LOS ANGELES — In celebration of Earth Month, National Geographic is giving viewers a never-before-seen look at the world of penguins!
“If you follow a penguin just for a day, you will realize their life is an emotional rollercoaster. And so, you know, they did the hard work. We just had to keep up.”
That’s what National Geographic explorer Bertie Gregory told On The Red Carpet when we sat down to chat about his new series “Secrets of the Penguins.”
The mission behind the exploration? To uncover more about these iconic birds.
“I think what was exciting about penguins was that they have such kind of pop culture status and have been filmed many times before… So I was pretty nervous going into it, but I was super excited that on every shoot we went on, we started to reveal these new behaviors,” Gregory said.
The three-part series is executive produced by James Cameron and narrated by Blake Lively, taking viewers on an extraordinary journey across some of the most treacherous terrain on Earth. The docuseries features many never-before-capture-on-film moments, including the suspenseful time when a group of chicks earned their wings.
Gregory gave us an insight into the situation. “I was able to follow this one group of chicks that had taken a wrong turn and they ended up not at the edge of the sea ice but instead at the edge of a 50-foot ice cliff. This had never been filmed before so we had no idea whether these chicks could even survive such a fall or whether they’d actually choose to make that jump.”
You can watch this moment play out in episode one, “Heart of the Emperors.”
From Antarctica to the Galapgos, these little birds can pack a punch.
“My favorite kind of surprising penguin was the Galapagos penguin. Some of them don’t get their own food, they just mug giant pelicans to get their food,” Gregory explained.
Although, penguins are a fierce species, many of their habits are vulnerable to global warming.
Gregory hopes audiences walk away with a new appreciation for the world around them. “Penguins are an important part of the natural world and a real key indicator of the health of our planet. And so if penguins are in trouble, that means we’re in trouble. So let’s get off our butts and do something.”
Take a dive into uncharted waters when “Secrets of the Penguins” premieres tonight at 8/7c on National Geographic and tomorrow on Disney+ and Hulu.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of National Geographic, Disney+, Hulu and this ABC station.
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