These incredible birds that live mainly in South America are able to travel over 160 km without ever flapping their wings
The gigantic Andean condors (Vultur gryphus) are able to travel up to 160 km without flapping their wings. This was discovered by an international study led by researchers from the British University of Swansea. The largest birds in the world, therefore, have a truly incredible ability to fly.
Their length can reach up to 130 cm and the wingspan can even exceed 3 m. The weight, from 9 to 12 kg, makes them the heaviest animals in the skies but there is another feature that makes them unique.
The Andean condor, which lives mostly in South America, is able to fly 100 miles, about 160 km, never flapping its wings. To find out, scientists from the University of Swansea in collaboration with an Argentine research team attached tracking devices to 8 young condors and found that the birds had flapped their wings for only 1,3% of the total flight time.
Incredibly, one bird flew non-stop for more than five hours, covering more than 105 miles (170 km) with its wings spread wide, never closing them.
This ability places condors between vertebrate species with the lowest level of effort during movement. What made the discovery even more astonishing was the fact that the birds plotted in the study were young, showing that even the most inexperienced ones can travel enormous distances without flapping their wings.
©Pnas
"Our data reveals the lowest recorded levels of flapping flight of any free-range bird, with condors spending considerably 99% of all time in high-flying or gliding," wrote Emily Shepard, professor of biosciences at the University. of Swansea, on PNAS.
The animals "extract energy" from the environment by flying high and use it to support metabolic costs during the flight, the team explains. Flight abilities in animals are therefore fundamentally linked to the characteristics of air currents and this affects how they use airspace.
Nature will never cease to amaze us!
Sources of reference: Pnas
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