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To: SirRealist who wrote (23911)	12/22/2000 11:59:52 AM
From: figanin	Respond to of 24256

Hey Kevin....Penguin News ! Waddling Saves Penguins Energy Dec 21 3:46am ET By Andrew Quinn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Waddling may look like an inefficient, not to mention inelegant, way to get around. But in fact it may be the most logical form of locomotion for the Emperor Penguin -- and possibly for pregnant women as well, according to a study released by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley. Timothy Griffin, an integrative biology graduate student at Berkeley, and Rodger Kram, a former Berkeley biology professor now at the University of Colorado, Boulder, examined the waddling gait of the Emperor Penguin, which stands more than 3-1/2 feet tall and usually moves at about 1.5 feet per second. They found that, contrary to expectations, the swaying side-to-side waddle does not represent wasted energy. The real problem, it turns out, is the penguins' short legs. "Our findings indicate that walking is expensive for penguins not because of their waddling, but because they have such short legs that require their leg muscles to generate force very quickly when they walk," Griffin said Wednesday in a news release announcing the new study, which appears in the current issue of "Nature" magazine. "When we compare penguins to animals with similar leg lengths, they burn about the same amount of calories per unit mass," he said. The study not only sheds fresh light on the evolution of penguins, but may also provide hints as to why other animals, and even pregnant women, sometimes waddle to get around. "Our knowledge gained from penguins provides novel insight into the gait mechanics of humans with increased lateral movements, such as in pregnant women or obese individuals," Griffin said. "This information may lead to improved understanding, evaluation and treatment of individuals with gait disabilities." FIELD TESTING FOR PENGUINS To obtain their findings, Griffin and Kram sent Emperor Penguins from San Diego Sea World's "Penguin Encounter" waddling across a special platform set up to measure the side-to-side and fore-and-aft forces they exert while walking, as well as the vertical forces supporting their weight. The study concluded that, by shifting their weight from side to side in pendulum-like swing, the penguins manage to store up energy, keeping loss at a minimum. Meanwhile, because of the penguins' unique body shape, the waddle actually serves to raise their center of mass -- making their overall motion more efficient. "What we found is that they are inefficient because of their short legs and big feet, and waddling is a means to cut their losses," Kram said. In fact, the penguins' so-called "recovery rate", or the amount of kinetic energy conserved from step to step, was actually as much as 80 percent in some cases, making it the highest among any land animal. In humans, the recovery rate during walking is about 65 percent. The Berkeley study follows findings from research in Antarctica in 1977, where researchers put penguins on treadmills and set them waddling while hooked up to breath masks that measured oxygen consumption. The penguins' labored strides ended up burning twice as many calories as the gaits of other animals of a similar size, such as dogs, the study found. While the Berkeley team agrees that penguins' short legs do make them inefficient walkers, this appears to have been an evolutionary trade-off that in turn has made them more streamlined divers and swimmers. go2net.com