Why is this adorable rover chick hanging out with wild penguins?

This rover is a remarkable new innovation created by scientists to solve a common problem - collecting information on animals without disturbing them. Disturbance can result in animals changing their behavior, like fleeing foraging and breeding areas, or increasing heart rate or stress hormones. A group of researchers used a remote-controlled rover in penguin colonies and tested stress responses.

When the researchers used a plain rover with king penguins, the birds squawked and pecked at the rover, but allowed it to approach closely. The animals exhibited significantly lower and shorter stress responses (determined by heart rate and behavior) than when approached by humans. This plain rover also drove close to elephant seals, who exhibited no response.

Emperor penguins are more skittish, so the scientists created several disguises for the rover. After experimenting with several options (including a fiberglass chick that scared the penguins) they settled on a soft fuzzy chick that looked like an actual baby penguin.

This rover penguin chick successfully infiltrated the colony, and some chicks even huddled against it while adults sang to it. The adults seemed disappointed when the rover did not respond to their song.

Remote-controlled rovers could be used to study other species without causing as much disturbance as human researchers. Additional sensors and cameras could be installed on the rovers to gather data on vocalizations and record behavior.

If you do spot an adorable rover penguin chick, remember, he is probably there to spy on you.

Via: Le Maho, Yvon, et al. "Rovers minimize human disturbance in research on wild animals." Nature methods 11.12 (2014): 1242-1244.

Greg Miller, Wired

Michelle Starr, CNET Magazine