What the hell kind of bird was that web-footed brown thing that honked like a goose but cirled like a hawk as it hunted penguin chicks?
And why the hell didn't the nearby adult females run the thing off? They didn't even blink as it swooped down on the flock, and they just sat there and watched it chase down penguin chicks until it was finally successful!!
Most bizarre behavior.
Some Googling yielded answers to my questions and more. (It seems that many others were mystified by the inaction of those adult birds as well, as I ran across several message boards and blogs with similar observations.)
1) The predatory bird shown in "March" is the giant Antarctic petral, which is normally a seahunter (fish, etc.) and a scavenger on land but does hunt on land in Antarctica.
2) Adult Emperor penguins weigh 66 to 83 lb. (including a thick layer of blubber topped by short, densely-packed feathers), while the adult petral only weighs up to 11 lb.!! So WHY didn't the adults do anything to protect those chicks?
3) In penguin creches (nurseries), there is intense competition between the chicks to get to the center of the creche. Weak and/or sickly chicks are pushed to the periphery of the creche.
The above leads me to conclude that the chicks seen being attacked by the petral were weaker and/or sickly since they were off by themselves. The adults were standing by watching, allowing nature to take its course -- culling the weakest from the herd.
It's too bad that March didn't contain more facts about penguins and explain the above so that it would have made more sense to the viewers.
god, what an *beep* thats how nature works, the bird has to eat to live too, maybe for your little mind it was the "bad guy" in the movie, but its a cycle
sharegod, what an *beep* that's how nature works, the bird has to eat to live too, maybe for your little mind it was the "bad guy" in the movie, but its a cycleUm, did you actually read their post? They were asking why the penguins didn't protect their young, hardly a ridiculous thing to ask, since most animals in most circumstances do. Nobody said anything about why the bird was trying to eat the chicks, that's quite obvious, and no one said anything about it being the bad guy. Or to put it in a language to which you're more accustomed: God what a *beep* it's just a question, and a perfectly harmless one at that, maybe for your little mind the OP is the "bad guy" in the forum, but for everyone else it's you.
>>but for everyone else it's you.
bep YEAH!! IM THE BAD GUY HERE MOTHERbeeps !!! 1oneone!1