Baby penguins dive off 50-foot cliff in 1st-of-its-kind footage from National Geographic

In newly released footage from National Geographic, baby penguins are seen bravely taking a 50-foot dive into the water below. 

In the video, nearly 700 emperor penguin chicks are gathered at the edge of a cliff, glancing over to see the deep water beneath them. 

All it takes is one brave penguin to take the plunge — before the others follow close behind.

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When the first penguin makes the daring dive, the chick is seen popping up to the surface of the water, then swimming away.

The scene at Atka Bay on the Ekström Ice Shelf in Antarctica was captured by drone in January 2024 for the documentary series "Secrets of the Penguins," executive produced by James Cameron, who called the footage "truly incredible" in an Instagram post. 

This rare event has been seen by scientists in the past but has never been captured for television, according to National Geographic.  

Bertie Gregory, an award-winning National Geographic cinematographer who captured the moment, spent two months camping alongside the colony made up of about 10,000 penguins. 

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"The thing that gets my blood racing the most is the idea that if we just keep going round the next corner or the next corner, we might get to see something that no one has ever seen before," Gregory told "Good Morning America."

He spoke further with the outlet about what viewers are seeing unfold before their eyes in the footage.

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"Normally they jump off sea ice, which is 1 or 2 feet high. We were noticing that these trains of chicks were going past to a different place," Gregory said.

"So I launched the drone, flew it over there to see what was going on, and realized they were stacking up on the edge of a huge 50-foot ice cliff," he continued.

Every January, emperor penguin chicks travel to the ocean for their first swim. 

For these baby chicks, their path to the water was blocked by a 50-foot drop. 

"One by one they started to jump off this 50-foot ice cliff to take their first swim in the Southern Ocean," Gregory said. 

"They were falling and there were big chunks of ice floating in the water beneath them, so it’s like falling onto a chunk of concrete," Gregory said. 

"But, to my amazement, they were not just surviving, but popping up and going, ‘I can swim!’ This is their first swim ever, the first swim of their lives."

"Secrets of the Penguins" will premiere on Earth Day 2025 on National Geographic and Disney+. 

Watch the breathtaking clip below. 

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