Father penguins’ fancy footwork keeps eggs warm, study
says
By Los Angeles Times, adapted by Newsela sta↵
Jan. 15, 2014 5:00 AM
A group of emperor penguins pictured on Antarctica’s Ross Island.
LOS ANGELES—If you’re stuck in traffic, you’re probably mad. But not if you’re a father penguin
in Antarctica. That traffic jam is probably keeping you and your egg alive.
Scientists studied huddles of emperor penguins in Antarctica. They found that waves of movement
travel though the groups of penguins. It’s kind of like how cars stuck on the freeway at rush hour
move in waves. But penguins keep the group as dense as possible on purpose. The thick crowd is
what keeps them warm as they tend their eggs.
Emperor penguins are the only large animal that breeds during the Antarctic winter. Antarctica
can be as cold as 58 degrees below zero. The penguins face freezing winds. The winds blow as fast
as 124 miles per hour. So penguins huddle together to stay warm. In a huddle, their bodies can
raise the temperature. Within two hours it can be as warm as 98.6 degrees.
Movement Hard To See
The fathers-to-be cover their eggs with feathered skin known as a brood pouch. The eggs rest on
top of their feet. At first glance, the penguins may not appear to move much.
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“If you look at a penguin huddle in real time, you hardly see any movement at all—they are all
standing very still,” said Richard Gerum. He is a scientist. He helped write the study.
But watch this huddle of shu✏ing penguins close enough and long enough. You will see clear waves
of motion move through the crowd. One penguin takes a step and the rest follow. It’s a way of
keeping order. That’s something humans have trouble doing, Gerum pointed out.
“When a big human crowd is together, there can be accidents,” Gerum said. “And this is something
that never happens in a penguin huddle.”
Scientists wanted to understand how these waves begin and behave. So the scientists looked at
video. They filmed it at penguin colonies in Antarctica.
Traffic Jam
The penguins would move to fill in an empty space just like in a traffic jam. But any penguin can
start the wave. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the front, to the back or to the side.
An earlier study by other scientists also looked at these waves. They found the waves travel through
the huddle every 35 to 55 seconds. The new study noticed what happened when a penguin moved
more than about 2 centimeters. That is less than one inch, but the movement started one of these
traveling waves.
The 2-centimeter limit is no accident. It’s roughly twice as thick as a penguin’s warm layer of
feathers. That is, if the feathers are flu↵ed out enough.
“This suggests that the penguins touch each other only slightly when standing in a huddle,” the
study said. The penguins avoid pressing their feathers. They want the huddle to stay as dense as
possible. But they don’t want to lose any of their own warmth.
Keeping Close, But Not Too Close
If a penguin moves too far away, the penguin next to it moves closer. A faraway neighbor lets heat
escape. But a penguin could move too close to another. Then the neighbor will also move. No
penguin wants to have its feathers crushed by a neighbor.
Any penguin can start a wave. The waves come from a simple set of rules. The rules control the
space between each penguin and its neighbors. And yet, these tiny movements can add up. They
become a big, complicated order.
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It’s like the patterns seen in schools of fish, flocks of birds or swarms of ants. These rules allow
the penguins to stay organized. They help them stay warm. And they can even join two smaller
penguin huddles together.
So these emperor penguins don’t dance like the penguins in “Happy Feet.” But they still perform
some pretty fancy footwork.
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Quiz
1. All of the following are things the penguins do in the huddle EXCEPT:
(a) move a little bit
(b) crash into each other
(c) take care of their eggs
(d) stay organized in their movement
2. The article says the waves of movement happen about how often?
(a) about every inch
(b) about every 2 centimeters
(c) about every 35 to 55 seconds
(d) about every time the penguins huddle
3. Why do the emperor penguins huddle together?
(a) to keep within 2 centimeters of each other
(b) to stay warm while taking care of their eggs
(c) to barely touch each other with their feathers
(d) to send waves of movement throughout the group
4. Select the paragraph from the beginning of the article that best explains why the emperor
penguins would need to find a way to stay warm.
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