Friday, June 3, 2011

Emperor Penguins Rotate Through Giant Huddle for Warmth

Massive huddles of male Emperor penguins are crucial to keeping warm during Antarctica’s brutal winter while they incubate their eggs. These tightly packed penguins shuffle en mass every 30 to 60 seconds, reordering themselves so every individual gets to cycle through the warm, central part of the huddle.

The trick with these groups is to get the packing just right. If the penguins are too loosely arranged, they won’t stay warm enough, said Daniel Zitterbart, Barbara Wienecke, James Butler and Ben Fabry in a June 1 study in PloS One. But if they’re too tightly jammed together, they can’t rearrange themselves, and animals on the edge of the huddle won’t get a chance to warm up.



Source: Wired Science

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