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Effect of harness design for tag attachment on the flight performance of five soaring species

Arianna Longarini, Olivier Duriez, Emily Shepard Orcid Logo, Kamran Safi, Martin Wikelski, Martina Scacco

Movement Ecology, Volume: 11, Issue: 1

Swansea University Author: Emily Shepard Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1186/s40462-023-00408-y

Abstract

BackgroundBio-logging devices play a fundamental and indispensable role in movement ecology studies, particularly in the wild. However, researchers are aware of the influence that attaching devices can have on animals, particularly on their behaviour, energy expenditure and survival. The way a devic...

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Published in: Movement Ecology
ISSN: 2051-3933
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2023
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65703
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Abstract: BackgroundBio-logging devices play a fundamental and indispensable role in movement ecology studies, particularly in the wild. However, researchers are aware of the influence that attaching devices can have on animals, particularly on their behaviour, energy expenditure and survival. The way a device is attached to an animal’s body has also potential consequences for the collected data, and quantifying the type and magnitude of such potential effects is fundamental to enable researchers to combine and compare data from different studies, as much as it is to improve animal welfare. For over two decades, large terrestrial birds have been in the focus of long-term movement ecology research, employing bio-logging devices attached with different types of harnesses. However, comparative studies investigating the effects of different harness types used on these species are scarce.MethodsIn this study, we tested for potential differences in data collected by two commonly used harness types, backpack and leg-loop, on the flight performance of 10 individuals from five soaring raptor species, equipped with high resolution bio-logging devices, in the same area and time. We explored the effect of harness type on vertical speed, airspeed, glide ratio, height above sea level, distance travelled, proportion of soaring and flapping behaviour, and VeDBA (a proxy for energy expenditure) between and within individuals, all used as fine-scale measures of flight performance.ResultsBirds equipped with leg-loops climbed up to 0.36 ms faster, reached 25.9% greater altitudes while soaring and spent less time in active flight compared to birds equipped with backpacks, suggesting that backpack harnesses, compared to leg-loops, might cause additional drag affecting the birds’ flight performance. A lower VeDBA, a lower rate of sinking while gliding and slightly higher glide ratio and airspeeds were also indicative of less drag using leg-loops, even though the effect on these parameters was comparable to inter-individual differences.ConclusionsOur results add to the existing literature highlighting the design-related advantages of leg-loops, and support the use of leg-loops as a better alternative to backpack harnesses for large soaring birds, when possible. Our study also highlights how apparently small changes in device attachment can lead to notable improvements in tagging practice, with implications for animal welfare, data interpretation and comparability.
Keywords: Tagging methods, Harness type, Backpack, Leg-loop, Soaring birds, Bio-logging, Flight performance
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Funders: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. AL was supported by the Erasmus+ Scholarship for Traineeship. We acknowledge funding from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. MS was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and by the International Max Planck Research School for Organismal Biology. ES was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant 715874).
Issue: 1

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