Research Reveals Antarctic Penguins Nod Off Thousands of Times Each Day to Guard Their Young
A recent study published in the journal Science reported that chinstrap penguins in Antarctica nod off multiple times a day due to the challenging task of guarding their eggs and chicks 24/7. Researchers observed thousands of microsleeps, each lasting about four seconds, concluding that the penguins sleep a total of 11 hours every day in broken intervals to keep themselves alert.
Niels Rattenborg, a co-author of the study and a sleep researcher, commented, “These penguins look like drowsy drivers, blinking their eyes open and shut, and they do it 24/7 for several weeks at a time. What’s surprising is that they’re able to function OK and successfully raise their young.”
Named after the black facial feathers resembling a chinstrap, chinstrap penguins share the task of parenting. One parent tends to the eggs and chicks while the other fishes for food. Though the adults do not have many natural predators, they must stay vigilant during the breeding season, as large birds, such as brown skuas, can prey on the eggs and small chicks.
For the study, scientists tracked the sleeping behavior of breeding chinstrap penguins by attaching sensors that measure brain waves. They observed 14 adults for 11 days on King George Island, Antarctica.
Researchers suggest that during the breeding season, the penguins need microsleeps as a form of restorative function. However, it is still not clear how the fragmented sleep patterns benefit them compared to longer, consolidated sleep.
Dr. Daniel Paranhos Zitterbart of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution commended the penguins’ ability to have near-constant vigilance through microsleeping, stating that it is an “amazing adaptation” to deal with the high-stress and predatory environment in which they live.
The new study adds to the list of animals with unique sleeping adaptations, such as frigatebirds being able to sleep with one half of their brain at a time while flying and northern elephant seals being able to nap for brief periods during deep dives. However, researchers say that the chinstrap penguin’s microsleeping behavior presents a new extreme in animal sleep patterns.
