The secret to keeping the penguin's warm

A new video released by scientists shows that Antarctic emperor penguins gather in groups and create a wave to help them keep warm in the icy polar weather.

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When the outdoor temperature drops to - 46 degrees Celsius, standing next to a warm body can help creatures feel less priceless.

Previous studies have noted that Antarctic emperor penguins often huddle together to keep warm . However, what we didn't realize was that they always created a " wave " when new penguins joined the crowd and that " wave " helped to crowd the crowd.

Physicist Daniel Zitterbart of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany) has recorded high-resolution images over time to a crowd of emperor penguins near the Neumayer Antarctic Research Station. This video is then accelerated to see what is going on.

According to scientists, the secret of the emperor penguin's warmth is to huddle into a crowd and create a wave of mass. (Photo: LiveScience)

When the penguins move forward, often from behind, they take small steps to help the crowd remain a closely connected mass. Zitterbart and his colleagues point out that it is important that the crowd is constantly reorganized to give each penguin the opportunity to spend time inside the block compared to the time spent in the suburbs. vi .

" Waves " are created with small steps, estimated at only 5 - 10cm. The researchers took the nail, these small steps serve three purposes: First, to keep the block as dense as possible; The second helps to transmit the movement of the entire block; and thirdly, lead to reorganization of blocks over time. Smaller individual groups can merge into larger clusters.

All emperor penguins in this video are male, and most of them carry an egg on their feet. The female birds have not returned to the territory yet.