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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Influence of wing loading on the trade-off between pursuit-diving and flight in common guillemots and razorbills
Journal of Experimental Biology, Volume 213, No. 7, Year 2010
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Description
Species of bird that use their wings for underwater propulsion are thought to face evolutionary trade-offs between flight and diving, leading to the prediction that species with different wing areas relative to body mass (i.e. different wing loadings) also differ in the relative importance of flight and diving activity during foraging trips. We tested this hypothesis for two similarly sized species of Alcidae (common guillemots and razorbills) by using bird-borne devices to examine three-dimensional foraging behaviour at a single colony. Guillemots have 30% higher wing loading than razorbills and, in keeping with this difference, razorbills spent twice as long in flight as a proportion of trip duration whereas guillemots spent twice as long in diving activity. Razorbills made a large number of short, relatively shallow dives and spent little time in the bottom phase of the dive whereas guillemots made fewer dives but frequently attained depths suggesting that they were near the seabed (ca. 35-70m The bottom phase of dives by guillemots was relatively long, indicating that they spent considerable time searching for and pursuing prey. Guillemots also spent a greater proportion of each dive bout underwater and had faster rates of descent, indicating that they were more adept at maximising time for pursuit and capture of prey. These differences in foraging behaviour may partly reflect guillemots feeding their chicks single large prey obtained near the bottom and razorbills feeding their chicks multiple prey from the water column. Nonetheless, our data support the notion that interspecific differences in wing loadings of auks reflect an evolutionary trade-off between aerial and underwater locomotion. © 2010. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.
Authors & Co-Authors
Thaxter, Chris B.
United Kingdom, Leeds
University of Leeds
Wanless, Sarah
United Kingdom, Wallingford
Uk Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Daunt, Francis
United Kingdom, Wallingford
Uk Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Harris, Michael P.
United Kingdom, Wallingford
Uk Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Benvenuti, Silvano
Italy, Pisa
Università Di Pisa
Watanuki, Yutaka
Japan, Sapporo
Hokkaido University
Grémillet, David
France, Montpellier
Centre D’ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive
Hamer, Keith C.
United Kingdom, Leeds
University of Leeds
Statistics
Citations: 85
Authors: 8
Affiliations: 5
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1242/jeb.037390
ISSN:
00220949
Research Areas
Environmental