How peckish penguins find their food Animals have used the same technique to search for food th

How peckish penguins find their food

Animals have used the same technique to search for food that’s in short supply for at least 50 million years, a BBSRC-funded study suggests.

Creatures including penguins search for food using a mathematical pattern of movement called a Lévy walk. It might sound complex, but it is a random search strategy made up of small steps and a few larger steps. Although a Lévy walk is random, it’s the most efficient way to find food when it’s scarce.

Finding food in a timely fashion could be a matter of life or death. Choose the wrong direction and it could be curtains. But moving in a random search pattern is mathematically the best way to find isolated food.

Image credit: Christopher Michel

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