Come breeding time, around 10 million Adélie penguins swarm the Antarctic shoreline. They ensconce themselves along the rocky beaches and low cliffs like a civilisation of misshapen dominoes that topple over repeatedly as they waddle and hop across the landscape, taking in good humour the cruel hand of evolution.

Watching these lardy birds scale the violent cliffs as the tides smash them off into the swell teaches humanity a thing or two about perseverance.

An Adélie’s chief concern is nest-building.