Emperor Penguins Adapting To Climate Change

Climate change has made a profound impact on thousands of the plants and animal species. The threat triggered by the rapidly changing climate continues to reveal itself in new ways.  But, the Penguin Post has learned that a new study by the British Antarctic Survey scientists, which was based on satellite observations of four emperor penguins, shows a ray of hope for the sea bird as they seem to be adapting themselves to the changing environment.

“This is a new breeding behavior we’re witnessing here,” said Peter Fretwell, a geographer with the British Antarctic Survey and lead study author. “This has totally taken us by surprise. We didn’t know they could go and breed up on the ice shelves,” Fretwell said.

The current study highlights the extraordinary change in the behavior of the emperor penguins that breed during the harsh Antarctic winter when the emperor penguins breed.  

The satellite observation reveals that the penguin colonies drifted from their traditional breeding grounds to much thicker floating ice shelves that surround the continent. This change in the breeding behavior occurred when the sea ice formed later than usual.

Scientists at the Australian Antarctic Division and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego in California also worked on the current study.

Fretwell explains that these birds breed on sea ice as this gives them an easy access to waters where they can forage for food. One such satellite observation of the penguins during 2008, 2009 and 2010 revealed that the annual sea ice was thick enough to maintain a colony of penguins. But in 2011 and 2012, it was surprising to see that sea ice did not form even a month after the breeding season started. At this point of tome the birds were seen going to the nearby floating ice shelf to raise their chicks.

“What’s particularly surprising is that climbing up the sides of a floating ice shelf – which at this site can be up to 30 metres high – is a very difficult manoeuvre for emperor penguins. Whilst they are very agile swimmers they have often been thought of as clumsy out of the water,” he continues to say.

Since these birds heavily depend on sea ice for breeding purpose, they were listed as ‘near threatened’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “red list” of endangered species.

This latest discovery may help scientists to frame the future of these scientists. The team plan on finding if  other species are also adapting themselves to the changing environment conditions.

 

Penguin Huddle More Like Penguin Gridlock

To stay warm and conserve energy during the breeding season emperor penguins form huddles, with thousands of birds packing in close together. Now the Penguin Post has learned that new research describes the movement more like “waves in a traffic jam.”

Emperor penguins, the largest of all the penguin species, have a unique pattern during the breeding season. During this time, the males incubate the eggs, tucking them in an abdominal pouch just above their feet. In order to keep warm and conserve energy during the breeding season emperor penguins form huddles, with thousands of birds packing in close together.  While balancing an on egg on its feet, a male bird is unable to move fast. However, the bird can take small, careful steps. The problem is that just one step can set off a wave of motion that passes through the huddle. This wave moves like cars in a traffic jam, according to a new study.The study was conducted by Daniel Zitterbart of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany. Their findings have been published in the New Journal of Physics. According to the study, every 30 to 60 seconds, emperor penguins in a huddle take small steps that travel through the group like a wave. The researchers described this as penguins acting like cars in a traffic jam. However, instead of only moving forward, each bird could move in one of six directions. When a bird takes a single step that motion results in a cascade of birds each taking a step, with a small time lag between one bird’s action and the next birds.

Penguin Huddle

 

Very Cool Heat Map Of Penguins

As if their home in Antarctica weren’t cold enough, emperor penguins actually allow their exteriors to drop at least 7°F below their surroundings. The change helps the penguins stay warm, a recent paper showed. When the outer layer of feathers radiates heat to the sky, it becomes colder than its immediate environment, so heat flows back in. The cycle keeps the temperature underneath the plumage constant—and the penguin alive.  Check out this very cool looking heat map of Emperor Penguins.

Penguin Propulsion

The Penguin Post has learned that scientists have created a highly efficient and extremely maneuverable propulsion system by mimicking the shoulder of an Emperor penguin. The mechanism, which features an innovative spherical joint with three actuated degrees of freedom, could lead to new types of propellers that have directional thrusting capability.

Caltech’s Flavio Noca was inspired to design the device after watching the IMAX movie Antarctica, which showed how Emperor penguins can accelerate underwater from 0 to 7 meters/second in less than a second. Noca will be demonstrating the penguin-inspired propulsion system next week at the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Pittsburgh.

Based on a penguin’s shoulder-and-wing system, the mechanism features a spherical joint that enables three degrees of freedom and a fixed center of rotation. “Unlike an animal shoulder joint, however, this spherical joint enables unlimited rotational range about the main shaft axis like a propeller,” Noca explained.

To achieve this, the researchers needed to overcome the technical challenges of spherical joints, such as the lack of rigidity and the inability to generate high torques. The researchers cleared these hurdles by using a “parallel robotic architecture,” which Noca says enables rigidity as well as high actuation frequencies and amplitudes.

“Because the motors are fixed, inertial forces are lower than for a serial robotic mechanism, such as a multi-joint arm,” explains Noca. “The resulting spherical parallel mechanism with coaxial shafts was designed and manufactured with these specifications: a fixed center of rotation (spherical joint), a working frequency of ~2.5 Hz under charge, an unlimited rotation about the main axis, and an arbitrary motion within a cone of /- 60 degrees.

Aside from the technological perspective, the manner in which penguins swim is still poorly understood, according to Noca. “By accurately reproducing an actual penguin wing movement, we hope to shed light on the swimming mysteries of these underwater rockets,” he said.

Noodles and Albie (A Penguin Picture Book)

The soon to be released Noodles & Albie is a colorful and fun penguin picture book.  Story by Eric Bennett and illustrations by Liz Bannish.  It is the tale of how a young penguin (Noodles) overcomes his fears and makes, loses and finds again an unlikely new friend (Albie), and does a lot of growing up the process.

Noodles & Albie was conceived and evolved over time by Penguin Place founder and long time lover of all things penguin Eric Bennett as a bedtime story for his young daughters.  The story was originally called The Fish & The Penguin, and was scribbled down a couple of times, and over time some  illustrations were made by Eric and his kids, but it was mostly told and re-told from memory and over the years with each re-telling the story grew and the characters evolved.

This past January, Eric was “volunteered” by his youngest daughter Rose to read a story to her kindergarten class, so Eric decided rather than read something the kids already knew, he’d finally put The Fish & The Penguin story to paper and read his original penguin tale to Rose’s class.  In writing it down Eric fleshed out the main characters a bit more giving them the names Noodles and Albie, and added a few supporting underwater players.  The origin of the title names were that Noodles has been Eric’s nickname since he was a kid (think long curly ringlets of 1970’s hair), and Albie is the the nickname of Eric’s friend Melissa who he plays ball with.  Eric also decided on settling on those names so as not to upset either of his daughters, and also to give the characters a bit more personality than the generic Fish & Penguin.  Besides, it seemed from the get-go that the names Noodles & Albie fit the characters perfectly.

To Eric’s surprise and delight the reading of Noodles and Albie to Ms. Bussone’s kindergarten class at Bridge St. School was met with much fanfare and acclaim, or as much acclaim (twenty 6 years old kids giving a standing ovation) as one can get from a kindergarten class.  Even Ms. Bussone wanted to know the origin of this “wonderful book”.   A small Noodles & Albie buzz was now in the air around the lower grades with Eric getting requests for print copies of the story from some of the children and parents at Bridge St. School.  A short time later Noodles & Albie was brought to the attention of local Northampton artist Elizabeth Bannish who was intrigued by the charming narrative and colorful characters of the story, so naturally Eric inquired if she would be interested in illustrating the story.  To his surprise Liz said yes, and the two began to collaborate on the fun side project of bringing the Noodles, Albie and their world to life.  Over the next weeks and months Liz’s illustrations went from black and white storyboard sketches, to beautiful, unique and vivid color paintings.  Capturing the essence of the story and her interesting take on the characters that inhabit it.

Not to give too much away but the story is about Noodles, a young penguin who is afraid to go in the water, but of course being a penguin he must learn how to swim,  especially before the winter and six months of Antarctic darkness sets in.

On the last day of summer (and daylight), his parents finally convince Noodles to take the plunge.  After a few moments of confusion and anxiety Noodles realizes that swimming is easy and fun.  But, in his excitement Noodles gets separated from his friends and soon is lost.  He knows he has to get back home before the sun sets for the Antarctic (six months) winter or else he’ll never find his way home, and so his odyssey begins.  He asks various sea creatures for directions, but none of them know where the penguin colony is.  Alone and lost, Noodles is desolate.  A small fish named Albie hears his crying and offers to help. It’s a race against time to get back to the penguin colony before the sun sets.  The fun adventures and intrigue that happens to the pair along the way is what Noodles & Albie is all about.Noodles & Albie should be available as an e-book and print version sometime in the Winter of 2014

How Penguins Forgot How To Fly

Penguins can move underwater with the speed of a swallow or swift, but cannot fly even as far as a chicken. The Penguin Post asks how did a bird that in some cases shuffles 40 miles to its breeding grounds on unsuitable flippers end up losing its ability to fly there quickly?

A team of researchers from the UK, US, Canada and China have put forward a theory of how the penguin lost its ability to fly, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today.

Professor John Speakman, Chair of Zoology at the University of Aberdeen, was part of the international team and carried out the number-crunching that showed how, over time, penguins found it more advantageous to have a wing suited to swimming than flying.

He said: “Wings that have to do two jobs, flying and diving, can’t be good at both. As a wing evolves to be better at diving it gets worse at flying, until the energy demands of flight become so great that eventually the penguin gives up flying altogether.”

Emperor Penguins waddle when they walk but you should see them swim.

The albatross is an example of a long, light wing well-adapted for flying, while a short wing with heavy bones like a penguin’s is more suited to swimming. “They are complete opposites,” Prof Speakman said.

As its wing evolved, the penguin would have become a better diver and a worse flyer, until one day the prospect of launching itself into the air with difficulty no longer appealed.

To test the theory the team studied auks, a family of seabirds very similar to penguins, that catch fish below the water’s surface but which still have the ability to fly. Using the doubly-labelled water method, Speakman was able to work out how much CO₂ the birds produced as they swam, flew, or sat about. From this he could extrapolate how much energy these activities needed.

Dive-fishing auks are black and white like penguins, but unlike penguins they can get airborne.

He explained: “We found auks have exceptional diving abilities, almost as good as a penguin, but their flight costs are enormous – the highest ever measured. This matched the theory exactly.”

In their capacity to fly and dive they were “on the cusp” of becoming like penguins, he said. In fact the Great Auk, a species of auk hunted to extinction in the 19th century, had already lost the ability to fly, in keeping with the theory.

Had there ever been a flying penguin? “The fossil record doesn’t actually contain a flying penguin,” he said. “The first one we have was already flightless, and that was about 60 million years ago.”

So while it seems extremely maladaptive to see emperor penguins penguins wobbling miles across the ice to their rookeries, it stems from a trade-off far back in the evolutionary chain that saw their wings adapt to their increasingly aquatic environment and lose the ability to fly.

“When you see them swimming underwater,” Speakman said, “you truly get a sense of what they gained in return.”

Seaworld’s Antarctica: Empire Of The Penguins

As far as the Penguin Post is concerned the hottest new penguin attraction in the world will melt your penguin loving heart, but the chilly Antarctic conditions are perfect for the cutest penguins this side of the South Pole.

SeaWorld’s Antarctica: Empire Of The Penguin is home to 250 of the birds and it’s the closest that most of us will ever get to experiencing the South Pole.

This exciting, clever attraction takes you on a -1°C journey through a frozen wilderness to join the colony of penguins which you can watch as they waddle and glide on snow and dive and soar through the water. The brilliant ride, which opened on Friday, begins with a choice — taking one of the “wild” or “mild” saucer-shaped vehicles which seat eight people. You get the same experience in both — the wild just spins around faster and rocks — so I’d go for the shorter queue.

The innovative trackless cars shimmy along one of 32 paths through 50ft glaciers and frozen waterfalls, with video of Antarctica seen through the eyes of an animated penguin called Puck.

It gets colder and colder on the three-minute-50-second journey to the penguins, all to a musical score performed by a 65-piece orchestra.

And then your vehicle turns you round to see the stars of this magnificent show.

Four penguin species — king, Adelie, rockhopper and Puck’s gentoo — live in this state-of-the-art empire which mirrors their real home. Ten tons of snow fall on the birds daily and the light cycle follows that in the southern hemisphere, so it changes from sunrise to sunset and springtime light to wintertime dark. Once you’ve seen the penguins, heard them and been splashed by them, you can watch them underwater in a 16ft-deep pool from a three-level viewing area with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Antarctica: Empire Of The Penguin superbly combines the thrill factor of a ride with teaching families about penguins and their habitats. Three years in the making, it is the brainchild of creative director Brian Morrow.

At the launch he told me: “It is overwhelming to see the result, it has exceeded all expectations.

“This is Antarctica at its best and the attraction is so full of wonder and emotion, you actually come away believing you’ve been to that frozen world. Everyone loves penguins and people of all ages can take this big adventure. That’s why we created two ride experiences, so no one is excluded.”

Simon Veness, author of Brit Guide To Orlando, told me: “It’s freaky good, with the accent on freaky. The effect of entering Antarctica is truly surreal and, because the ride vehicles have no tracks, you have no idea where you are going. It’s unique and the exit to the penguins is stunning and magnificent.”

 

Seaworld’s Empire of The Penguin Ride Creator

Brian Marrow is obsessed with icebergs, wind patterns and cold-weather penguins. All for good reason, too. For the past three years, he’s been part of the creative team that conjured up SeaWorld Orlando’s latest attraction, Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin, which opened last week.

As the senior director of attraction development and design at SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, it’s his job to make this new “realm” feel like a tantalizing tundra, from the shimmering faux glaciers to the 2,500 handblown icicles made of Pyrex.

“We wanted to take guests somewhere that they might not go on their own,” he said. “And there is no greater adventure than a journey to the bottom of our planet.”

It’s an elaborate adventure, indeed, that includes a first-of-its-kind family thrill ride, an expansive penguin habitat, underwater viewing area, gift shop and restaurant. With a footprint of nearly 4-acres, it is the largest expansion project in the park’s history.

First up: the newfangled high-tech ride. But before hopping aboard, guests shuffle through rooms where the temperature gradually drops, preparing them for extreme temps at the end of the ride. Meanwhile, an animated pre-show introduces the star, a baby penguin named Puck. Then, guests choose their level of adventure: “wild” or “mild. “

“The ride had a sensation of gliding over ice just as a penguin would,” said Lake Mary, Fla., resident Susie Guyers, who experienced the ride at a preview event. “We didn’t know which direction was next; it wasn’t a set path.” That’s all thanks to a trackless system, which allowed engineers to create 32 different ride scenarios.

Even cooler, though, is what comes next. The ride exits into a 30-degree penguin palace with varied levels of fake rocks, a swimming area and a 2-foot wall that serves as the only barrier between guests and birds. The 6,125-square-foot habitat is home to 245 Gentoo, Rockhopper, Adélie and King penguins, which were the main attraction for Guyer.

“We were so close we could have gotten splashed,” she said. “The penguins were really active; they were diving up out of the water and back in. It truly felt like we were no longer in Florida.”

What’s Brown And Red and Looks Like A Penguin?

Did you know that penguins didn’t always boast tuxedo-like black-and-white markings, according to a new study. The discovery of the first ancient penguin fossil with evidence of feathers reveals the aquatic birds were not black and white but were once reddish-brown and gray.

The 36 million-year-old fossil represents one of the largest ancient penguins ever found. The bird would have been 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, and probably weighed twice as much as modern Emperor penguins, which average about 66 pounds (30 kilograms). Its long, grooved beak suggests that, like modern penguins, it hunted by diving for fish. Imprints of feathers in the rock around the bones could help researchers understand how modern penguin feathers evolved, said Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at The University of Texas at Austin and a co-author of the paper.

The fossil, a new species named Inkayacu paracasensis (or “Water King”), was discovered in the Reserva Nacional de Paracas, a desert preserve on the coast of Peru. Researchers in the field noticed evidence of scaly skin on the fossil foot, prompting suspicion that more evidence of soft tissue might have been preserved. When Clarke examined the specimen in the lab, those suspicions proved true.

“I turned over a flake of rock right near one of the wing elements, and right there was our first evidence of feathering,” she told LiveScience. To find out what color those feathers might have been, the researchers examined the shape of the penguin’s melanosomes. These tiny structures resembling pockets contain pigment cells that help give bird feathers their color. The analysis showed that the ancient feathers were likely reddish-brown and gray.

“The plumage of these animals was in a very different palette of what we see in living penguins today,” Clarke said. While comparing the ancient penguin’s melanosomes to modern birds, the researchers noticed another oddity: Modern penguin melanosomes are different from those of other modern birds. They’re broader and clustered in patterns not seen in other species.

Stranger still, the ancient penguin’s melanosomes didn’t match modern penguins’ and instead looked like the melanosomes of other modern birds. The feathers themselves were shaped and stacked like those of modern penguins, suggesting that the ancient penguin had already evolved to swim. The broad melanosomes, however, must have evolved later, perhaps as a way to make feathers more resistant to the wear and tear of swimming underwater, the researchers wrote in the Sept. 20 online edition of the journal Science. Black-and-white coloring would have evolved later, as camouflage from predators like seals that weren’t yet around when the newly discovered penguin species roamed the seas.

“It’s a quite interesting find, because not only the feather preservation, but also because they found a nearly complete skeleton,” said Gerald Mayr, a paleornithologist at the Senckenberg Museum of National History in Germany, who was not involved in the study. However, Mayr said, the theory that physical forces acted on penguin feathers to change the evolution of melanosomes is contradicted by the fact that half of modern penguin feathers are white and contain no melanosomes, despite being subject to the same hydrodynamic forces as melanosome-rich black feathers.

“The main question certainly is, if not due to hydrodynamic forces, why do penguins have such strange melanosomes?” Mayr said. The new fossil is the first chance researchers have had to ask such questions about how penguin feathers evolved to ‘fly’ not in the air, but underwater, Clarke said. “It’s a pretty major transition to go from aerial flight to aquatic flight, to flying in a medium that’s around 800 times denser than air,” Clarke said, adding: “I think there will be more to the story of this penguin’s feathering.”

Do Penguins Use Daylight Saving Time?

Do penguins adhere to daylight savings time?  Do penguins even care?  Antarctica where two major penguins species reside (Emperor and Adlie) sits on every line of longitude, due to the South Pole being situated near the middle of the continent. Theoretically Antarctica would be located in all time zones, however areas south of the Antarctic Circle experience extreme day-night cycles near the times of the June and December solstices, making it difficult to determine which time zone would be appropriate. For practical purposes time zones are usually based on territorial claims, however many stations use the time of the country they are owned by or the time zone of their supply base (e.g. McMurdo Station and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station use New Zealand time due to their main supply base being Christchurch, New Zealand).Many areas have no time zone since nothing is decided and there are not even any temporary settlements that have any clocks. They are simply labeled with UTC time.  With almost six months of daylight and six months of darkness in most of Antarctica we must conclude that daylight savings time in the southern continent does not make any sense, so there’s no “fall back, spring ahead” in Antarctica, and since penguins can’t tell time, we must conclude the Antarctic time zone phenomenon moot. At least for penguins.

Antarctic Time Zone Map