Domestic egg-laying hens, Gallus gallus domesticus, do not modulate flapping flight performance in response to wing condition.

ABSTRACT: Wild birds modulate wing and whole-body kinematics to adjust their flight patterns and trajectories when wing loading increases flight power requirements. Domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) in backyards and farms exhibit feather loss, naturally high wing loading, and limited flight capabilities. Yet, housing chickens in aviaries requires birds to navigate three-dimensional spaces to access resources. To understand the impact of feather loss on laying hens' flight capabilities, we symmetrically clipped the primary and secondary feathers before measuring wing and whole-body kinematics during descent from a 1.5 m platform. We expected birds to compensate for increased wing loading by increasing wingbeat frequency, amplitude and angular velocity. Otherwise, we expected to obse

SUBMITTER: Leon BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8316787 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature