Study Group report
This is the final report on the problem of penguin egg incubation, brought to ESGI46 by Bristol Zoo Gardens.

Report authors:
Carina Edwards (University of Oxford)
Nick Ovenden (UCL)
Vivi Rottschaefer (University of Leiden)

Introduction
Bristol Zoo looks after rare and endangered species of birds, one of which is the African penguin, and the Zoo is interested in finding efficient ways of breeding them in captivity. One of the strategies used is the removal of eggs from the nest just after they are laid. If eggs are taken away from the mother, then she will usually lay more. The eggs that are taken away from the penguins then need to be incubated artificially. There are artificial incubation machines in use which attempt to replicate the conditions of natural incubation. The overall goal is thus to ensure that artificial incubation is as successful as natural incubation so that one may breed the species as rapidly as possible.

The main questions that are formulated and investigated in the report are:

• Why do birds rotate their eggs?
Since there were several theories given in the literature for this, it is the most difficult but also the most important question to answer.
• Does thermal convection play a role during incubation?
• What are the properties of the flow inside the shell following the rotation of the egg?
• Can the results be extended to eggs from different species?

Download 'PenguinEggs.pdf' (254 Kb).