1 / 19

Huddling Behaviour in Emperor Penguins

Huddling Behaviour in Emperor Penguins. Breeding pattern of Emperor Penguin. They breed at the beginning of winter inland (about 40km) of the ice The temperatures can drop as low as minus 60 ºc

tawny
Download Presentation

Huddling Behaviour in Emperor Penguins

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Huddling Behaviour in Emperor Penguins

  2. Breeding pattern of Emperor Penguin • They breed at the beginning of winter inland (about 40km) of the ice • The temperatures can drop as low as minus 60ºc • The single egg is transferred quickly to the male who balances the egg on his feet and covers it with a special brood pouch • The male then incubates the egg over the following 9 weeks

  3. Brood Pouch Brood pouch

  4. Breeding pattern of the Emperor Penguin • The female leaves the male and returns to the sea to feed for 9 weeks • She feeds on small fish • By the time the female returns the chick has hatched • The female feeds the chick on regurgitated food

  5. Breeding pattern of the Emperor Penguin • The male then leaves to feed in the sea • He returns 7 weeks later • Now both parents care for the chick • By the time the chick is 6 months old it is able to go to sea for the first time and feed for itself • The pack ice has melted by this time and so the chick does not have to trek far to get to the sea. It is for this reason that the parents breed in the winter

  6. Adaptations of the Emperor Penguin to live in extreme climate • Physical adaptations? • Behavioural adaptation? • Penguins are seen to form large close packed circles in which the penguins huddle closely • Penguins are seen to rotate within the huddle taking turns to be in the centre and on the outside • Does this behaviour help the penguin to adapt to the extreme cold?

  7. Huddling Penguins

  8. Experiment • Aim to see whether the rate of cooling differs for boiling tubes of warm water inside a circle and on the outside of a circle

  9. Measure temperature of the boiling tube in centre Experiment

  10. Experiment Measure temperature of a boiling tube in outer circle

  11. Measure temperature of a boiling tube on its own Experiment

  12. Method • Take 7 boiling tubes and fill each with warm water (37ºc) using a jug • Place the temperature probe connected to the data logger in the centre boiling tube • Take the temperature every 1 min for 15 minutes

  13. Method cont… • Simultaneously record from one of the boiling tubes in the outer circle using a second probe • Finally, repeat using one boiling tube standing on its own • Display the collected data as a line graph on the computer • Display all three line graphs on one graph so that the results can be seen at once

  14. Conclusion • Does the arrangement of boiling tubes affect the rate of cooling? • Do the results help to explain the huddling behaviour in penguins?

  15. Huddling behaviour- • http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/species/Emperor_Penguin

  16. Poster • Construct a large poster on which you will present the results of your experiments • The poster will be entitled ‘Why do Emperer Penguins hudddle?’ Include ALL the adaptations that the penguin has to enable it to survive in the cold climate • The poster should have visual impact and the information must be easily absorbed

  17. Lifestyle of the Emperor Penguin • http://www.siec.k12.in.us/west/proj/penguins/emperor.html

More Related