• Question: i have a book called "why dont penguins feet get cold" and ive looked through and i have never found the answer in the book. i was wondering- why don't penguins feet get cold

    Asked by 439susa26 to Ahmed, Francesca, George, James, Nitheen on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: James Sullivan

      James Sullivan answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Hi,

      Their feet do get cold, but they don’t freeze.
      The reason for this is that their blood is warmed and also there is a lot of salt within.

      Salty solutions freeze at lower temperature than water does.

    • Photo: Francesca Paradisi

      Francesca Paradisi answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Strange that there is no answer in the book! But James gave you a great answer, their blood circulation keeps their feet warm(er) than the environment!

    • Photo: Ahmed Osman

      Ahmed Osman answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Hi
      To answer your question less generically, penguins have a highly developed circulatory system that is able to control how warm their feet actually get. There are arteries in the penguins’ legs that are able to adjust blood flow to the feet based on temperature. The arteries restrict blood flow when it’s colder, meaning less blood has to travel through the cold feet, helping to keep the penguin warm. (Humans actually can do this to some extent as well.) When the penguin is too warm, the opposite happens and the arteries allow more blood blow to the feet, cooling them off.

      Besides this built in mechanism, a more mundane way the penguin can control their feet’s temperature is simply to huddle down around their feet so that their body is keeping them more protected and warm. They also sometimes rock back and sit on their tails for a while to get their feet off the ice.

      Typically with this heat regulation, the penguins’ feet are kept a few degrees above freezing, and not usually much warmer than that so that the penguins don’t expend too much energy in heating their feet, unless they are already too hot, in which case the loss of heat is a good thing.

      thanks
      hope it helps
      Ahmed

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