For nearly a year, 50 animatronic cameras disguised as realistic life-size penguins, eggs and rocks infiltrate penguin colonies to record the tough challenges penguins face from the moment they emerge from the sea to raise their chicks and finally return to the water, revealing the intimate, emotional, and sometimes amusing behavior of nature’s most devoted parents bringing up their young against the most extraordinary odds.

Watch as Emperor penguins cross a treacherous frozen sea to reach their breeding grounds. Rockhoppers brave the world’s stormiest seas only to come ashore and face a daunting assault up a 300-foot cliff, hopping most of the way up. Tropical Humboldt penguins negotiate predatory sea lions and vampire bats to reach their desert nests. The hard work for all the penguins finally pays off when their tiny, vulnerable chicks begin to hatch.