Dawn Images

Years of filming, often in extreme conditions, has provided new insights into the extraordinary challenges endured by penguins for a documentary series which was premiered on Monday, the eve of Earth Day.

Secrets of the Penguins is voiced by US actor Blake Lively and hosted by National Geographic explorer Bertie Gregory, who hopes to engage the widest possible audience with the natural world.

He says filming that included 274 days on the Ekstrm Ice Shelf in Antarctica, home to around 20,000 emperor penguins, as well as in locations from Cape Town in South Africa to the Galapagos Islands, led to discovering “new penguin secrets”. “I have filmed penguins a lot before,” he said. “I thought I knew penguins. I was so wrong.”

The three-part series, which was screened on Disney+ on Monday and on Nat Geo Wild from Tuesday, took more than two years to film. The highlights include penguin chicks jumping off a 50-foot ice cliff in order to dive into the sea for the first time in their young lives.

“As soon as the first one went… they all started to jump. It was an amazing moment to witness,” Gregory said, adding that the exploit has never been broadcast before.

“They’re the only animal in the world to raise their young during the Antarctic winter. It is the coldest, darkest, windiest place on Earth,” he said further.

Gregory said the significance goes beyond any one species. “We should want to look after penguins, not just because it makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside, but because we need healthy, wild places for so many things,” he said.

Orginially published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2025