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Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird
Flight costs are predicted to vary with environmental conditions, and this should ultimately determine the movement capacity and distributions of large soaring birds. Despite this, little is known about how flight effort varies with environmental parameters. We deployed bio-logging devices on the wo...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
National Academy of Sciences
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7395523/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32661147 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1907360117 |
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author | Williams, H. J. Shepard, E. L. C. Holton, Mark D. Alarcón, P. A. E. Wilson, R. P. Lambertucci, S. A. |
author_facet | Williams, H. J. Shepard, E. L. C. Holton, Mark D. Alarcón, P. A. E. Wilson, R. P. Lambertucci, S. A. |
author_sort | Williams, H. J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Flight costs are predicted to vary with environmental conditions, and this should ultimately determine the movement capacity and distributions of large soaring birds. Despite this, little is known about how flight effort varies with environmental parameters. We deployed bio-logging devices on the world’s heaviest soaring bird, the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), to assess the extent to which these birds can operate without resorting to powered flight. Our records of individual wingbeats in >216 h of flight show that condors can sustain soaring across a wide range of wind and thermal conditions, flapping for only 1% of their flight time. This is among the very lowest estimated movement costs in vertebrates. One bird even flew for >5 h without flapping, covering ∼172 km. Overall, > 75% of flapping flight was associated with takeoffs. Movement between weak thermal updrafts at the start of the day also imposed a metabolic cost, with birds flapping toward the end of glides to reach ephemeral thermal updrafts. Nonetheless, the investment required was still remarkably low, and even in winter conditions with weak thermals, condors are only predicted to flap for ∼2 s per kilometer. Therefore, the overall flight effort in the largest soaring birds appears to be constrained by the requirements for takeoff. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7395523 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-73955232020-08-07 Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird Williams, H. J. Shepard, E. L. C. Holton, Mark D. Alarcón, P. A. E. Wilson, R. P. Lambertucci, S. A. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Flight costs are predicted to vary with environmental conditions, and this should ultimately determine the movement capacity and distributions of large soaring birds. Despite this, little is known about how flight effort varies with environmental parameters. We deployed bio-logging devices on the world’s heaviest soaring bird, the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), to assess the extent to which these birds can operate without resorting to powered flight. Our records of individual wingbeats in >216 h of flight show that condors can sustain soaring across a wide range of wind and thermal conditions, flapping for only 1% of their flight time. This is among the very lowest estimated movement costs in vertebrates. One bird even flew for >5 h without flapping, covering ∼172 km. Overall, > 75% of flapping flight was associated with takeoffs. Movement between weak thermal updrafts at the start of the day also imposed a metabolic cost, with birds flapping toward the end of glides to reach ephemeral thermal updrafts. Nonetheless, the investment required was still remarkably low, and even in winter conditions with weak thermals, condors are only predicted to flap for ∼2 s per kilometer. Therefore, the overall flight effort in the largest soaring birds appears to be constrained by the requirements for takeoff. National Academy of Sciences 2020-07-28 2020-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7395523/ /pubmed/32661147 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1907360117 Text en Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Biological Sciences Williams, H. J. Shepard, E. L. C. Holton, Mark D. Alarcón, P. A. E. Wilson, R. P. Lambertucci, S. A. Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird |
title | Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird |
title_full | Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird |
title_fullStr | Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird |
title_full_unstemmed | Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird |
title_short | Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird |
title_sort | physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird |
topic | Biological Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7395523/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32661147 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1907360117 |
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