Comparing bird and human soaring strategies

Gliding saves much energy, and to make large distances using only this form of flight represents a great challenge for both birds and people. The solution is to make use of the so-called thermals, which are localized, warmer regions in the atmosphere moving upwards with a speed exceeding the descent rate of bird and plane. Whereas birds use this technique mainly for foraging, humans do it as a sporting activity. Thermalling involves efficient optimization including the skilful localization of thermals, trying to guess the most favorable route, estimating the best descending rate, etc. In this study, we address the question whether there are any analogies between the solutions birds and humans find to handle the above task. High-resolution track logs were taken from thermalling falcons and paraglider pilots to determine the essential parameters of the flight patterns. We find that there are relevant common features in the ways birds and humans use thermals. In particular, falcons seem to reproduce the MacCready formula widely used by gliders to calculate the best slope to take before an upcoming thermal.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary materials are available at the webpage dedicated to this work: http://angel.elte.hu/thermalling

School Effectiveness in Developing Countries - A Summary of the Research Evidence

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Energy limitations for spring migration and breeding: the case of brent geese Branta bernicla tracked by satellite telemetry to Svalbard and Greenland

Brent geese were tracked by satellite telemetry from spring staging areas in Denmark to Arctic breeding areas in Svalbard and Greenland in 1997 and 2001. From estimated departure masses and carcass analysis we used flight mechnical theory to estimate maximum flight ranges of both sexes, and remaining stores of fat and protein upon arrival in females. Model predictions suggested that all birds but one exceptionally thin male could easily reach Svalbard, but that approximately one third of the males and half of the females would have problems with flying to Greenland. Nevertheless, some birds even flew longer than the models predicted. In addition, females predicted to be capable of making the flight to Greenland, were predicted to arrive almost lean of fat. This contradicts our expectation that these birds are capital breeders - that they depend on endogenous stores of fat and protein when initiating and incubating their eggs. We discuss how the Greenland breeding sub-population during 1985-1998 has been able to grow at the same rate as the sub-population breeding in Svalbard, despite the added flight distance of 700-1000 km, and despite the birds predicted shortage of fat stores on arrival. We suggest four hypotheses that alone or in combination could explain the discrepancy between model predictions and observations. These are that most birds: (1) refuel on stop-overs in Spitsbergen en route to Greenland; (2) pick favourable tail-winds enabling them to reduce flight costs; (3) fly in formation and thereby save energy; and/or (4) undergo gut atrophy immediately prior to departure, and use the nutrients mobilised by catabolism of the digestive system to build larger pectoral muscles. The latter option would both reduce their airframe fraction, and increase their fat and flight-muscle fractions, enabling them to fly longer. We conclude that the latter option seems less likely to operate in brent geese

Wind field and sex constrain the flight speeds of central-place foraging albatrosses

By extracting energy from the highly dynamic wind and wave fields that typify pelagic habitats, albatrosses are able to proceed almost exclusively by gliding flight. Although energetic costs of gliding are low, enabling breeding albatrosses to forage hundreds to thousands of kilometers from their colonies, these and time costs vary with relative wind direction. This causes albatrosses in some areas to route provisioning trips to avoid headwind flight, potentially limiting habitat accessibility during the breeding season. In addition, because female albatrosses have lower wing loadings than males, it has been argued that they are better adapted to flight in light winds, leading to sexual segregation of foraging areas. We used satellite telemetry and immersion logger data to quantify the effects of relative wind speed, sex, breeding stage, and trip stage on the ground speeds (Vg) of four species of Southern Ocean albatrosses breeding at South Georgia. Vg was linearly related to the wind speed component in the direction of flight (Vwf), its effect being greatest on Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans, followed by Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophrys, Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses Phoebatria palpebrata, and Gray-headed Albatrosses T. chrysostoma. Ground speeds at Vwf = 0 were similar to airspeeds predicted by aerodynamic theory and were higher in males than in females. However, we found no evidence that this led to sexual segregation, as males and females experienced comparable wind speeds during foraging trips. Black-browed, Gray-headed, and Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses did not engage in direct, uninterrupted bouts of flight on moonless nights, but Wandering Albatrosses attained comparable Vg night and day, regardless of lunar phase. Relative flight direction was more important in determining Vg than absolute wind speed. When birds were less constrained in the middle stage of foraging trips, all species flew predominantly across the wind. However, in some instances, commuting birds encountered headwinds during outward trips and tail winds on their return, with the result that Vg was 1.0–3.4 m/s faster during return trips. This, we hypothesize, could result from constraints imposed by the location of prey resources relative to the colony at South Georgia or could represent an energy optimization strategy

Fine-scale flight strategies of gulls in urban airflows indicate risk and reward in city living

Birds modulate their flight paths in relation to regional and global airflows in order to reduce their travel costs. Birds should also respond to fine-scale airflows, although the incidence and value of this remains largely unknown. We resolved the 3-dimensional trajectories of gulls flying along a built up coastline, and used computation fluid dynamic models to examine how gulls reacted to airflows around buildings. Birds systematically altered their flight trajectories with wind conditions to exploit updraughts over features as small as a row of low-rise buildings. This provides the first evidence that human activities can change patterns of space-use in flying birds by altering the profitability of the airscape. At finer scales still, gulls varied their position to select a narrow range of updraught values, rather than exploiting the strongest updraughts available, and their precise positions were consistent with a strategy to increase their velocity control in gusty conditions. Ultimately, strategies such as these could help unmanned aerial vehicles negotiate complex airflows. Overall, airflows around fine-scale features have profound implications for flight control and energy use, and consideration of this could lead to a paradigm-shift in the way ecologists view the urban environment