The surprising science behind long-distance bird migration umassamherst PNASNews
at the very end of their journeys, because they would need to use every ounce of muscle for wing-flapping, not fuel. The results appeared recently in the"Birds are amazing animals," says Cory Elowe, the paper's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in biology at UMass Amherst, where he received his Ph.D."They are extreme endurance athletes; a bird that weighs half an ounce can fly, non-stop, flapping for 100 hours at a time, from Canada to South America.
"We knew that birds burned protein, but not at this rate, and not so early in their flights," continues Gerson."What's more, these small songbirds can burn 20% of their muscle mass and then build it all back in a matter of days." "One of the biggest surprises was that every bird still had plenty of fat left when it chose to end its flight," says Elowe."But their muscles were emaciated. Protein, not fat, seems to be a limiting factor in determining how far birds can fly."
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