Migrating Birds Take Hundreds of Powernaps. 141
Ant writes "MSNBC reports that to help make up for sleep lost during marathon night flights, migratory birds take hundreds of powernaps during the day, each lasting only a few seconds, a new study suggests.
Every autumn, Swainson's thrushes fly up to 3,000 miles from their breeding grounds in northern Canada and Alaska to winter in Central and South America. Come spring, the birds make the long trek back. The birds fly mostly at night and often for long hours at a time, leaving little time for sleep."
Not convinced (Score:4, Interesting)
I wouldn't consider this to be an impressive evolved behaviour, so much as just what happens when a bird in flight is pushing itself to its limits of endurance. There just aren't many animals other than humans and avians that ever find themselves having to maintain such prolonged alertness to survive, so this is seen as a phenomenon. Try keeping squirrels on a wire over a pit of spikes or something, and you'll probably observe the same behaviour.
@#$%^ Buzzwords (Score:2, Interesting)
Uberman (Score:2, Interesting)
How do they avoid crashing? (Score:5, Interesting)
If one stops flying completely for 9 seconds, the approximate distance it would fall is s = ut + 1/2at**2 [wikipedia.org]
But the barn swallow typically migrates within within 100 feet of the ground
So how do they avoid crashing?
Re:Why they sleep only a few seconds (Score:5, Interesting)
Not all that far from the truth.
Albatross (and related species) spend virtually their whole lives at sea, returning to land only to breed. They fish for food, but can't sleep on the sea surface because they'd get caught by preditors (some shark and whale species, sealions, etc). Their only opportunity for sleep is whilst they're flying - so they nap for a few seconds whilst they're gliding.
Did the same thing as a student-Spend &' sleep (Score:1, Interesting)
They were called lectures."
Very expensive naps.