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Penguins keep warm with fancy

footwork, study says


By Los Angeles Times, adapted by Newsela staff on 01.15.14
Word Count 674

A group of emperor penguins pictured on Antarctica's Ross Island. Photo: Gemma Tarlach/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/
MCT

LOS ANGELES If youre in stop-and-go trafc, youre probably frustrated. If youre a


male penguin balancing an egg on your feet in Antarctica, that trafc jam is probably
keeping you alive.
Scientists studying huddles of emperor penguins in Antarctica have found that waves of
movement travel though the huddled mass of birds. It's similar to the waves moving
through cars stuck on the freeway during rush hour. But penguins move in ways that
maximize how dense the huddle is. This keeps the birds warm as they incubate their eggs.
Emperor penguins are the only large animal species that breeds during the Antarctic
winter. They face freezing winds that blow as fast as 124 miles per hour in an icy
landscape that can be as cold as 58 degrees below zero. So they huddle together against
the harsh elements. In a huddle, their bodies can raise the temperature within two hours to
as high as 98.6 degrees.
At rst glance, the penguins may not appear to move much. The males probably cant run
anywhere in a rush, in any case. The fathers-to-be cover their eggs with feathered skin
known as a brood pouch, with the eggs resting on top of their feet.

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 German scientist. He is the rst
author of the study published in the New Journal of Physics.

They Move If You Watch Long Enough


But watch this huddle of shufing penguins close enough and long enough. You will see
distinct waves of motion emerge through the feathered masses as one penguin takes a
step and the rest follow. Its a way of maintaining order 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.
To understand how these waves begin and behave, the scientists analyzed video footage.
They gathered it from penguin colonies near the French and German research bases on
Antarctica. Just like cars do in a trafc jam, the penguins would move to ll in an empty
space.
But unlike cars in a trafc jam, any penguin can initiate movement, whether theyre in the
front, to the back or to the side. (A car trying to initiate movement from the back would
end up rear-ending the car in front of it.)
A previous penguin study found the waves travel through the huddle at regular intervals of
35 to 55 seconds. The new study found that whenever a penguin moved about 2
centimeters, it triggered one of these traveling waves.

Don't Get Your Feathers Ruffled


The 2-centimeter threshold is no accident: Thats roughly twice the thickness of a penguins
properly uffed layer of insulating feathers.
This suggests that the penguins touch each other only slightly when standing in a
huddle," the study authors wrote. The penguins avoid compressing their feathers. They
want the huddle to stay as dense as possible without losing any of their own warmth.
So if a penguin moves too far away, the penguin next to it moves closer. That's because a
faraway neighbor allows heat to escape. But if a penguin moves too close to another, this
will also cause the neighbor to move. No penguin wants its neighbor to crush its own layer
of feathers.
The waves arent based on rank. Any penguin can start them. Theyre a product of a
simple set of rules governing the space between each penguin and its immediate
neighbors. And yet, these tiny movements can add up to a large-scale, complicated order.
It's similar to the patterns seen in schools of sh, ocks of birds or swarms of ants. These
rules allow the penguins to stay organized, to maximize heat conservation and even to
combine two smaller penguin huddles together.

So although these emperor penguins dont dance like the characters in Happy Feet, they
still perform some pretty fancy footwork.

Quiz
1

All of the following relate to penguins' movement in the huddle EXCEPT:


(A)

they move about every 35 to 55 seconds

(B)

when they move about 2 centimeters, it creates a wave

(C)

only certain penguins in the huddle can start the wave

(D)

they are careful about how close they get to each other

Select the paragraph from the section "Don't Get Your Feathers Rufed" which discusses how
penguins can move together without any sort of leader taking charge.

What happens whenever a penguin makes an approximately 2-centimeter move?

(A)

The penguin gets warmer.

(B)

A wave begins throughout the huddle.

(C)

The penguin disrupts the complicated "dance."

(D)

The feathers of the next penguin get too compressed.

How did the new study help explain information found in the previous study?
(A)

The new study found how often the waves occur.

(B)

The new study found what causes the waves to occur.

(C)

The new study showed that "Happy Feet" is based on truth.

(D)

The new study discovered the movements are just like a trafc jam.

Answer Key
1

All of the following relate to penguins' movement in the huddle EXCEPT:


(A)

they move about every 35 to 55 seconds

(B)

when they move about 2 centimeters, it creates a wave

(C)

only certain penguins in the huddle can start the wave

(D)

they are careful about how close they get to each other

Select the paragraph from the section "Don't Get Your Feathers Rufed" which discusses how
penguins can move together without any sort of leader taking charge.
Paragraph 13:
The waves arent based on rank. Any penguin can start them. Theyre a product
of a simple set of rules governing the space between each penguin and its
immediate neighbors. And yet, these tiny movements can add up to a largescale, complicated order. It's similar to the patterns seen in schools of fish,
flocks of birds or swarms of ants. These rules allow the penguins to stay
organized, to maximize heat conservation and even to combine two smaller
penguin huddles together.

What happens whenever a penguin makes an approximately 2-centimeter move?


(A)

The penguin gets warmer.

(B)

A wave begins throughout the huddle.

(C)

The penguin disrupts the complicated "dance."

(D)

The feathers of the next penguin get too compressed.

How did the new study help explain information found in the previous study?
(A)

The new study found how often the waves occur.

(B)

The new study found what causes the waves to occur.

(C)

The new study showed that "Happy Feet" is based on truth.

(D)

The new study discovered the movements are just like a trafc jam.

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