蜜芽传媒

Time is running out for hungry penguin chicks Sammy and Tom, whose parents Bluey and Sheila must swim further and further out to sea in a desperate attempt to find fish.

Ranger Elizabeth Lundahl-Hegedus keeps watch over the undernourished chicks, worried they won't survive until their parents return to feed them, while ranger John Evans patrols the colony, checking for offshore 'baitballs' of fish, a sign that food is nearby and the parents will soon return.

In the burrow next door to Sammy and Tom, penguin parents Frank and Flora struggle to feed their boisterous teenagers, Butch and Bruiser. Scientists monitoring Phillip Island's penguins fit a satellite tracking device to Frank's back, and are surprised to find that the plucky little penguin covers 240 kilometres in four days as the fish move further afield.

Meanwhile, field researcher Leanne Renwick checks micro-chipped penguins to monitor the health of the colony and soon realises something is wrong.

As the weather heats up, chicks are dying of starvation throughout Penguin Island as their parents fail to return home and the harsh reality of nature is revealed.