Thermal convection in huddling emperor penguins

TL;DR

This paper models emperor penguin huddling behavior as a thermal convection process, revealing a phase transition to vortex motion that enhances heat redistribution and survival during cold Antarctic winters.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic and continuous model of penguin huddling, uncovering a second-order phase transition and vortex formation driven by thermal convection.

Findings

Huddling penguins form a motionless aggregate at low density.

Increasing penguins induces a phase transition to vortex motion.

Vortex dynamics improve heat transfer and survival.

Abstract

Emperor penguins are the only penguin species that winter in Antarctica. As is known, during cold weather, birds huddle together to share body heat. We developed a microscopic model in which penguins interact with each other through an effective potential that describes the birds' intention to move along the gradient of the thermal field. The model describes the aggregation of penguins into a motionless huddle, as observed previously. More interestingly, we found that increasing the number of birds leads to a second-order phase transition, characterized by the excitation of a vortex motion in a huddle. The dynamic behavior ensures a more efficient redistribution of heat between penguins and, consequently, the survival of all birds in the flock. To study the instability mechanism, we developed a continuous model and applied both linear and weakly nonlinear analysis. Numerically, we studied the increasing complexity of vortex structures in a fluidized huddle with increasing its power. Finally, we demonstrate that the effect of sudden fluidization of a huddle, resulting in the spontaneous motion of penguins from the edge of the crowd to its center and back, is essentially thermal convection. The findings are juxtaposed against observations of emperor penguins.