A typhoon ask a shearwater bird on an epic journeying when it swept up the birdie , beginning an 11 - hour journeying that get word the bird arrant five full round loops . Tracking data revealed that the unfortunate male reached speeds of 90 to 170 kilometers per time of day ( 55.2 to 105.6 miles per hr ) soaring to an altitude of 4,700 metre ( 15,400 feet ) .
Shearwaterbirds typically fly at very low altitudes , cruising above the sea at hurrying of around 10 to 60 km / h ( 6.2 to 37.3 mph ) , seldom topping 100 meters ( 328 feet ) above the sea ’s control surface . However , that all change one very fatal day for a male shearwater that had been go after by scientists .
While most sea bird tend to avoid storm , an ill-omened male person got swept up by Typhoon Faxai , a brute that barrel into southeastern Japan with windspeeds of almost 200 km / henry ( 124.3 mph ) . Over the next 11 hours , the bird would fill out five loops of the typhoon that was about 50 to 80 kilometers ( 31 to 50 miles ) in diameter , traveling a full distance of 1,146 klick ( 712 mile ) .
Perhaps the most shocking statistic is that the shearwater bust through its typical fly altitude of 100 metre to almost 5,000 ( 16,400 foot ) . For some seafowl , this is a tactic they use to avoid lapse storms . crimson - footed dummy and capital frigatebirds are two species that apply this approach , ascending so high that the violent storm passes underneath them .
Pelicans take a more grounded approach , turn down to fly until the violent storm has passed by . Other pelagic birds take a more hands - on glide slope , fly toward the eye of the cyclone . Research has found that shearwaters do this , possibly as a way of avoiding risky tip transmitter that could sweep them onshore , but if that ’s what our male person was going for – it did n’t work out too well .
The trailing data point showed that he was acquit over mainland Japan before Typhoon Faxai swung back into the Pacific Ocean . In a discharge , theEcological Society of Americasuggests it ’s potential that this may excuse why the wench ride out in the storm for so long . While impossible to know for sealed , the bird may have been able to escape but decided to devolve on it out until the typhoon was back over H2O again .
It sounds harebrained to us ground - dwelling mammals but fly low over land can be a grievous place . Everything from buildings to powerlines and vehicles represents a strike risk , and if they stop up on the ground they are vulnerable to predation .
A favorable flight for our shearwater then , but its sinful journeying may become less strange for birds under the changing clime . It ’s projected that powerful storms are going to become more frequent on a warming planet , stir questions about their limitation to ride out the storm .
The study is published inEcology .
