The world’s largest flying bird, the Andean condor, can stay in the air for 5 hours. and covers over 100 miles of real estate without shaking your wings, according to new research.
Weighing more than 33 pounds (15 kg) and with a wingspan reaching 10 feet (3 meters), the Andean condors are a physically impressive species. New investigation Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences magazine shows the dramatic extent to which these scavengers can stay airborne and conserve energy while patiently searching for scavenger on the ground.
Slipping from one air stream to another, Andean condors spend almost everything of their flight time in this towering mode, flapping their wings just 1.3% of the time, according to new research, co-authored by University of Swansea biologist Emily Shepard.
From 2013 to 2018, Shepard and his colleagues tracked eight Andean condors near Bariloche, Argentina, which they did by fixing flight recorders capable of recording every beat made by birds during flight. The purpose of this exercise was to measure the effects of different weather conditions on the flight of the condor. In total, the scientists managed to chronicle about 250 hours of data.
G / O Media may receive a commission
In the most extreme example, an Andean Condor spent five hours in the air without fluttering, during which time the bird covered 106 miles (172 km). David Lentink, a biologist at Stanford University who was not involved in the new study, described the results as “mind-blowing.” saying The Guardian.
As the data showed, about 75% of the flapping that occurred occurred as the The condors were taking off. This points to a great physical cost to birds. and a good reason to avoid unnecessary landings and takeoffs.
“Flying birds fly under weather conditions that allow them to stay airborne with the absolute minimum of movement costs, but there are times when these birds must resort to an extremely expensive flapping flight,” explained Hannah Williams, co-author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, in a Press release.
These nearly finless flight sessions occurred when conditions were calm and windy, but the flapping occurred most frequently in the early morning when gusts of warm wind or thermal updrafts began to form and rise very slowly.
“Our findings suggest that in-flight decisions on when and where to land and when to move between airflows are crucial, as not only should condors be able to take off again after landing, but unnecessary landings will add significantly to their overall flight. . costs, “Williams said.
Looking to the future, researchers would like to understand decision-making during condor flight. and how they can effortlessly bounce from one thermal updraft to the next. At the same time, new research may explain how early avian dinosaurs like it. ArcheopteryxThey were also quite large and could have flown without spending too much energy.
.
