Hundreds of emperor penguin chicks spotted plunging off a 50-foot cliff in 1st-of-its-kind footage

Emperor penguin chicks have been recorded hurling themselves from a 50-foot (15 meters) cliff in Antarctica for the first time.

The "unprecedented" footage, captured at Atka Bay in Northern Antarctica, shows roughly 700 fledglings braving a sheer drop to embark on their first swim in the ocean below. 

"I had no idea that the chicks would be able to make such a giant leap, and not just survive but happily swim off together into the Southern Ocean," Bertie Gregory, the filmmaker who captured the footage for National Geographic, said in the video. "How's that for your first swimming lesson?"

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Though it has been observed by scientists before, the behavior is unusual. The clip was filmed for National Geographic's miniseries "Secrets of the Penguins."

Typically, Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) rear their young on free floating platforms of sea ice that blow from the ice shelf before slowly melting every year. When Emperor penguin fledglings reach the age of 5 months old, they lose their baby feathers and enter the water from a distance of roughly one or two feet (0.3 to 0.6 m).

But a recent and unprecedented decline in this ice has led scientists to theorize that it could be forcing the penguins to move onto the cliffs. The young penguins, motivated by hunger, must now make the dangerous plunge into the water to feed.