BBC Nature - Penguins ‘visit spa’ to keep cool in summer
9 November 2011 Last updated at 01:13
Penguins ‘visit spa’ to keep cool in summer
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature
Chicks move from a river dip to mud bathing in their efforts to lose heat
King penguin chicks have been filmed bathing in a “mud spa”.
The birds use streams and thick, cooling mud to keep their large, fluffy bodies from overheating in summer temperatures that can reach 17C.
A BBC film crew captured the behaviour in St Andrews Bay, South Georgia, whilst filming for the documentary Frozen Planet.
The team set out to capture footage of chicks paddling in rivers and streams; the mud-bathing was “unexpected”.
“I don’t think it’s been filmed before,” programme producer Miles Barton told BBC Nature.
He and his colleagues spent a week with the bay’s penguin colony, documenting the behaviour of the birds.
“These big fluffy chicks are on a 10-month cycle,” Mr Barton explained. “They have to be able to survive the winter and the summer.”
Their thick downy coats protect them in winter temperatures on the sub-Antarctic island, which can fall to about -10C.
But when the team arrived on the island in early November, they found penguin chicks lined up around the streams, apparently wanting to cool off in the mild summer sunshine.
“The streams run off the glacier, so the water’s nice and chilly for them,” said Mr Barton. “But the problem is that their coats aren’t designed for swimming.
Penguins on South Georgia The king penguin colony on St Andrews Bay - beautiful but very smelly
“So we’d see one of them suddenly launch itself into the water, then leap up again almost immediately as if it was shocked to find itself in this alien element.”