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Small Bird Astounds Scientists With 11,200km Flight
Zeb writes "Scientists are marveling over a small female bar-tailed godwit somewhere in New Zealand who has a world record for non-stop flying — an epic 11,200 kilometers. A major international study into the birds has been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B and it offers an explanation as to why the godwits fly so far from Alaska to New Zealand in a single bound. The birds flew non-stop for up to and covered more than 11,200km. The flight path shows the birds did not feed en route and would be unlikely to sleep." The linked Wikipedia entry claims an even longer trip record, of 11,570 kilometers.
...and boy are my arms tired.
"We believe it flew so far to get away from the state's governor and her anti-bird policies."
African or european?
How do they store enough energy?
br>Anyone qualified to offer guesses for the amount of energy required?
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
It's because the male birds refused to stop and ask directions, of course. Then, when they arrived at their destinations thousands of kilometers off course, they simply claimed it was where they *wanted* to go in the first place. Now, they have to fly back there every year, or admit they were wrong in the first place. Much easier to fly 11,200 kilometers twice a year.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
From the article:
When he doesn't do doping, of course.
They were "unlikely to sleep?"
So Joe Scientist thinks there's a remote possibility that the birds napped en route during a "nonstop, over-water route?" WTF? Mind you, I'd pay good money to see it happen, but I really can't figure out how that would work.
The record is actually for flying the furthest in eight days across the Pacific, not the furthest non-stop flight ever as implied by the headline. Which is not surprising - the common swift, for example, can spend years in the air without landing. http://www.commonswift.org/records_english.html
Nonetheless, these birds are still impressive.
Looks like the godwit didn't get the memo that it's okay to fail, its to far for them to fly and they're so little that it's just not possible and the only way they can succeed is with a government program. Stupid little birds.
Admit it... you had to look it up (unless you're in physics or live outside the USA)
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
That's not a godwit! It's a Snipe! Where's my burlap sack?
It's the first time I see the Godwit law apply right from the summary.
Oh wait...
Typos on the source?
Inconsistent distances in the Wikipedia entry?
Original source? I went down 3 levels and never found any clarification.
Some birds can do that - it's like fly through McDonalds for them.
No sig today...
Quite humbling, I think. The other day I was thinking about how I don't have those dreams about flying anymore. I guess it's part of coming of age? In any case, sometimes I wish I was able to fly like a bird - and imagine being able to do so for thousands of kilometers (though the godwit does land, from time to time, I think).
And the other thing that came to my mind: the world is full of wonderful creatures that would be a shame if disappeared because of the changes in the environment - mostly destructive - that are happening.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
"The birds flew non-stop for up to and..."
Up to what? I assume this is supposed to be a time. Also, these birds are awesome.
My grandmother used anecdotal evidence all the time, and she lived to be 120 years old.
*whooooosh* (btw dominator, that was a monty python reference you responded to)
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*whooooosh* (btw Hojima, that was also a monty python reference you responded to)
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Scientists. Always ignoring the important questions.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Damn, I must have missed that scene or forgot it over all these years.
*Whoooosh* (btw zippthorne, no one expects the Spanish inquisition)
You're thinking small. Why miniaturize the laser, when we could instead enlarge the sharks? -John Searle
Wikipedia is not a reputable scientific journal. It frustrates me that people are beginning to accept anything they read in Wikipedia as fact instead of a tool to direct them to genuine sources of information. It reminds me of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. (1) "the hitch hikers guide does not claim to be accurate, but, it says, where it is inaccurate it is at least wildly inaccurate" (2) "work at the guide tends to get when some passing strange happens to walk in of the afternoon and sees something worth doing"
Shortest penis!
I've had a hunt through NCBI, Google Scholar and the Proceedings of the Royal Society B site, and can't find the paper. One news article suggested a publication date of October 21, and a few articles mention the researcher 'Robert (Bob) Gill' as leading the investigation.
Could have been a combination of Thermals, updroughts, gliding and that thing they do in rollerball where they slingshot the other person between 2 of them.
"Persistance is Fertile" - Me. I can quote myself if I want to.
...the bird will need to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
Are they sure that the bird made the 11.2km flight-- and not a 0.1 km flight to the nearest airport, and into the intake port of a plan making a 11.2km flight?
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