Berlin 2012 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme
SOE 10: Social Systems, Opinion and Group Dynamics I
SOE 10.5: Vortrag
Dienstag, 27. März 2012, 15:00–15:15, H 0110
Physics in penguin colonies — •Daniel P. Zitterbart1,2, Sebastian Richter1, Celine Le Bohec3, Werner Schneider1, Claus Metzner1, Richard Gerum1, Yvon Le Maho3, Barbara Wienecke4, and Ben Fabry1 — 1Biophysics Lab, Department of Physics, University of Erlangen, Germany — 2Ocean Acoustics Lab, AWI, Bremerhaven — 3IPHC, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Strasbourg, France — 4Australian Antarctic Division, Australia
In polar regions, highly adapted social behavior is crucial for the survival of several species. One prominent example is the huddling behavior of Emperor penguins. To understand how Emperor penguins solve the physical problem of movement in densely packed huddles, we observed an Emperor penguin colony (Atka Bay) with time-lapse imaging and tracked the positions of more than 1400 huddling penguins. The trajectories revealed that Emperor penguins move collectively in a highly coordinated manner to ensure mobility while at the same time keeping the huddle tightly packed. Every 30 - 60 seconds, all penguins make small steps, which 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. We will also present observations from a different Emperor penguin colony (Adélie Land), an Adélie penguin colony (Adélie Land), and a King penguin colony (Crozet Island).