Colugo lemur consumes more energy when

Scientists working at the University of California, Berkeley, USA discovered that Colugo's flying lemurs move by sliding in the air to save time, despite having to consume energy. 1.5 times more than walking on the foliage.

Grasping on a tree trunk, at first sight we can confuse the Colugo with the usual lemur.

Child Colugo on the tree.

However, when the animal leaps up, it will launch into a graceful ring, the animal's legs and tail are joined by skin membranes at the end of each part to enhance the ability to fly when needed. In fact, it can stretch these leather films to glide over wide distances, up to 150m.

Greg Byrnes and his colleague Andrew Spence, working at the University of California, Berkeley, USA are looking for a mammal to attach an accelerometer / radio transmitter, a demonstration duo designed to follow Watching colugo and mammals, is a great choice.

' The Colugo is a large glider and an opportunity to help us learn about the animals we need to study '. Byrnes said. The team began to care about the natural history of these charming creatures, Byrnes realized that they could use the information gathered to learn about Colugo's movement.

In Singapore, Byrnes teamed up with Norman Lim to study this hovering mammal and the team found that: instead of saving energy, Colugo ' slipped ' to save time. The results of this study were published in Experimental Biology .

Watching some of the Colugo's nocturnal sleep-sleeping animals, Byrnes caught six of these Colugo and pasted an accelerometer to the back of them before giving them the freedom to surf. This device can help collect data for 3 days, Byrnes and Lim, tracking the Colugo creatures until the data collection device finally falls off and they can retrieve all the receivers. Data collection a few weeks later.

After collecting a lot of useful data, a group of researchers including: Byrnes, Spence and Thomas Libby, returned to the University of California, Berkeley, USA: ' We recorded data in quantities of 100. frame in 1 second, " Byrnes added :" there is a special acceleration when the Colugo kids surf in the air. What you see is that they leap up and there are times when speeding up suddenly and landing, in general they slide very well . ' Finally, the team calculated the acceleration times of each Colugo into a velocity based on the height of the tree and the process of gliding in the air, and figuring out the distance that the Colugo surpassed. each time flying.

Analyzing the curves representing the Colugo's flying process, the team found that ' Colugo's children only climbed a modest height to fly. An average of 8m for a Colugo slipped in the air for a distance of about 30m to 50m, 'said Byrnes. But how much energy is used to slip through this gap?

The team's calculations are based on: the amount of energy used by a small primate (which has a close relative to the Colugo), walks on the ground, crosses the distance from 30m to 50m; Compare with the amount of energy used by a Colugo to climb a tree and start surfing in a distance of 30m to 50m. Scientists found that instead of saving energy, Colugo uses 1.5 times more energy than walking . ' This is a surprise, because many people think that flying is less energy-efficient, ' says Byrnes.

However, one thing is clear: flying in the air helps Colugo move faster. If you watch these animals move through the trees, they move quite slowly, Byrnes said, ' But they can travel 10 times faster by hovering over long distances, so they can spend a lot of time. More time for finding food, 'explained Byrnes. Flying is also an effective form of movement to protect the Colugo from dangerous enemies and reduce the risk of risk as they climb the spike branches, so for the Colugo to fly in the air. can bring them great benefits in the long run rather than energy saving.