Why do penguins waddle?👇🐧

Waddling from side to side as a walking technique requires a lot of energy, but paradoxically for penguins, it can also help to conserve it.

A penguin’s proportions make them well designed for seamlessly diving and gliding through water, but their walk isn’t quite as elegant. As a penguin sways to one side, the kinetic energy of its swing is stored as potential energy, which it then uses to power its next step.

By moving in this way, its centre of mass is raised, so their muscles expend less energy to walk. Penguins therefore recover eighty per cent of the energy that they use on each step, which is the highest of any terrestrial animal. For comparison, humans get back around 65% with each step.

Studies into penguins’ movement may increase our understanding of gait, and could lead to mobility treatments for humans.

#EarthCapture by @myeonghoseo
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#WorldPenguinDay #Penguin #AnimalFacts