Structural organisation and dynamics in king penguin colonies.

ABSTRACT: During breeding, king penguins do not build nests, however they show strong territorial behaviour and keep a pecking distance to neighbouring penguins. Penguin positions in breeding colonies are highly stable over weeks and appear regularly spaced, but thus far no quantitative analysis of the structural order inside a colony has been performed. In this study, we use the radial distribution function to analyse the spatial coordinates of penguin positions. Coordinates are obtained from aerial images of two colonies that were observed for several years. Our data demonstrate that the structural order in king penguin colonies resembles a 2-dimensional liquid of particles with a Lennard-Jones-type interaction potential. We verify this using a molecular dynamics simulation with thermally driven p

SUBMITTER: Gerum R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6181452 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature