Oprah’s Definition of Luck: Where opportunity and preparation
meet. Every year the Emperor Penguin goes through an incredible
ordeal in preparing for the season of mating opportunity in
Antarctica. With no certainty that their attempt will produce
offspring, the male and female emperor penguins travel between
31 and 75 miles inland at −40 °F to conduct courtship and mate.
The female then lays the egg and carefully transfers it to the
underbelly of the male before returning to the sea to feed for
two months. The male penguin stays behind with the egg for two
months without ever allowing the egg to touch the ice below,
keeping both him and the egg warm by huddling against all of the
other male penguins. The male endures about 115 days of fasting
and the loss of roughly 40 pounds of body weight with no
guarantee that the egg will actually hatch. Around the time that
the egg is supposed to hatch, the mother returns and takes over
care and feeding of the hatchling while the father walks back to
the ocean and feeds