March of the Waddling Toddlers

What’s the secret behind the penguin’s waddle? Scientifically speaking, the jury’s still out, but that didn’t stop 32 penguin enthusiasts—ages 1 to 10—from testing out their waddles on an April morning at the London Zoo. Some of the children arrived sporting beaks and bowties; others were swaddled in fluffy jumpsuits. One little girl got even more creative, donning a black tutu and yellow penguin feet, clutching two toy penguins for effect.

For two years running the London Zoo has opened its gates to children for the Penguin Waddle in an effort to raise funds for conservation. The kids learn about the birds’ behavior and get a chance to observe the zoo’s Humboldt Penguins and lone Rockhopper Penguin gliding gracefully through the 1,200-square-meter pool at “Penguin Beach.” Then comes the best part of the day: the crowning of the “champion waddler.”

A brave staffer, dressed as a giant Rockhopper, kicked off the morning with a crash course in penguin waddling (“Left leg! Right leg! Left flipper! Right flipper!”). The colony of visitors shuffled around the zoo for 20 minutes, under the watchful eye of the judges. After the parade, one talented contender was selected—a difficult choice, given the dedication of all the waddlers.      

In March the zoo was the site of more scientific scrutiny of penguin waddling, when two researchers, John Hutchinson from London’s Royal Veterinary College and James Proffitt from the University of Texas at Austin, joined forces to analyze the birds’ gait. It was a major contribution to the widening body of research on why and how penguins walk this way, says Ed Yong, who wrote about the findings in The New Yorker. To analyze a waddle, the researchers recruited the zoo’s resident Humboldt Penguins to walk through a corridor filled with specialized scales that closely measured each penguin’s downward force, position, and posture.

At first glance, the penguin’s awkward stride makes it obvious that this bird is made for the water. Overall, it's energy-inefficient: Penguins burn twice as many calories as other pedestrians of the same size. But this recent research suggests that the true cause of inefficiency is the bird’s stubby little legs, not the sway of the waddle. In fact, the side-to-side motion preserves energy and makes these aquatic birds a little more adept on land. With this new insight, Hutchinson and Proffitt can now trace waddling back through the fossil record and learn how it evolved, Yong writes.

With science on the mind (okay, maybe not), the children wrapped up their clumsy trek at Penguin Beach, where the penguins were swimming behind the pool’s giant glass wall. The kids got a lesson on living like a penguin—everything from what the bird eats to how it stays warm and dry. Together, the waddlers raised £2,000 ($3,000), which will be put toward research on wild penguins that are affected by climate change, fisheries, disease, and pollution, says Rhiannon Bates, a representative from the zoo.

The prize for the morning’s best penguin-er went to a little girl in a hooded jumpsuit. She demonstrated her waddle for the entire crowd, and later on was found observing the zoo’s Rockhopper Penguin: a male named Ricky. He usually keeps to himself at the other end of the pool, the zookeepers told the crowd. But today he was very publicly soaking up the sun. “He looked at me!” the little girl squealed—clearly basking in the glory of her win and Ricky’s evident admiration for her penguin suit.