Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

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Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, 6(6), p. e20260, 2011

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020260

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Coordinated Movements Prevent Jamming in an Emperor Penguin Huddle

Journal article published in 2011 by Daniel P. Zitterbart, Barbara Wienecke, James P. Butler, Ben Fabry ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

For Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri), huddling is the key to survival during the Antarctic winter. Penguins in a huddle are packed so tightly that individual movements become impossible, reminiscent of a jamming transition in compacted colloids. It is crucial, however, that the huddle structure is continuously reorganized to give each penguin a chance to spend sufficient time inside the huddle, compared with time spent on the periphery. Here we show that Emperor penguins move collectively in a highly coordinated manner to ensure mobility while at the same time keeping the huddle packed. Every 30–60 seconds, all penguins make small steps that travel as a wave through the entire huddle. Over time, these small movements lead to large-scale reorganization of the huddle. Our data show that the dynamics of penguin huddling is governed by intermittency and approach to kinetic arrest in striking analogy with inert non-equilibrium systems, including soft glasses and colloids.