The miracle of Antarctica is simply this: despite being the coldest,
windiest, and driest continent (The World Factbook) on Earth, it is teeming
with life! According to Wikipedia, the coldest temperature recorded here has
been -89 degrees Centigrade (-129 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 21, 1983. There are no permanent
human settlements, only research stations with manned rotations of six to
twelve months. Yet I have already written about some of the birds that
thrive in this cold environment! Penguins actually birth their young in this
frigid place!
I learned that penguins have extra down feathers as
well as waterproof feather tips to stay warm. Not only that, but they have
special circulation in their feet to keep them from freezing! I had to wear
muck boots and special socks with wicking and heat-trapping fibers to keep my
feet warm, yet the penguins’ featherless feet are walking on the snow all the
time, and they don’t get frostbitten! Amazing creations by an even more amazing
Creator!
What attracts these animals to what appears to us to
be a frozen wintry wasteland? In the onboard lectures I learned that cold water
has more oxygen, and therefore more marine life! At the bottom of the food
chain are abundant krill, which supports animals as small as chinstrap penguins
and as large as whales! Krill! Tiny pink shrimp! It is like the wonder food of
Antarctica! Ascending the food chain, it supports such animal life as fish,
birds, seals, and Orcas. I also learned that Antarctica has two flowering
plants, lichens, two insects, and one land carnivore, a mite.
Yes, Antarctica is truly God’s miracle! Frozen but
full of life, it is home to plants and animals. Birds, delicate and graceful,
fly through the cold air currents of this winter wonderland; and red, orange
and yellow lichens adorn its gray-black mountainous walls. Seals, penguins and
whales swim comfortably through its freezing waters, in stark contrast to the
63 humans on our cruise who took the polar plunge in Paradise Bay on November
26, 2012! I watched this event and each person stayed in the water for half a
second. During that half second we observers were privileged to hear all kinds
of vocalizations and expletives in a dozen languages! Such an experience makes
Antarctica all the more miraculous!
The first picture shows crabeater seals. These
magnificent animals have coats that glisten like gold and silver in the sun! The
black and white bird sitting on the iceberg is a cormorant. Other pictures show
birds of the air. The white bird on the volcanic rock is a snowy sheathbill. The
white bird in flight over the ocean is a snow petrel. Small and totally white,
it is known as the angel of Antarctica. We saw several different species of petrels;
they spend 80% of their lives in the air and they followed our ship. I thought
of them as angels that God sent to watch over me! (Psalm 91:11-12) Another
picture shows reddish-orange lichens growing on the mountain in Paradise Bay.
At the foot of the mountain is a cormorant colony. The people with the blue towels and bare
shoulders are the brave polar plungers of our voyage! They wore their bathing
suits – bikinis, trunks, and speedos – and were rushed back to the ship
immediately!
References
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