Date: March 7, 2018
Source: University of Toronto
A new U of T Scarborough study
has found that when it comes to fuel efficiency, bigger is better for
hummingbirds.
"In animals body size plays
an important role in figuring out the amount of energy needed for
movement," says Derrick Groom, lead author of the research and a former
PhD student in Professor Ken Welch's lab.
"We found that larger
hummingbirds are more fuel efficient than smaller species, and this may have to
do with how smaller hummingbirds need to beat their wings more rapidly than
larger species."
The goal of the study, which is
published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, was to explore the
link between morphological traits like body mass and wingspan to metabolic
rates -- the rate at which the birds consume energy. The research also explored
how well hummingbirds turned food energy into motion, also called
mechanochemical efficiency.
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