Journeys with Emperors
Journeys with Emperors is a 2023 book by marine scientist Gerald Kooyman and co-author Jim Mastro. It blends memoir and science as Kooyman recounts decades of studying emperor penguins in Antarctica’s Ross Sea, especially at Cape Washington. The work shows the challenges of field research in one of the world’s harshest environments, where researchers spend months on sea ice and navigate treacherous, crevassed glaciers to reach study sites. Kooyman is known for using tracking devices and underwater observation to learn how penguins live.
A key idea in the book is that emperor penguins are remarkable divers, often plunging to depths beyond 500 meters. The narrative follows four essential journeys in the penguins’ yearly cycle: the commuter journey for feeding during chick rearing; the fledging journey when young penguins first explore away from the colony; the pre-molt journey to stock up for the demanding molt; and the post-molt journey back to breeding sites. The author also explains that these penguins don’t make long marches to reach breeding grounds—their colonies are located near open water kept accessible by strong katabatic winds.
The book interweaves Kooyman’s personal experiences with straightforward scientific findings, and it includes photographs, diagrams, and links to video footage. It also touches on predators and the broader environmental issue of climate change, highlighting how melting sea ice threatens emperor penguins.
Overall, Journeys with Emperors offers a clear, engaging look at the natural history of emperor penguins, the human effort to study them, and the urgent conservation questions facing Antarctica’s icy world.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 09:55 (CET).