Natural History Wanderings

A Wind Tunnel Helps Find the Answer

Birds can fly as far as 7000 miles without stopping to eat or drink.  Although there have been theories about how they do it, it was impossible to test them until now. Using a state-of-the-art wind tunnel and a quantitative magnetic resonance analysis (a technology that is like an MRI)  biologists at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, found the answer.  They found that birds burn muscle and organ instead of fat as a way to conserve water when flying long distances. Read More at the LA Times:  Wind tunnel helps determine how birds fly so far without water