Sensor:
Acceleration

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Acceleration
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acceleration
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Subject: animal movement × search.filters.applied.f.sensorName: Barometer ×

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    Data from: Turbulence causes kinematic and behavioural adjustments in a flapping flier
    (2024-02-20) Lempidakis, Emmanouil; Ross, Andrew N.; Quetting, Michael; Krishnan, Krishnamoorthy; Garde, Baptiste; Wikelski, Martin; Shepard, Emily L.C.
    Turbulence is a widespread phenomenon in the natural world, but its influence on flapping fliers remains little studied. We assessed how freestream turbulence affected the kinematics, flight effort, and track properties of homing pigeons (Columba livia), using the fine-scale variations in flight height as a proxy for turbulence levels. Birds showed a small increase in their wingbeat amplitude with increasing turbulence (similar to laboratory studies), but this was accompanied by a reduction in mean wingbeat frequency, such that their flapping wing speed remained the same. Mean kinematic responses to turbulence may therefore enable birds to increase their stability without a reduction in propulsive efficiency. Nonetheless, the most marked response to turbulence was an increase in the variability of wingbeat frequency and amplitude. These stroke-to-stroke changes in kinematics provide instantaneous compensation for turbulence. They will also increase flight costs. Yet pigeons only made small adjustments to their flight altitude, likely resulting in little change in exposure to strong convective turbulence. Responses to turbulence were therefore distinct from responses to wind, with the costs of high turbulence being levied through an increase in the variability of their kinematics and airspeed. This highlights the value of investigating the variability in flight parameters in free-living animals.
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    Data package
    Data from: Timing is critical: consequences of asynchronous migration for the performance and destination of a long-distance migrant
    (2023-07-25) Acácio, Marta; Catry, Inês; Soriano-Redondo, Andrea; Silva, João Paulo; Atkinson, Philip W.; Franco, Aldina M.A.
    Background: Migration phenology is shifting for many long-distance migrants due to global climate change, however the timing and duration of migration may influence the environmental conditions individuals encounter, with potential fitness consequences. Species with asynchronous migrations, i.e., with variability in migration timing, provide an excellent opportunity to investigate how of the conditions individuals experience during migration can vary and affect the migratory performance, route, and destination of migrants. Methods: Here, we use GPS tracking and accelerometer data to examine if timing of autumn migration influences the migratory performance (duration, distance, route straightness, energy expenditure) and migration destinations of a long-distance, asynchronous, migrant, the white stork (Ciconia ciconia). We also compare the weather conditions (wind speed, wind direction, and boundary layer height) encountered on migration and examine the influence of wind direction on storks’ flight directions. Results: From 2016 to 2020, we tracked 172 white storks and obtained 75 complete migrations from the breeding grounds in Europe to the sub-Saharan wintering areas. Autumn migration season spanned over a 3-month period (July–October) and arrival destinations covered a broad area of the Sahel, 2450 km apart, from Senegal to Niger. We found that timing of migration influenced both the performance and conditions individuals experienced: later storks spent fewer days on migration, adopted shorter and more direct routes in the Sahara Desert and consumed more energy when flying, as they were exposed to less supportive weather conditions. In the Desert, storks’ flight directions were significantly influenced by wind direction, with later individuals facing stronger easterly winds (i.e., winds blowing to the west), hence being more likely to end their migration in western areas of the Sahel region. Contrastingly, early storks encountered more supportive weather conditions, spent less energy on migration and were exposed to westerly winds, thus being more likely to end migration in eastern Sahel. Conclusions: Our results show that the timing of migration influences the environmental conditions individuals face, the energetic costs of migration, and the wintering destinations, where birds may be exposed to different environmental conditions and distinct threats. These findings highlight that on-going changes in migration phenology, due to environmental change, may have critical fitness consequences for long-distance soaring migrants.
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    Data package
    Data from: Thermal soaring in tropicbirds suggests that diverse seabirds may use this strategy to reduce flight costs
    (2023-09-03) Garde, Baptiste; Fell, Adam; Krishnan, Krishnamoorthy; Jones, Carl G.; Gunner, Richard; Tatayah, Vikash; Cole, Nik C.; Lempidakis, Emmanouil; Shepard, Emily L.C.
    Thermal soaring can offer substantial reductions in flight cost but it is often assumed to be confined to a relatively narrow group of fliers (those with low wing loading relative to their body mass). Using high-frequency movement data, including magnetometry and GPS, we identified thermal soaring in a seabird previously thought to use only flapping flight; red-tailed tropicbirds (Phaethon rubricauda). We tracked 55 individuals breeding on Round Island, Mauritius, and examined the environmental conditions that predicted thermal soaring in 76 trips (ranging from 0.8 to 43 h, mean= 5.9 h). Tropicbirds used thermal soaring and gliding flight for 13% of their flight time on average (range 0 - 34%), in association with both commuting and prey-searching/ pursuits. The use of thermal soaring showed strong variation between trips, but birds were more likely to soar when flying with tailwinds. This enables them to reduce their flight costs without a substantial increase in trip duration, which is pertinent in the breeding season when they are constrained by time and the need to return to a central place. Birds may therefore be able to increase the amount of thermal soaring outside the breeding season. Overall, we suggest that thermal soaring may be more widespread than previously thought, given that birds without specific morphological adaptations for this behaviour can soar for extended periods, and the bio-logging approaches best-placed to detect thermal soaring (high-frequency GPS/ magnetometry) tend to be used in the breeding season, when thermal soaring may be less likely.