Frozen Planet II

South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands: Frozen Planet II

In 2011, the BBC’s Frozen Planet gave viewers an unprecedented insight into life in the Poles. Now, 11 years later, Frozen Planet II returned to capture wildlife dramas playing out across all the world’s coldest regions: our high mountains, frozen deserts, snowbound forests, and ice-cold oceans. The series involved 2188 filming days across three years by small crews working in the most remote corners of our frozen worlds.

Frozen South (Episode 4) takes us to the most hostile ice world of all – Antarctica, an entire continent covered in snow and ice full of surprises. Here hardy animals cling around its coastal fringes. In the Frozen South, two key locations for filming were South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula.

The focus of the South Georgia episodes was king penguins. This spectacular and instantly recognisable species, with its shimmering black and white feathers and golden neck and face markings is widespread on the islands that lie within the polar fount but which remain free from the pack ice. Standing well over 2 ft tall the king penguin is smaller in stature only to the emperor penguin, and like its relative, the king penguin lays a single egg which it holds on its feet during incubation and keeps warm with a specialised fold or skin.

On South Georgia, there are thought to be over 450,000 breeding pairs and huge colonies can be found along the north coast. The largest colony, and one of the sites of filming for the Frozen Planet II series, is at St Andrews Bay where there are thought to be over 150,000 breeding pairs of king penguins. Other significant sites for king penguins which have 10’s of thousands of breeding pairs include Salisbury Plain, Royal Bay and Gold Harbour with numerous other smaller colonies in sheltered bays.

What makes the king penguin unique on South Georgia is that because its breeding cycle takes 14 months from courtship to fledging a chick, there are almost always large numbers of birds ashore at any one time. During the winter months the fluffy brown chicks huddle together in creches to keep warm and wait for their parents to bring them food.

King penguins are known to travel several hundred kilometres to find food, primarily lantern fish, and much of their foraging range falls within a 1.24 million km2 Marine Protected Area (MPA) which was designated by the Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands in 2012. It is one of the largest MPA’s in the world and strict management measures are enforced in order to protect and conserve the rich marine biodiversity in the region.

During the filming of Frozen Planet II, the crew documented adult king penguins making a mile long march from one of their colonies to get to the ocean, a behaviour filmed for the first time. The stunning images captured during the series, and recreated on this series of stamps share some of the cherished moments experienced by the film crew when on location filming for the series.

80p,£1.15,£1.25,£1.40 S/S £3.50

Technical Details:

Photography All images © Fredi Devas except

£1.25 stamp © Gavin Thurston

Designer Andrew Robinson

Printer Cartor Security Printing

Process Stochastic lithography

Perforation 13 ¼ x 13 ½ per 2cms

Stamp size 42 x 28mm

Sheet Layout 4 within pictorial sheetlet

Souvenir Sheet size 94 x 64mm

Release date 13 March 2023

Production Coordination Creative Direction (Worldwide) Ltd

BBC & FROZEN PLANET II Logos © BBC