King Penguin Chicks Survive Fasting in Winters by Minimising Cost of Energy Production

A new study has discovered the secret of King Penguin chicks that manage to survive the harsh winters with almost no food.

According to a new finding, the king penguin chicks can survive terrible winters with no food by reducing the cost of energy production. This happens as the efficiency of the power house of the cell, 'mitochondria,' increases when the king penguin chicks fast.

In the cold sub Antarctic winter when the king penguin chicks find it difficult to fetch food; they face a severe energy challenge. But through the new finding, researchers have shown how mitochondria present in the skeletal muscle i.e the main heat producing tissue in the birds function during fasting in winters.

The study led by Pierre-Axel Monternier and Prof Damien Roussel at the Ecology of Natural and Man-impacted Hydrosystems laboratory, will be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Valencia on July 3.

Pierre-Axel Monternier said: "We found that the efficiency of mitochondrial functioning increased in fasted winter-acclimatized king penguin chicks. This indicates that less substrate/oxygen was consumed to produce the same amount of energy in the form of ATP, showing that mitochondria from fasted chicks adjust its functioning to minimize the cost of energy production."

The study reveals how the king penguins produce heat in order to survive harsh winters without depleting the energy stores. This is the important mechanism that helps them to survive cold without food. Kings penguins have an incomparable fasting endurance of 5 months and their biological changes increases the chick's survival.

King Penguin chicks develop a range of energy sparing mechanisms that lead to a lowering in the energy allocated to heat production and growth. The chicks store energy through huddling, reduced muscle activity, a reduction in metabolic rates and not dissipating heat and energy through any unnecessary activities.