Date: March 6, 2019
Source: Lund University
"They
eat and sleep while they are airborne. This is something that researchers have
believed since the 1950s, and now we can show that it's true," says Anders
Hedenström, professor at the Department of Biology at Lund University.
Three
years ago, the same research team at Lund University observed that within the
species common swift, (Apus apus) there were individuals that live in the air
for up to ten consecutive months without landing -- a world record for being
airborne. A different research team has also shown that the alpinep swift could
live largely in the air.
In the
current study, Anders Hedenström and his colleagues Susanne Åkesson, Gabriel
Norevik, Arne Andersson and Johan Bäckman at Lund University, and Giovanni
Boano from Italy, studied four individuals of the species pallid swift (Apus pallidus). The results show that
the birds are in the air without landing for between two and three and a half
months, depending on the individual.
Using
micro-data loggers attached to the birds, the researchers measured movement
when the wings flap. The loggers record activity every five minutes, and the
bird's location once a month. Using this method, the researchers have been able
to ascertain that the birds live for months at a time in the air during the winter
months, the period of the year they spend in West Africa after the breeding
season in Italy.
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