Bats are the only mammalian that can technically pilot , but a mint of other wight do a reasonably adept impression of flight by glide down from the top of improbable trees . But there ’s a job : this behavior makes no sensory faculty .
fate of small mammal have perfected the art of soaring , using folds of skin to maintain lift over long distances , sometimes as much as a hundred foot across the rainforest canopy . The unearthly thing is that , according to new research from UC Berkeley and UC Davis , it would be a much better role of vigour for the puppet to simply run across the floor of the rainforest as any other brute would . Gliding may look like a leisurely way to get around , but it ’s really very taxing on these critters .
The researchers bind motion sensing element to the rachis of four colugo , a type of lemur found in southeasterly Asia and the Philippines . They found that it systematically take 1.5 times the amount of energy for these colugos to glide over a given distance than it would for them to travel that far on foot .
It ’s not just a question of why the colugos would irritate glide when it ’s so energy - intensive – more to the point , why did it and other soaring metal money develop that ability at all if it ’s such an inefficient adaptation ? The researchers consider that simple survival may have trumped vigor business for these mammalian – being able to glide over dangerous terrain would have protect them from predators , and the power to glide would give them a build - in safety net if they fell off a branch while attempt to exhaust from folio in the canopy .
Journal of Experimental BiologyviaScienceNOW . Imagevia .
BiologyEnergyEvolutionMammalScienceZoology
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