Dramatic Clip Shows The Moment an Antarctic Penguin Tries To Escape From a Breaking Ice Shelf

The brutal weather of Antarctica already makes survival a challenge for its resident creatures. It becomes even more harrowing if a creature is separated from its group. In 2017, a rookery of penguins was waddling across a terrain of ice near the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, just when the sheet of ice beneath their feet collapsed. The US Coast Guard of that time, Derik Munson, filming the scene, accidentally captured this tenacious penguin’s quick-thinking ability as it hopped from the broken ice chunk onto the sheet. Not only did it survive, but it also reunited with its penguin family. Lately, the footage has been making rounds on social media, including the one shared on X by @Rainmaker1973.

The footage shows a colony of penguins waddling together across an expanse of ice. All of a sudden, a crack materialized in the ice sheet and broke if off into pieces. While the rest of the colony rushed to one side, one penguin, who was moving a little farther away, drifted away in the broken-off chunk of ice that resembled the jaw-shaped mouth of a plumbing wrench. In a scene reminiscent of the Ice Age’s continental drift, the separated penguin frantically ran hither-tither on the icy chunk, trying probably to figure out a way to save itself. Then, in a gutsy display of courage, the little penguin did a little hop, jumping onto the intact sheet of ice. With a majestic belly slide, the penguin bobsled its way back to the squad.

The striking footage was filmed at McMurdo Station, the largest and most prominent research station in Antarctica, located on the Hut Point Peninsula at the tip of Ross Island near the foot of Mount Erebus. Considered a literal edge of the world, the station is punctuated by undulating dry valleys on a backdrop of glassy sea ice that remains cloaked in shadowy darkness, sometimes for days. When the Sun makes its appearance in the sky, the station’s sundial casts shadows that dance on the ice from high noon till midnight. Elsewhere, the station is surrounded by a jumble of aging buildings, fleets of boxy machines, diesel generators, fuel tanks, muddy roads, and power lines.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog, in his 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World, compared McMurdo to an “ugly mining town filled with caterpillars and noisy construction cells.” Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences described it as an “all-night interstate truck stop.” During Austral summers, the shallow waters around the station are invaded by blooms of sea urchins, who nestle in the basaltic gravel and rocks, feeding on sessile animals like kelp and algae, ripping them off the floor.

Meanwhile, harems of crabeater seals, Weddell seals, and leopard seals dominate the under-ice realm, along with killer whales, skuas, and other seabirds who poke their mouths from the icy surface to breathe and eat. The station’s surrounding area is also home to colonies of Adelie penguins and Emperor penguins who gather around the station to feast on krill, squid, and fish. Capable of underwater hunting, these penguins use their spiny tongues and powerful jaws to catch slippery fish in their beaks. Once the fish is caught, they swallow it whole rather than chewing it. But after what this brave penguin in the footage showcased, it is evident that these flightless birds are capable of much, much more.