The origin of traveling waves in an emperor penguin huddle

• Published in: New Journal of Physics
• Main Authors: R C Gerum, B Fabry, C Metzner, M Beaulieu, A Ancel, D P Zitterbart
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 2013
• Subjects: Science; Q; Physics; QC1-999; Antarctic; Huddle; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Emperor penguins
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/15/12/125022; https://doaj.org/article/67541e000cbd4c9a904cdff52614931c

Emperor penguins breed during the Antarctic winter and have to endure temperatures as low as −50 °C and wind speeds of up to 200 km h ^−1 . To conserve energy, they form densely packed huddles with a triangular lattice structure. Video recordings from previous studies revealed coordinated movements...