Why penguins feet dont freeze

These both help them to keep their feet a few degrees above freezing. This also stops them sticking to the ice. I read this book during secondary school and it lead to me going on long tangents to my mates about why lightning forks and what it is in helium that makes your voice go squeaky. If you're an emperor penguin, you can do it for two months , and in wind chills as low as degrees Fahrenheit Those naked bird feet may look positively frigid, but their special circulation acts as a kind of antifreeze to keep them just warm enough that they don't freeze.

Penguins legs and feet have evolved to lose as little heat as possible. Penguin feet hold onto heat by restricting blood flow in really cold weather, keeping foot temperature just above freezing.

Penguin legs work like a heat exchange system; blood vessels to and from the feet are very narrow and woven closely together, cooling the blood from the body on the way to the feet and heating the blood as it returns to the body.

Feet get cool blood so there's less heat to lose, while the body stays toasty. This special ability is part of how penguins keep their eggs warm until they hatch. Male emperor penguins incubate a single egg on top of their feet for two months in the dark of winter while females are out feeding at sea.

They also cover the egg with a flap of warm belly skin called a brood pouch to keep it out of the elements. Nurturing doesn't stop there for these dedicated dads. If females haven't returned with food by the time the chicks hatch, male emperors feed their babies for a few days on a kind of " milk " made from special cells inside their throats. Just like any other warm-blooded animal, they make their own heat by metabolizing foods.

However, in the Antarctic, penguins must use other innovative strategies to keep their extremities from freezing. An insulating layer of plumage a thick coating of feathers on the outside, and underneath, another layer of blubber protect a penguin's body from the cold. Although, the fat and feathers are nonexistent on a penguins' feet. To keep them warm, they make use of a unique evolutionary technique. The magic behind keeping a penguin's body warm relies on their remarkable ability to keep their feet just above freezing temperatures.

Their muscles are nestled into their bodies protecting them from the cold. Long and strong tendons extend down to their feet to control movement. Their tendons are thick and are not as easily affected by the cold.

However, pumping warm blood through their feet would cause the heat to radiate away into the ground. To prevent this, penguins make use of a system known as the counter-current heat exchange. Before the warm blood reaches their feet, the blood vessels traveling to the feet wrap around the vessels coming back up. Using this method, the blood that flows towards their feet dumps the heat into the blood flowing back into their bodies.

Penguins' feet counter-current heat exchange systems: Vessels wrap around each other to exchange heat before it is lost to the ground. The incredible counter-current heat exchange system penguins make use of is not the only remarkable process penguins use to keep the cold at bay.