uncanny resemblance to Mumbles, from the Bafta winning movie Happy Feet. In the animated film, Mumble's is cast as an outsider because he has a terrible singing. Emperor penguins famously trek up to 75 miles over the ice to reach their breeding colony.

Emperor penguins sleeping chicks, covered in snow, sheltering in brood pooches

A creche of chicks snuggle together as their parents search for food

These four little chicks follow one adult emperor penguin as they march over the ice sheet

Keeping all the little ones together. Emperor Penguins form creches for their young so they can go off and look for food

Here the female penguin lays a single egg and hand it over to the male to cradle on his feet. This handover must be done without the egg once touching the ground otherwise the chick inside would die from the freezing temperatures. 

The female then makes the long trek back to the sea to feed.  The male is left to withstand the Antarctic cold for more than two months - during which time he will eat nothing - to protect his egg from the extreme cold. 

When the female returns she brings with her their now hatched chick's first meal - finding her mate and young among the crowd thanks to his vocal call. 

 

A brave penguin chick poses for photographer Fred Olivier

She takes over caring for the chick while he makes the arduous journey to the sea.

They then take it in turns to care for their chick and forage at sea.

When the youngsters are around 45-50 days old they huddle together to form a crèche while both parents head out to sea - returning periodically to feed their chicks before they are old enough to fend for themselves.
source