The birds known as starlings of the murmurations fame have three flight trajectories: straight line flight, smooth curving and jerky turns. These courses broadly correspond to actual paths many birds are known to follow.
In their simulations, the scientists modelled the way a falcon corrected its stoop while hurtling through the air along the laws used by guided missiles to maintain their fix on targets. This choice was inspired by the results of a study published last year, when different scientists had attached camera and GPS devices on falcons and found that their trajectory was quite similar to the path followed by visually guided missiles.
In the current study, the researchers picked one starling flight strategy at a time and ran simulations for different stoop altitudes, angles of attack and navigation constants. Across millions of simulations, they were able to distill the complex predator-prey dynamics of an actual starling-falcon system to a set of just three parameters. At low speed, the falcon is outsmarted by the starling because the latter are better able to steer their bodies and execute tighter turns.
At a high speed, however, the falcon kills it. When the starling flies in a straight line, the falcon is better off diving from low heights.
As soon as the starlings begin to move around a bit, the falcon has to increase its diving height to achieve a high catch-success rate. When the starlings start to move jerkily, in seemingly abrupt ways, the most successful strategy for the falcon is to dive from a height of almost 5, feet 1. The high speed achieved during this death-dive gives the falcon a distinct aerodynamic advantage: the falcon is able to roll with higher acceleration and outmanoeuvre the starlings.
It also has more leeway to sacrifice speed for a lifting force, allowing it to steer into tighter turns. Even though the simulations used in the study represented an idealised picture of an interaction between predator and prey, they have revealed previously hidden insights into why aerial predators adopt risky, challenging attack strategies when easier options seem to exist.
And these revelations have emerged from an analysis almost completely bereft of biological considerations. He writes about all things science. Ultimately, Mills hopes to use the data to develop fully autonomous flapping-wing drones. One practical application of such technology would be to replace the costly falconers and falcons currently used at airports to chase away birds, to prevent them flying into plane engines.
Explore this subject collection, bringing together world-leading research from journals, books and conference proceedings. Close search menu Submit search Type to search. Topics Astronomy and space Atomic and molecular Biophysics and bioengineering Condensed matter Culture, history and society Environment and energy Instrumentation and measurement Materials Mathematics and computation Medical physics Optics and photonics Particle and nuclear Quantum.
Sign in Register. Enter e-mail address Show Enter password Remember me. Sign in to Unlock all the content on the site Manage which e-mail newsletters you want to receive Read about the big breakthroughs and innovations across 13 scientific topics Explore the key issues and trends within the global scientific community.
Enter e-mail address This e-mail address will be used to create your account. Reset your password. Please enter the e-mail address you used to register to reset your password Enter e-mail address.
Registration complete. Guided missile: a peregrine falcon in a stoop Courtesy: Robin Mills Peregrine falcons dive from great heights and at extreme speeds when hunting to generate high aerodynamic forces that enable them to execute precise manoeuvres and catch agile prey. Simulated attacks In the latest research, described in PLOS Computational Biology , the team built a physics-based simulation of falcon attacks on aerial prey to investigate why they stoop from great heights and at extreme speed.
Want to read more? Register to unlock all the content on the site. E-mail Address. Michael Allen is a science writer based in the UK. Medical physics and biophysics Explore this subject collection, bringing together world-leading research from journals, books and conference proceedings. Read previous Particle therapy Research update Re-gating mitigates motion in scanned proton therapy.
0コメント