Migration and flight strategies in animals: new insights from tracking migratory journeys
Migration and flight strategies in animals: new insights from tracking migratory journeys
In this chapter, recent and compelling results about migration in birds, bats, and insects are put in perspective with respect to optimal migration theory. Animals that perform seasonal long-distance migrations using flight can select to migrate according to alternative strategies. Which strategy is favoured depends on the underlying selection pressure, e.g. whether an animal strives to minimize the energy cost of migration, to maximize the travel rate, or to maximize the survival, but also on ecological factors such as the distribution of food and suitable habitats along the flight route. With the rapid technological development and miniaturization of tracking devices such as light-sensitive geolocators, researchers can now get data on whole-year migrations also from relatively small migrants. With light-weight radio transmitters even insects can be tracked for at least a part of their migratory journeys.
Keywords: migration speed, geolocator, fuel load, time minimization, bird, bat, insect
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
