King penguin circulating among incubating breeders Incubating king penguins are stationary, generally maintaining neighbors and birds in transit at a minimum distance determined by the reach of their beak and flippers (Video 1 of 10.1038/nmeth.3173). - Robotic penguin chick lets researchers get up close and personal news.sciencemag.org/sifter/2014/11/robotic-penguin-chick-lets-researchers-get-up-close-and-personal It’s always a struggle for scientists to get close enough to study animals in detail without stressing them out and complicating the experiment. By creating a remote-controlled rover equipped with a fake penguin chick on top, one team of researchers has found a way to get up close to even the most skittish penguins without being noticed, Science News reports (*). After outfitting some penguins with heart rate monitors, the team drove the naked rover into a colony of the birds and monitored their stress levels. They found that despite the obvious wheels, bizarre pattern of locomotion, and sounds from the electric motor, the penguins were no more stressed out by the intrusion than they would be by a penguin passing by. A colony of emperor penguins proved more leery of the rover though, at least until scientists attached a fake penguin chick to the vehicle (see above). Once disguised, the penguins reportedly tried to talk to the rover and even made room for it in huddles. (*) Remote-controlled rover doesn’t spook penguins Compared with human scientists, robots offer a less obtrusive way to get close to critters https://sciencenews.org/article/remote-controlled-rover-doesn%E2%80%99t-spook-penguins Skittish penguins let their guard down when researchers send a fluffy “robochick” into their midst. The approaching rover causes the animals less stress than humans do and may prove useful in studies of other wild populations, researchers report November 2 in Nature Methods (1). One way scientists can monitor wild animals is by slipping a tag under the skin that a radio-frequency reader identifies. To recognize the tags, a reader must get within 60 centimeters of the animals. No matter how unobtrusively scientists try to sidle up to them, animals still get spooked. To test a less jarring alternative, researchers sent a remote-controlled rover into colonies of penguins and elephant seals in Antarctica and the Crozet Archipelago. The team equipped king penguins with heart rate monitors, and then measured how the birds reacted and how much their heart rates increased when the rover and humans approached. When a person come close, “all the birds facing the human will retreat very slowly with a high heart rate,” says coauthor Yvon Le Maho, a biologist at the University of Strasbourg in France. But when the rover trundled up, the penguins stayed calm. “The increase in heart rate is about the same as when another bird is passing by, which means they are not stressed by the rover,” says Le Maho. The researchers also sent the rover to infiltrate a colony of emperor penguins. Initially, these penguins were shy and retreated. So the researchers came up with a disguise: a fake penguin chick. Emperor penguins not only allowed the masked rover to approach, they even tried to vocalize to it and let it join a huddle of chicks. Elephant seals also let the rover draw near, the researchers found. Video: SOOTHING THE SKITTISH BEAST Penguins investigate a rover rolling through their territory but do not retreat, while elephant seals do not appear to react at all. Credit: Le Maho et al. (**) (**) Robochick approaches wary penguins https://youtube/watch?v=dAUaIc8PoYc Skittish penguins let their guard down when researchers send a fluffy “robochick” into their midst. Penguins investigate a rover rolling through their territory but do not retreat, while elephant seals do not appear to react at all. See a picture of the rover in its chick garb and read the full story at sciencenews.org: ow.ly/DOmio - Y. Le Maho et al. Rovers minimize human disturbance in research on wild animals. Nature Methods. Published online November 2, 2014. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3173. Reference 1. Rovers minimize human disturbance in research on wild animals Nature Methods (2014) doi:10.1038/nmeth.3173 nature/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmeth.3173.html Abstract Investigating wild animals while minimizing human disturbance remains an important methodological challenge. When approached by a remote-operated vehicle (rover) which can be equipped to make radio-frequency identifications, wild penguins had significantly lower and shorter stress responses (determined by heart rate and behavior) than when approached by humans. Upon immobilization, the rover—unlike humans—did not disorganize colony structure, and stress rapidly ceased. Thus, rovers can reduce human disturbance of wild animals and the resulting scientific bias. Supplementary information nature/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/nmeth.3173-S1.pdf Video Video 1: King penguin circulating among incubating breeders nature/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/nmeth.3173-sv1.mov Incubating king penguins are stationary, generally maintaining neighbors and birds in transit at a minimum distance determined by the reach of their beak and flippers. Video 2: Rover circulating among incubating breeders nature/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/nmeth.3173-sv2.mov The reactions of incubating king penguins to the rover was similar in magnitude to their reactions to conspecifics and ceased as soon as the rover stopped moving. Video 3: Rover approaching southern elephant seals on a beach nature/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/extref/nmeth.3173-sv3.mov Resting southern elephant seals let the rover approach to within contact distances to their heads and also to their tails, where they are usually tagged, with no visible disturbance.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 12:02:29 +0000
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