Do penguins walk a long way?
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Do penguins walk a long way to their rookeries?

Most species of penguin may have their breeding colonies a significant distance from the shore. For example, African penguins on Robben Island may nest up to half a mile inland. Fiordland penguins have their nest sites several hundred feet above sea level. However, it is the Antarctic penguins who travel the furthest because the sea freezes or melts during their breeding seasons.

The longest distances are walked by Emperors who come ashore at the beginning of winter to start breeding; at that time the rookeries may be a few kilometres from the open sea. The females leave the rookeries once the eggs have been laid by which time the sea has started to freeze so they have to walk maybe as much as 30 km to get back to the sea. The females then return about 9 weeks later when the eggs are hatching and relieve the males. The return journey for the females is again longer, up to 50 km, because more sea has frozen. The males, now exhausted and starving after incubating the eggs then waddle back over 60 km to the open sea. The maximum distances they sometimes have to walk can be as much as 100km!