The Life Collection

The Race to Breed (4x3)

: 02, 1993

This instalment looks at the summer, when almost all life in the region breeds. A South Georgian colony of fur seals is shown: the pups grow fast on the rich, fatty milk provided by their mothers and double their weight in just sixty days. As the females become sexually available, the mating season begins — males try to claim territory and mate with females. Chinstrap penguins form large groups on Deception Island, climbing up its steep slopes to find mountain ridges free of snow. Returning birds find their partners by recognising their voice (performing a brief greeting ritual when they find them), which is why the colonies are very noisy during the breeding season. Males and females take turns in catching food, some of which they later regurgitate for their chicks. The summer also thaws some of the ice on the continent's shores. The fresh water allows moss and other plants to grow, which in turn provide food for mites that are adapted to the cold climate — they can survive temperatures up to minus 30 °C because they contain a kind of antifreeze. They become active as soon as the ice melts, and reproduce whenever they get an opportunity to do so. Lichens grow even further south than moss, and algae populate some of the snow. In the ocean, life is much more diverse, and blue-eyed shags dive for fish near the peninsula. More than 300,000 petrels come to breed to the Scullin Monolith, one of the few areas of open rock.