Excess baggage for birds: inappropriate placement of tags on gannets changes flight patterns

Devices attached to flying birds can hugely enhance our understanding of their behavioural ecology for periods when they cannot be observed directly. For this, scientists routinely attach units to either birds' backs or their tails. However, inappropriate payload distribution is critical in air...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-03, Vol.9 (3), p.e92657-e92657
Main Authors: Vandenabeele, Sylvie P, Grundy, Edward, Friswell, Michael I, Grogan, Adam, Votier, Stephen C, Wilson, Rory P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Accelerometers
Aircraft
Aircraft aerodynamics
Aircraft bird strikes
Animals
Baggage
Biology
Biology and Life Sciences
Biomechanical Phenomena
Birds
Birds - physiology
Ecology
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Energy expenditure
Energy Metabolism
Feeding Behavior - physiology
Flight
Flight behavior
Flight, Animal - physiology
Geographic Information Systems
Gravity
Laws, regulations and rules
Luggage
Marine ecology
Ornithology
Physical Sciences
Physics
Pitch (inclination)
Research and Analysis Methods
Science Policy
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Summary:Devices attached to flying birds can hugely enhance our understanding of their behavioural ecology for periods when they cannot be observed directly. For this, scientists routinely attach units to either birds' backs or their tails. However, inappropriate payload distribution is critical in aircraft and, since birds and planes are subject to the same laws of physics during flight, we considered aircraft aerodynamic constraints to explain flight patterns displayed by northern gannets Sula bassana equipped with (small ca. 14 g) tail- and back-mounted accelerometers and (larger ca. 30 g) tail-mounted GPS units. Tail-mounted GPS-fitted birds showed significantly higher cumulative numbers of flap-glide cycles and a higher pitch angle of the tail than accelerometer-equipped birds, indicating problems with balancing inappropriately placed weights with knock-on consequences relating to energy expenditure. These problems can be addressed by carefully choosing where to place tags on birds according to the mass of the tags and the lifestyle of the subject species.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0092657