The Life Collection

The Ice Retreats (4x2)

: 25, 1993

The second programme examines what happens during spring on Antarctica. The sea ice extends for hundreds of miles around the continent, but there are a few subantarctic islands that escape it. Such places are highly valued, for as the sea never freezes, animals can always get ashore. Elephant seals are the first creatures to return to the beaches. They form large breeding colonies, where the males fight fierce battles to gain and retain permanent access to a great number of females and mate with them as soon as they are receptive again. Millions of macaroni penguins occupy huge territories on the islands to breed, as do thousands of albatrosses. The Antarctic peninsula is one of the few regions of the continent inhabited by animals, even in summer. Gentoo penguins build their nests on bare rock and humpback whales seek krill along the coast, while Adelie penguins nest even further south. Crabeater seals, one of the most numerous mammals on Earth, live and reproduce in the pack ice zone around Antarctica. Snow petrels fly many miles into the island to find rock on which to lay their eggs.