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Science Quickly

How Does the World’s Largest Seabird Know Where to Fly?

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Imagine for a moment that you’re a very hungry bird soaring over 30-foot ocean swells in high winds, with no land for thousands of miles. How do you know where you’re going? If you’re a wandering albatross, you listen. But listen to what, exactly? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:28.4

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0:35.4

Imagine for a moment that you're a very hungry bird soaring over 30-foot ocean swells and high winds with no land for thousands of miles.

0:44.3

How do you know where you're going? Well, if you're a wandering albatross, you listen. According to a new finding in October's proceedings of the National Association of Sciences USA, this seabird navigates using sounds below our thresholds for hearing.

1:13.4

For science quickly, I'm Joseph Palladuro.

1:20.5

The wandering albatross thrives in the circumpolar band of ocean north of Antarctica,

1:30.3

a wind-swept region that the world's best sailors say has the most inhospitable seas on the planet.

1:36.3

On the Southern Ocean's islands where they nest and brood, one wandering albatross parent tends

1:41.3

to the nest while its partner takes to the sea, traveling as much as 10,000

1:45.2

kilometers as it forges for scattered prey. The bird must eat enough to fuel its turn on the nest,

1:51.0

which can be a long time. Birds might go for perhaps a minimum of four or five days, right the way

1:56.3

through to up to 30 days. Samantha Patrick is a marine ecologist at the University of Liverpool in England and a co-author

2:03.1

of the study.

2:04.3

Wandering albatrosses actually gain weight on these long trips because they're extremely

2:08.4

efficient flyers.

2:10.2

If you've seen an albatross, it's almost never bit its wings.

2:15.5

It's quite fascinating to see them flying in the wind. When they're flying,

2:19.6

their heartbeat is the same as when they're resting.

2:22.1

That's Sophie Degrasoch, an ornithologist and a researcher at the French National Museum of

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