--- title: Planet Earth II Clip: Penguins Survive on Zavodovski Island description: Chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island risk their lives just to secure food in this clip from BBC America's "Planet Earth II." canonical: https://time.com/4660247/planet-earth-ii-clip-penguins/ author: Kenneth Bachor article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-07T16:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:08:27.937Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Watch Courageous Penguins Cliff-Dive in Planet Earth II Clip og:description: Chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island risk their lives just to eat every day og:url: https://time.com/4660247/planet-earth-ii-clip-penguins/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb08d2dcd60ed9be8/6988b9238e060115804691a5/penguins-facebook.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1537 og:image:height: 807 og:image:alt: penguins-facebook og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Courageous Penguins Cliff-Dive in Planet Earth II Clip twitter:description: Chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island risk their lives just to eat every day twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb08d2dcd60ed9be8/6988b9238e060115804691a5/penguins-facebook.jpg?branch=production ---  # Watch These Courageous Penguins Cliff-Dive for Food in an Exclusive Clip From _Planet Earth II_ by [Kenneth Bachor](https://time.com/author/kenneth-bachor/) ## Kenneth Bachor Feb 7, 2017 4:00 PM UTC  BBC America by [Kenneth Bachor](https://time.com/author/kenneth-bachor/) ## Kenneth Bachor Feb 7, 2017 4:00 PM UTC The upcoming BBC America series [_Planet Earth II_](http://time.com/4562316/planet-earth-snakes-iguana/) offers audiences glimpses of some pretty remote places. One of them is Zavodovski Island, a tiny island in the Southern Ocean that is uninhabited by humans but home to an abundance of chinstrap penguins. So many, in fact, that they constitute one of the largest penguin colonies in the world. As explained by [Sir David Attenborough](http://time.com/4534688/zoos-peepholes-gorillas-david-attenborough/), who returns from the original series to narrate its follow-up, the island “is not only surrounded by the stormiest of seas, it is itself an active volcano. It’s the last place on earth you’d choose to live—unless you’re a chinstrap penguin.” As seen in the exclusive clip above, adult chinstrap penguins take turns gathering food and guarding their chicks, as the survival of their young is dependent on the food they manage to bring back. In order to get the food, however, the penguins must brave the treacherous waters and 30-foot cliffs that surround the island, risking death to continue the survival of the species. Attenborough describes filming on the island as “the most intrepid shoot of the series.” Producer Elizabeth White explained to [BBC America](http://www.bbcapr.com/epk/planet-earth-ii/stories-from-location.php) just how intrepid it was. “The whole trip took more than a year of planning. We had to be entirely self-sufficient as there’s nobody down there to rescue you if it all goes wrong. It was the shoot I was most excited by, and absolutely the most terrified by.” _Planet Earth II_ premieres on Feb. 18 at 9 p.m. ET, simulcasting across BBC America, AMC and SundanceTV. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4660247/planet-earth-ii-clip-penguins/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4660247/planet-earth-ii-clip-penguins/"},"headline":"Watch These Courageous Penguins Cliff-Dive for Food in an Exclusive Clip From Planet Earth II","datePublished":"2017-02-07T16:00:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:08:27.937Z","description":"For these penguins, getting a meal is a life-or-death endeavor","url":"https://time.com/4660247/planet-earth-ii-clip-penguins/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb08d2dcd60ed9be8/6988b9238e060115804691a5/penguins-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kenneth Bachor","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kenneth-bachor/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb08d2dcd60ed9be8/6988b9238e060115804691a5/penguins-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"penguins-facebook","caption":"Planet Earth II","creditText":"BBC America","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4660247/planet-earth-ii-clip-penguins/","name":"Watch These Courageous Penguins Cliff-Dive for Food in an Exclusive Clip From Planet Earth II"}}]}] ```