Page 79 - Devotion Among Animals Revealing the Work of God

Selfless Devotion of Creatures Within the Family

After a most difficult 60 days, the penguins' eggs hatch. The
males, even after 60 days of resisting the cold without any food, are
still preoccupied with their young rather than themselves. The new
arrivals need nourishment. From their gullets, the male penguins

produce a milky secretion which they feed to their offspring. At this
critical moment, the females return. They call for their mates, who
return their call. The pairs recognize one another by their voices dur-
ing the mating ritual. Despite their three-month separation, they rec-
ognize each other immediately, and their ability to do so is a God-
given gift.
The females have full crops and regurgitate in front of the
chicks, which then eat their first real meal. You might expect the
male, upon the female's return, to leave its offspring to mind its own
business, but not so: he looks after the chick for another ten days,
keeping it warm on his feet. Only then does he return to the sea to
find his first meal in four months.
After about three to four weeks at sea, he returns to take over
the responsibility of looking after the young from the female, who
then sets off to feed in the ocean again.
In the first stages of their lives, baby penguins cannot generate

their own body heat. If left alone, they die within minutes. This is
why the male and female penguin take turns feeding their offspring
and protecting it from the cold, not hesitating to endanger their own
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lives in this cause.
God directs male and female penguins to cooperate in protect-
ing their eggs and young under the worst conditions, sharing the
work at the risk of death. They never desert their young at any cost,
even for a single moment. Under those conditions, a creature devoid
of reason could be expected to soon abandon its egg in order to find
for itself. But thanks to the feeling of protection that God inspires in
them, penguins guard the egg not for hours or days, but for months.

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