Coordinated movements in a penguin huddle

帝企鹅（Aptenodytes forsteri）是唯一在南方冬季繁殖的物种。它们可以承受零下35摄氏度的温度，风速高达50米/秒。从它们到达殖民地直到蛋孵化，雄性，谁单独孵化的蛋，禁食约4个月。为了保存能量和生存，企鹅们挤成一团。至关重要的是，不断重组挤作结构，以便限制在挤作外围花费的时间。然而，挤在一起的企鹅是如此的紧密，以至于个体的运动变得不可能，这让人想起了在紧密的胶体中的拥挤过渡。我们最近发现，企鹅通过在大的、协调的集群中周期性地移动来克服干扰。这个项目的目的是了解重组过程中的企鹅拥挤和社会体温调节的影响。我们建议开发一个远程操作的企鹅天文台，包括硬件和软件的快速图像采集和实时处理。该观测站将能够探测整个拥挤的企鹅群，并跟踪数千只企鹅在整个冬季的活动。还将记录殖民地内动物的准确数量和个体动物的大小，我们的数据将有助于估计不断增加的环境压力，如持续的气候变化，海冰变薄和磷虾减少，是如何影响帝企鹅的。

The Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the only species that breeds during the austral winter. They endure temperatures below -35° C and winds up to 50 m/s. From their arrival at the colony until the eggs hatch, the males, who solely incubate the eggs, fast for about 4 months. To conserve energy and to survive, the penguins form huddles. It is crucial that the huddle structure is continuously reorganized so that time spent at the huddle periphery is limited. Penguins in a huddle are packed so tightly, however, that individual movements become impossible, reminiscent of a jamming transition in compacted colloids. We recently discovered that penguins overcome jamming by moving periodically in large, coordinated clusters. This project aims to understand the reorganization process in penguin huddles and the implications for social thermoregulation. We propose to develop a remote-operated penguin observatory including hard- and software for fast image acquisition and real-time processing. The observatory will be capable of detecting the whole huddle, as well as tracking the movements of thousands of individual penguins throughout the winter. An accurate count of animals within the colony and the size of individual animals will also be recorded, and together our data will help to estimate how the increasing environmental strain such as ongoing climate changes, thinning sea ice and reduced krill availability, is affecting Emperor penguins.