March 15, 2011 06:48 PM | by 
We’ve always wondered what happens below the ice where penguins swim, but that has been recently revealed when Japanese scientists strapped a camera to Adelie penguins’ backs to capture the lives of the penguins from their own point of view.
The footage reveals anything from penguins jumping into the water from ice floes, to swimming under water to capture food and other scenes of life beneath the ice. Surprisingly, these were all captured with an astounding clarity, a spokesman for the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan stated.
“Fundamentally, Adelie penguins spend much of their lives during the summer under the sea ice, so it’s hard for humans to observe them in their natural habitat,” said Hiroyasu Kumagae, an Institute spokesman, adding that it was believed such video footage could be a global first. “So the researchers got the idea of putting cameras on the penguins and getting them to act as ‘cameramen.’”
As part of their latest research mission at the Antarctic, Japanese scientists strapped cameras each 21 millimeters (0.83 inch) wide and 80 millimeters (3.2 inch) long, weighing 33 grams (1.2 ounce) — to the backs of 15 Adelie penguins with special tape.
The cameras were at first set on standby mode and activated once the penguins jumped into the water, filming 90 minutes videos. The cameras were successfully retrived from 14 of the 15 penguins and footage from 10 of the penguins.
Although the video footage is not yet available, as the researchers return to Japan on March 20, some photographs were released by the institute, like the one above.
The cameras, although being attached to the penguins backs did not harm them in any way, said Kumagae. “I think they probably didn’t like having the cameras attached very much, though course I don’t know how a penguin thinks,” he said. “It would have felt that it was carrying something but otherwise there was no stress on its body, and its movements were unlimited.”
I can’t wait to watch some of this footage since I loved watching BBC’s Planet Earth series about places you never would’ve thought existed.