Male Penguins Protecting Eggs Make the Huddle Part of Their Game Plan
From Times staff and wire reports
Male penguins in the Antarctic incubate their mates’ eggs for as long as 115 days without eating. How do they endure the coldest place on Earth without food while still producing the extra warmth needed for incubation? By huddling together, according to biologist Yvon Le Maho of the CNRS Centre d’Ecologie et Physiologie Energetiques in Strasbourg, France.
Le Maho reports in the Jan. 23 issue of the journal Nature that huddling males have a metabolic rate 25% below that of isolated individual birds, which reduces the need for food.
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