Secrets of the Penguins

Far beyond ice and snow...

...in strange and distant lands,

a few intrepid penguins...

...choose to live...

....where we might think they don't belong.

-It just feels like such a ridiculous place to be looking

for a penguin.

Four different species of banded penguins.

Okay, here's good, here's good.

Two years uncovering their secrets...

-No way. They're working as a team.

...Reveals these penguins might be the smartest

of them all.

-That's one of the best things I've ever seen in nature.

They're problem solvers...

...architects...

...teachers.

-Oh, this is super cute. A little one trying to learn.

And as their world collides with ours,

they take their intelligence to a whole new level.

This mother has lessons to share.

Life hacks to pass to the next generation,

how to live in the tropics.

She's a Galápagos penguin,

part of the banded penguin family.

Named for the stripe on their chest.

They use their unique intelligence to live in a

mysterious world on the equator.

She's one of just 2,000 Galápagos penguins,

the rarest penguins in the world,

and at just 20 inches tall, among the smallest.

Her neighbors are odd but tolerant.

And the 80-degree temperature?

Not a problem.

Her featherless pink patches release heat.

Her issue in this warming climate...

...is getting enough food.

-One of the biggest challenges these penguins have got

is that the currents are really unpredictable,

so they've got to work really, really hard to find fish.

National Geographic explorer

and cinematographer Bertie Gregory has heard

they've devised hunting techniques not

seen anywhere else.

It is so interesting.

And this penguin is spending so much of her time

swimming along, looking round above her head,

she's totally watching the pelicans,

and as soon as she sees a pelican go down,

she zooms over.

Let's see what's going on here.

This pelican's massive mouth's full of water and fish,

it's got to push that water out of its mouth and

hold onto the fish,

and that's the point at which they're vulnerable.

Penguin's going for it.

No way, stealing fish right out the beak of the pelican.

And it's not just the mother who

knows this trick.

The penguins have totally got

this figured out, you know,

a way to work smarter, not harder.

What's magic is seeing lots of young penguins in

with the older penguins.

They can't hatch out their eggs knowing how to do this,

they must have to learn it by watching the older penguins.

And that's what the mother's four-month-old son

has been doing.

Oh, this is super cute,

he's trying to learn.

This pelican has taken off,

oh, it's gonna dive right in front of it.

He's like, "I don't know what to do yet."

This little penguin has got a lot of learning to do.

Well, it looks like he's full of attitude,

so I reckon he's got it in him.

But right now, his mother has another priority...

...she's heard something.

Just off the coast...

...anchovies....

...in the thousands.

As oceans get warmer,

an increasingly rare event.

The pair can't afford to miss it.

Bertie wants to see if the Galápagos penguins

can make the most of the feast that's arrived.

We can see up ahead.

We got a bunch of boobies and frigates,

a bunch of birds,

and that's always a good sign that this fish underwater.

Okay, here's good, here's good.

Mom doesn't get this opportunity very often.

Her boy has never seen so many fish.

Little fish are tricky to catch underwater,

and there's no time to waste because the penguin's

flying neighbors have the advantage.

It's just chaos,

diving birds crashing in from above,

and the two penguins look completely overwhelmed.

They need backup.

So, Mom calls out...

...for help.

New evidence suggests each sound has a specific meaning,

and when penguins spot fish,

the complexity of their call changes,

making it easier for others to pinpoint their location.

Team assembled.

They deploy a coordinated form of hunting,

usually only seen in highly intelligent mammals,

like dolphins.

One unit dives, blocking the bottom,

driving the fish upwards.

Others swim near the surface,

herding them into a dense bait ball.

The fish are disoriented and panic,

making them easy to pick off.

When there was just two penguins,

they were having to work really hard to catch fish,

but the moment the whole gang arrived and there were

20, 30 penguins, suddenly,

they were having a much easier time.

The banded penguins are the only ones

known to hunt this way.

They catch almost twice as much food than when hunting

on their own.

The calorie equivalent of four pizzas each.

I've read about this,

but to actually see it play out underwater right there.

The way they heard the ball together is so clever.

But by corralling the fish,

they've made it even easier for their rivals.

Time for phase two.

As part of the ball breaks off,

the penguins see an opportunity.

The bait ball is really shifting now,

it's rushing for shallow water,

heading into the mouth of the mangrove,

the penguins are right behind him.

They herd the fish into a channel

just ten inches deep,

where they have the advantage.

It's a crash course in outsmarting the competition.

It's just amazing to see them use

the lava landscape,

has lots of big cracks that the penguins can drive

fish into and single them out.

Clever bunch of little penguins.

I've seen penguins do some pretty amazing things,

but that was definitely the top.

By using their intelligence and passing life

lessons down to the next generation,

Galápagos penguins are holding on in

a changing environment.

The ancestors of these banded penguins...

...followed currents to a different continent.

They're African penguins,

four inches bigger and a lot noisier than

their Galápagos cousins.

But they're also the most endangered.

Those that remain are more reliant on their smarts

than ever before.

This gang, technically called a waddle,

grew up together on this beach.

He meant to do that.

And that.

At five, they're still young adults,

but they already have responsibilities.

Some live right here on the beachfront,

digging nests to keep cool in the South African sun.

But with less than half an acre of beach,

it gets overcrowded.

So, the really clever ones choose a place with

a little more style.

Simonstown, a leafy suburb of Cape Town.

40 years ago,

penguins saw its potential as a safe haven,

now 2,000 live here.

This guy's rewired his natural instincts for the city.

Like his Galápagos cousins,

he's smart enough to make his neighbors

work for him.