Giant Huddle of Penguins Look “Like Frothing Coffee” From The Sky

If you’ve seen the popular documentary March of the Penguins, then you’d know that the birds huddle in large masses (called crèche).

Well, believe it or not, the image on the left is a one such crèche as seen from the sky, formed by as many as 25,000 king penguins in the shoreline of South Georgia, a British territory close to Antarctica.

From the sky, it looks like a giant swirling frothy coffee.

Yet this scene shows an extraordinary community at work – thousands of king penguins instinctively herding their recently born young into giant huddles to stop them freezing to death.

Parental instinct takes over in the inhospitable climate of the South Atlantic and the furry brown chicks are made to crowd together to retain their body warmth in the equivalent of bird creches – visible as brown swathes on our photo.

Daily Mail has more stunning pics of the phenomenon: Link