Fourteen Designs
After working with all of the stakeholders, colony managers, NGO’s, Government Organizations, Researchers, and engineers from South Africa as well as receiving assistance with the design and testing from an extremely qualified and knowledgeable individual with Owens Corning the prototypes were ready.
One each of fourteen designs of new nest structures were built and located in a field on the site of the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary in Gansbaai, South Africa. Alongside these prototypes four older design nests that had previously been utilized in colonies were tested.
Prototypes designed using a wide variety of materials, including Kerasorb, Keraforce, Stoploz, and others. These were formed in multiple colors and various design factors to test. Various venting options to release heat through the top will be evaluated once the testing parameters are completed. As an example of capability of these products, direct heat penetration using a blowtorch was shown and it blocked essentially all heat transmission even though the material was less than 6mm in thickness. This is impressive, however it doesn’t equate to the ambient exposure testing that will have to be performed. The Stoploz material was about 60% more expensive to utilize for the manufacturing process but it has enough promise that it was included in the testing.
Once testing on the prototypes had begun and there was a brief lull in the work the process of bringing one of the selected prototype designs into the U.S. was initiated. This allowed both U.S. and South African facilities to work on parallel testing in addition to the work that will be done in the field. This will, more importantly, also provide zoos in the U.S. the opportunity to utilize the nest structures in a public engagement manner.
To record the interior micro-climate of the various prototype nests, options were straight-forward since the testing ground was in a controlled and easily accessible location. It was decided that Kestrel Drop D2 sensors would be mounted in each of the nests. These sensors were mounted in a location inside each nest that would closely emulate the position of an adult penguins head during the incubation process. This did lead the research team to another question however. What effect would a family of penguins have on the internal conditions of the nests?
To ensure the testing process was as accurate and complete as possible it was necessary to replicate this effect that a family of penguins would have on the interior climate conditions of the nest structures. This prompted the team to delve deep into a significant investigation of average body weights at various stages of development and metabolic rates of penguins at differing activity levels to allow the determination of body heat that would be emitted while inside the nest. Once this was all calculated it was possible to design a heat source that output the same energy as a penguin family group would.
At this point it was time to start considering the intricacies of colony testing that would be in the near future. In order to perform this testing for internal environmental conditions of the nest structure once they were eventually tested in the colonies numerous different options were evaluated. The recording of temperature, humidity, and heat stress index had to be reliable and accurate. There was always the tried and true option of iButtons, however in the nest colonies this would be less than convenient due to extremely limited access. This led to evaluating a more user-friendly and high-tech approach. The company that was partnered with in South Africa to design the monitoring system was Monnit. This technology would give researchers complete remote monitoring of each of the nest structures with a high degree of accuracy. Each nest sensor could be continuously monitored for conditions from anywhere in the world.
Final Design
From preparation prior to the workshop and in discussion during the workshop it was apparent that the previously utilized fiberglass models that were extremely ineffective (consistently rejected by the penguins) met the majority of the basic needs of the birds when looking at the size and shape of the structure. This in combination with research done in the 1970's evaluating the size and shape of guano nests led to a basic agreement on the interior measurements and cavity entrance sizes necessary. In the prototypes there were two changes implemented in the designs affecting the usability of the nest. The first and easiest was reducing the size of the entrance hole by approximately 50%. It was widely felt that the entrance into the old fiberglass nests was far too large to allow the birds to feel secure inside the cavity. The second is a dramatically more complicated procedure was sourcing a material and developing a venting design to control the ambient temperature inside the nest. This is where utilizing the skills and knowledge of scientists and engineers around the world helped the goal. Whether it was researchers in the United Kingdom, engineers in South Africa, or interior climate scientists in the United States all played key roles in the development process.
All the time, energy, and resources led to a successful build of numerous prototype nests that were then field tested at the African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary in Gansbaai, South Africa for a period exceeding 3 months.
A few questions that came up during the design and testing process are posted below with brief answers to those questions.
- What process was followed to determine the shape/design of the nests to be field tested?
- We based the size, shape, entrance measurements, and interior volume on the measurements of wild guano nests on Dassan Island taken by Frost, et al and published in the the research paper available on the Freedcamp site for review. This size is easily capable of housing an adult and two blues comfortably inside without being oversized which could reduce the desirability of the nest. The ventilation and heat dissipation for the prototypes were designed by an engineer in South Africa in collaboration with an environmental specialist from Owens Corning here in the U.S. and fine-tuned during many discussions leading up the construction of those prototypes.
- Has a specific shape been decided on to take forward into Phase 2, and what evidence has that decision been based on?
- Based on the data the project is looking at moving forward with nest #6 and nest #15 from the results of 3.5 months of data accumulation and the analysis of that data provided by both the research team at San Diego Zoo and Frans Slabber.
- Have a discussion on why birds seem to only use artificial nests for one or two seasons and then abandon them after that as this is important for considering nest designs in future.
- This was discussed during the early designs and during the workshop in March 2016. One theory is that birds learned that they were largely unsuccessful as a whole in the population breeding in the past artificial nest designs leading to them learning to avoid them. If the design is successful in meeting the environmental goals and the penguins utilize the nests successfully in the first couple to few years they will return to those nests. Observations of where penguins have chosen to nest (under debris, against and in abandoned buildings, under shrubs, on open beach, between rocks, etc. leads to the conclusion that they will adapt to a nest design if it meets their needs. There was also discussion whether the placement and orientation of the nests and the exposure to rain/flooding and afternoon sun had an observable effect on the use.
- The protocol that will be followed to test new designs in the field (this should be compiled by the group discussed at the nest workshop).
- Obviously we would love to have the input of the entire group to make sure the protocol is as complete and thorough as possible. The more information and comments offered by this group that have dedicated themselves to the future of penguins the more likely we as a whole are to get the nests as close to perfect as possible.
What's Next?
