Waddling Helps Penguins Save Energy

Dec. 20 -- Sure, penguins walk funny, but there’s a good reason for their side-to-side gait. New research shows waddling is a smart way for the tuxedoed birds to get around — and could help humans, too.

Even though penguins’ efforts to move forward may seem futile and exhausting, a new study by University of California at Berkeley researchers published in the latest issue of the journal Nature shows how waddling actually helps the birds conserve energy.

The waddling research has implications not only for penguins, but for pregnant women and other humans who have difficulty moving around due to disabilities, neurological problems or obesity, say the researchers.

The Culprits: Short Legs

Scientists have long known how inefficient walking is for penguins. The flightless birds, found on cold-climate seacoasts in the Southern Hemisphere, use many more calories than other animal species of the same weight to walk or run.

But that’s not because they do extra work with their muscles, therefore tiring themselves out. Walking is “expensive” for penguins because they have short legs and must rapidly generate force with their muscles to keep their legs rigid during each step, the researchers say.

The bottom line: Faced with a stout body, tiny legs and big feet, penguins have devised an evolutionary tradeoff and waddle to save strength.

The scientists were surprised at what they learned about how penguins move. “Going into the study, we expected to find that penguin walking was expensive because their side-to-side waddling disrupted the smooth exchange of energy from step to step,” said Rodger Kram, a co-author of the study and former University of California researcher now at the University of Colorado-Boulder. “But instead we found the opposite; they have smooth energy exchange.”

Penguins Act Like Pendulums

Five emperor penguins at San Diego Sea World’s “Penguin Encounter” exhibit, a large refrigerated “penguin city,” served as the test subjects of the study. The Sea World staff, along with the Berkeley scientists and their students, prodded the penguins across a platform to measure the side-to-side and forward and backward forces they exert while walking, plus the vertical forces supporting their weight.