The protective hand of God is clearly displayed in the unique parenting habits of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. The female emperor penguin lays one egg on bare ice and then jumps into the water, apparently not giving her egg another thought for the next two months. It is up to the male penguin to keep the egg warm during this two-month period by continuously standing over it and holding the egg between his feet and stomach. He does this without eating during the worst part of the Antarctic winter.
When the chick hatches, the male feeds it with a milky substance from its throat. Eventually the female returns, fattened from eating, and takes over the care of her baby. The father then goes to sea for about three weeks before returning with food for his family. Does this “shared parenthood” happen by chance? It is obvious that every penguin chick would have died long ago if its parents had not been designed to do things correctly from the start.
From A Closer Look at the Evidence by Kleiss, May 9.
