The early lives of Emperor penguins as they venture into the sea has been recorded for the first time. Scientists say the childhood of the chicks, the largest species of penguins, is short. They hatch into one of Earth's most inhospitable places, the frozen world of Antarctica, and their childhood lasts only about five months, when their formerly doting parents leave the fledglings to fend for themselves. Until now the behaviour of the largest species of penguins in the critical early months when they leave their birth colony and first learn how to swim, dive, and find food was unknown. But, using tags fixed to healthy chicks that scientists assumed had the greatest survival chances, new light has been shed on their formative years.