The all-penguin cast of Happy Feet return to the big screen today here in the UK for more frozen frolics and icy escapades. This time round there are some new crew members on board including two Antarctic krill desperate to climb the food chain, a huge southern elephant seal called Bryan the beachmaster and a lovesick Adelie penguin.

The story is based around a colony of emperor penguins, with the main character Mumble, an expert dancer, attempting to teach his dance-phobic son, Erik, to dance. Erik runs away with his friend Ramon, a love-obsessed Adelie penguin. On their action-packed adventure, they meet a ‘penguin who can fly’, a character that looks suspiciously like a puffin! While away from home, catastrophe ensues, with all species having to pitch in to save themselves from starvation.

We’ve had a skate around the ARKive collection to discover some more about the new faces in Happy Feet Two.

The big, scary looking southern elephant seal is an ally to the penguins in Happy Feet Two

• The southern elephant seal has the largest difference between sexes of all mammals; the male can weigh eight to ten times more than the female.
• The extension of the nose is called a proboscis and is used for vocalising.
• It has been known to dive for over 2,000 metres and spend 2 hours underwater before resurfacing for air.
• The southern elephant seal was hunted for oil in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Real life Ramon the Adelie penguin

• Named after the wife of the French Antarctic explorer Dumont d’Urville.
• The white underside and black back of the penguin is used to camouflage it while swimming, making it less obvious for predators to spot.
• An Adelie penguin will return to its site of birth to breed.
• This species can dive up to 175 metres for food and can reach speeds of 15 kilometres per hour underwater.

Real life Mumbo and Erik

• Emperor penguins can reach up to a metre in height.
• The male incubates the egg laid by the female in a pouch of loose, feathery skin in between its legs.
• The real-life penguin huddle can contain around 5,000 emperor penguins.
• The emperor penguin can dive up to 200 metres below sea level and resurface for air up to 9 minutes after diving.

Sven from Happy Feet Two must have got very lost as the range of the puffin only extends as far south as the Canary Islands

• In winter, the colour is lost from the bill in adults, returning in the summer.
• Puffins are able to dive beneath the surface of the water to hunt for prey.
• Spending most of their lives at sea, puffins only return to land to breed.
• The white puffin, a subspecies of puffin, is extremely rare.

Will and Bill the Antarctic krill may be hard to spot amongst the 100 to 500 million tonnes of them present in the sea

• As a ‘keystone species’, the Antarctic krill is the main prey for a huge amount of predators and plays a vital part in the food chain.
• Swarms of krill, spanning over 100 kilometres are formed by tidal movements.
• The female lays several thousand eggs.
• It has the ability to shrink its body size when food is scarce by using its own tissue for energy, or stopping itself from developing.

Find out more about the habitat of all of these species and more on ARKive’s Antarctic ecoregions page.

Hannah Mulvany, ARKive Species Text Author Intern

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The BBC’s latest nature documentary series, Frozen Planet, will be hitting the screens of viewers in the UK at 9pm tonight. Hailed as the ultimate portrait of Earth’s polar regions, Frozen Planet looks set to transport us to the frozen realms of the Arctic and Antarctic, to reveal the secret lives of the species that call these wild ice worlds home.

Frozen Planet is narrated by Wildscreen patron Sir David Attenborough, who himself travelled to both polar regions in the making of the series. The first episode, “To the Ends of the Earth”, is a journey from the North to the South Pole, across the least known wildernesses on our planet. We hope that you are as excited about the series as we are in the ARKive office, and will enjoy a little taster of what is to come….

The stars of the first episode are likely to be a pair of courting polar bears, who we think will steal the show with their surprisingly tender behaviour. Be prepared for some stunning shots of the giant Greenland ice cap too. 

Polar bears play fighting

The Greenland icecap, where two glaciers join and flow to the sea

Next up, we find humpback whales feeding in the rich polar waters, while on land a large group of wolves attempt to tackle a formidable group of bison. You can check out a video of feeding humpbacks on ARKive, as well as a clip of an Arctic wolf hunting some slightly smaller prey!

Humpbacks travel thousands of kilometres from summer feeding grounds in polar waters to winter breeding grounds near the tropics

The Arctic wolf is a subspecies of the grey wolf, the world's largest wild canid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the other end of the world we find leaping gentoo penguins trying to evade prowling sea lions, and orcas displaying some spectacular hunting behaviour, possibly caught on film for the first time ever - prepare to be amazed! You can check out our gentoo videos on ARKive too.

Masters of the waves, gentoo penguins face a number of predators in the water

The orca is the only cetacean to routinely hunt marine mammals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is plenty more in store too, but I’m afraid you’ll have to watch it tonight - we wouldn’t want to spoil it for you!

 

If you just can’t wait, or the series is not showing where you live, why not check out our new polar eco-region pages, and explore the fantastic array of photographs and footage of all these species and more on ARKive.

Sneak previews, episode guides and behind the scenes stories from the series can all be found on the BBC Frozen Planet page.

Claire Lewis, ARKive Media Researcher

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With the spectacular new BBC series Frozen Planet beginning next week in the UK, ARKive is giving you the chance to explore the dramatic landscapes and fascinating wildlife at the extremes of our planet with our new eco-region pages.

The new Arctic and Antarctic pages showcase the habitats and species at the extreme north and south of the planet, and also demonstrate how different the two poles can be. While the Antarctic is a rocky continent surrounded by the Southern Ocean, the Arctic is not a continent but a region at the extreme north of the planet, largely consisting of the frozen Arctic Ocean and the tops of the countries surrounding it.

Frozen Arctic Ocean

Aerial view of the mountains in the Antarctic

Poles apart

Due to the tilt of the planet, parts of both poles share the characteristic of having a period of 24 hour daylight during the summer months and perpetual darkness for a period during the winter. However, although both of these regions share an icy reputation, their climates can be quite different.

The Antarctic holds the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded on the Earth’s surface, at -89.2 degrees Celsius, with summer temperatures barely rising above freezing. While winter temperatures in the Arctic region can drop to around -60 degrees Celsius, summer temperatures are generally warmer than in the Antarctic, sometimes reaching up to 20 degrees Celsius.

Iceberg and mountains on the Antarctic Peninsula

Arctic tundra in the Russian Arctic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animals at the extremes

In spite of popular misconception, polar bears do not hunt penguins. They live at opposite poles, with polar bears hunting on the frozen sea ice of the Arctic, and penguins only being found in the southern hemisphere. All animals that inhabit the polar regions, however, are superbly adapted to survive the extreme conditions with insulating layers of fat and dense fur or feathers.

Polar bears in the north.......

…….penguins in the south!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arctic mammals

Other land mammals that occur in the Arctic region include the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus), muskox (Ovibos moschatus) and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). The Arctic is also home to a number of marine-dwelling mammal species, including the main prey of the polar bear, the ringed seal (Pusa hispida), as well as the walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) with its enormous tusks, the mysterious narwhal (Monodon monoceros) and the snow-white beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas).

Arctic fox on tundra

Muskox on Arctic tundra

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ringed seal pup

Adult beluga whale

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antarctic mammals

There are no naturally occurring land mammals in the Antarctic, but the surrounding oceans are home to a rich diversity of marine mammals, including ice habitat specialists, the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) and crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophaga).

The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is also home to many species of cetacean, including the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis), sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), and the largest animal in the world, the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus).

Crabeater seal group on ice

Antarctic fur seals swimming underwater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antarctic minke whale surfacing amongst ice

Orca female hunting king penguins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extraordinary birds

Both the Arctic and Antarctic provide important breeding habitat for birds, with the brent goose (Branta bernicla) and the ivory gull (Pagophila eburnea) breeding exclusively in the Arctic, and species such as the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) and black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys) occurring in the Antarctic. 

Brent goose in the Arctic

Adélie penguins in the Antarctic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polar plants

The Arctic region is home to some 3,000 species of flowering plant, which bloom during the brief Arctic summer. The Arctic tundra also supports small shrubs and trees, such as the Arctic willow (Salix arctica).

Due to the extreme conditions, the Antarctic mainland is relatively poor in plant life, with no species of tree or shrub, and only two flowering plant species, the Antarctic hair grass (Deschampsia antarctica) and the Antarctic pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis). 

Arctic poppy

Antarctic hair grass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The future of the poles

Perhaps the greatest current threat to both the Arctic and Antarctic is climate change. Although the impact that changes in the global climate will have on the two poles is largely unknown, large scale melting of ice is a likely scenario. The future of these unique ecosystems, and the species that live in them, is very much reliant on international cooperation if they are to be conserved.

 

Learn more about the fascinating Arctic and Antarctic in our new eco-region pages.

 

Find out more about the new BBC series Frozen Planet.

 

Becky Moran, ARKive Species Text Author

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Oil from a ship stranded on the Astrolabe Reef off the coast of New Zealand has begun washing ashore, according to the latest news reports.

The little penguin is one of the species that has been badly affected by the spill

The container ship, the Rena, ran aground on the reef in the Bay of Plenty on Wednesday. Oil continues to leak from the stricken ship despite the efforts of teams working to stabilise the vessel, and fist-sized clumps of oil have now been found on Mount Maunganui beach on the North Island.

So far, up to 30 tonnes of oil or fuel are believed to have leaked into the sea in the Bay of Plenty, which is one of New Zealand’s top tourist destinations.

Round the clock

Crews are working round the clock to pump oil off the vessel, although bad weather has been delaying progress. A tanker is moored alongside the vessel to offload the oil, but work was halted on Sunday after only 10 tonnes had been removed because of high winds.

Officials fear that if the ship breaks up in bad weather 1,700 tonnes of fuel could be spilled.

The bad weather is expected continue, with poor conditions forecast for later in the week. Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) said in a statement, “The weather is expected to deteriorate in the coming days, so we are working around the clock to remove the oil. The top priority is to first remove the oil, then lighten the vessel by removing the containers, and finally, move the ship off the reef.”

MNZ said that more oil was expected onshore in the coming days.

Clean-up operation on stand-by

Around 200 people are involved in the operation intended to salvage the ship, while hundreds of New Zealand military personnel are on stand-by to clean up affected beaches.

“We are expecting oil to wash up on the shoreline south of Mount Maunganui but we don’t know how much,” MNZ said.

Orcas, as well as other whales and dolphins, may be affected by the spill

Wildlife fears

The oil leaking from the stranded Rena has created a 5km slick, which is expected to spread further as the situation worsens. MNZ has established a maritime exclusion zone around the ship and warns that the fuel oil is toxic.

The impact of oil on marine wildlife, such as seabirds, whales and dolphins, can be devastating.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation are anticipating that the slick may have a severe impact on the country’s marine wildlife and have established two wildlife rescue centres in response to the spill. Several teams have been dispatched to search the beaches and islands in the area for animals and birds already affected by the oil.

Several oiled-covered birds, including little penguins and shags, have so far been recovered. The birds have been taken to a wildlife facility in Te Maunga.

“From tip to toe, they are covered in black sticky gunk, matting up all their feathers right down to the skin,” said Brett Gartrell of New Zealand’s Wildlife Health Centre. “They have ingested it and started to get anaemic, which is part of the toxic effect of the oil.”

Oil stops the feathers of birds from being waterproof and, more importantly, affects the ability of the birds to swim. The oil is also extremely toxic if ingested, affecting the internal organs and often leading to death.

Bottlenose dolphins are one of several marine species that could be affected in the Bay of Plenty

‘Deep concern’

There have also been warnings from the environmental organisation Greenpeace that whales and dolphins calving in the area could also be affected, as well as many other species. The animal welfare group Forest and Bird said the timing of the accident, in the middle of the breeding season for birds, was “disastrous”.

WWF-New Zealand is also deeply concerned for marine wildlife threatened by the spreading oil spill from the container ship.

Rebecca Bird, WWF-New Zealand’s Marine Programme Manager said, “We are concerned for wildlife at risk from the spill, particularly seabirds such as shearwaters and petrels.  Preventing the vessel from breaking up and disgorging its fuel and cargo is clearly the priority, as a spill of that scale would be a disaster for wildlife, and for the people of Tauranga.”

This marine region is home to common and bottlenose dolphins, orcas and beaked whales, as well as several different species of tern and a concentration of gannets. Large baleen whales also migrate through this area.

Read more about the oil spill on the BBC news.

Read the WWF New Zealand Press Release.

Explore the species found in New Zealand on ARKive.

Helen Roddis, ARKive Species Text Author

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As you may have noticed, today’s Google Doodle is a rather jolly party scene, marking Google’s 13^th Birthday. As you know, the ARKive team love a good birthday, and we are also big fans of Google.

If you’re not familiar with Google Earth, you might be surprised to hear that you can now dive beneath the ocean waves and explore the bottom of the sea from the comfort of your own computer. By installing the ARKive Google Earth plugin, you’ll be shown a number of ARKive place marks around the globe, each denoting a marine species found in the area, which can be clicked on and expanded for further facts, photos and footage.

To mark the occasion today, we thought we would pick 13 of our favourite sea creatues, all of which can be found using the ARKive Google Earth plugin, and set you the challenge of tracking them down on the ARKive layer!

Kicking off our list we have two beautiful rays, the manta ray and the spotted eagle ray. Here’s a hint, both live in tropical waters…

Next up we have a couple of spectacular sea birds, the wandering albatross and the white-chinned petrel. Both of these large birds breed on sub-Antarctic islands, keep your eyes peeled!

You are best off heading north to track down our next two species, the narwhal with it’s famous tusk and the beautiful bowhead whale.

More marine mammals up next! The super cute sea otter and the noisy northern elephant seal. Your best bet is to scour the Pacific…

Two stunning sharks are next on our list to track down, the great white shark and the smooth hammerhead. Both these species have a large range, but we recommend searching the waters around the second largest continent.

These next two species are coral reef inhabitants; can you find the humphead parrotfish and Denise’s pygmy seahorse?

And last but by no means least, can you pinpoint the Macaroni penguin?

Let us know how you get on. Remember, if you get stuck, a sneaky look at the ARKive species profiles might help you out….

Explore hundreds more ocean species using the ARKive plugin or explore ARKive on Google Earth via the global awareness and ocean layers.

Claire Lewis, ARKive Media Researcher

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