■生物采集装置对动物的空气动力学或流体动力学的影响仍然知之甚少。这与在野生动物中越来越广泛地使用此类技术形成鲜明对比。最近,人们越来越担心这些装置对有关动物的损害作用。在生物遥测的早期,注意力只集中在减轻体重上,但是现在空气动力学效应也越来越被考虑。为了调查这些影响,我们训练NorthernBaldIbises在风洞中飞行,在该风洞中,我们测量了心率和动态身体加速度(VeDBA),作为相对于不同记录仪形状和风向的能量消耗的代理。
■我们的数据提供了证据,证明生物设备的位置会显著影响飞行距离,生物设备的形状对心率和VeDBA有相当大的影响,两者都被用作能量消耗的代理。不利的形状和定位不仅仅影响拍打飞行期间所需的努力。在能量上可能更重要的影响是,这些装置削弱了鸟滑行或飞翔的能力,从而迫使它们更频繁地执行能量要求更高的扑动飞行。这种效果在上升的空气中比在水平气流中更明显。在春季迁徙期间,对野生北方秃头伊比斯的补充研究提供了证据,表明设备在鸟背部的位置会影响飞行阶段的长度。鸟在上背部携带设备,由翼环带固定,与具有更尾端定位装置的鸟类相比,飞行阶段明显更短,由腿环线束固定。
■生物设备在鸟类上的附着会影响其性能和行为,因此可能会影响其健康和死亡率。我们的结果表明,可以用相对较少的努力来减少有害影响,特别是通过壳体的严格的空气动力学设计和在将装置附接到主体时增加对空气动力学的考虑。在鸟类中,通过腿环将生物装置连接到下背部显然优于通过上背部的翼环将生物装置连接到下背部。即使这会影响太阳能电池板的效率。然而,减阻的重要性可能因系统而异,因为让生物设备靠近重心的好处可能超过这涉及的阻力增加。总的来说,在这个领域需要更多的研究。这既有利于动物福利,也有利于避免对所收集数据的质量产生偏差。
■在线版本包含补充材料,可在10.1186/s40317-023-00322-5获得。
UNASSIGNED: The impact of
biologging devices on the aerodynamics or hydrodynamics of animals is still poorly understood. This stands in marked contrast to the ever more extensive use of such technologies in wild-living animals. Recently, increasing concerns have been raised about the impairing effects of these devices on the animals concerned. In the early days of biotelemetry, attention was focused solely on reducing weight, but now aerodynamic effects are also increasingly being considered. To investigate these effects, we trained Northern Bald Ibises to fly in a wind tunnel in which we measured heart rate and dynamic body acceleration (VeDBA) as proxies for energy expenditure in relation to different logger shapes and wind flow directions.
UNASSIGNED: Our data provide evidence that the position of
biologging devices significantly influence the flight distances, and the shape of
biologging devices has a considerable effect on heart rate and VeDBA, both of which have been used as proxies for energy expenditure. Unfavorable shape and positioning go beyond merely affecting the effort required during flapping flight. The energetically probably more important effect is that the devices impair the bird\'s ability to glide or soar and thus force them to perform the energetically much more demanding flapping flight more frequently. This effect was more pronounced in rising air than in horizontal airflow. A complementary study with wild Northern Bald Ibises during spring migration provides evidence that the position of the devices on the bird\'s back affects the length of the flight stages. Birds carrying the devices on the upper back, fixed by wing-loop harnesses, had significantly shorter flight stages compared to birds with a more caudally positioned device, fixed by leg-loop harnesses.
UNASSIGNED: The attachment of
biologging devices on birds affects their performance and behavior and thus may influence their fitness and mortality. Our results show that detrimental effects can be reduced with relatively little effort, in particular through a strictly aerodynamic design of the housing and increased consideration of aerodynamics when attaching the device to the body. In birds, the attachment of
biologging devices via leg loops to the lower back is clearly preferable to the common attachment via wing loops on the upper back, even if this affects the efficiency of the solar panels. Nevertheless, the importance of drag reduction may vary between systems, as the benefits of having a biologging devices close to the center of gravity may outweigh the increase in drag that this involves. Overall, more research is required in this field. This is both in the interest of animal welfare and of avoiding biasing the quality of the collected data.
UNASSIGNED: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40317-023-00322-5.