Decision-making by a soaring bird: time, energy and risk considerations at different spatio-temporal scales.

ABSTRACT: Natural selection theory suggests that mobile animals trade off time, energy and risk costs with food, safety and other pay-offs obtained by movement. We examined how birds make movement decisions by integrating aspects of flight biomechanics, movement ecology and behaviour in a hierarchical framework investigating flight track variation across several spatio-temporal scales. Using extensive global positioning system and accelerometer data from Eurasian griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) in Israel and France, we examined soaring-gliding decision-making by comparing inbound versus outbound flights (to or from a central roost, respectively), and these (and other) home-range foraging movements (up to 300 km) versus long-range movements (longer than 300 km). We found that long-range movements and

SUBMITTER: Harel R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4992721 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature