Second North American Sea Duck Conference - Patuxent Wildlife ...

SECOND NORTH AMERICAN SEA DUCK CONFERENCE
STUDYING FLIGHT BEHAVIOR OF COMMON EIDERS
USING HEART RATE DATA LOGGERS
David Pelletier, Magella Guillemette, Jean-Marc Grandbois, Anthony J. Woakes, and Patrick J.
Butler
University of Quebec at Rimouski, Quebec (CANADA); david.pelletier@uqar.qc.ca
Bird flight is an elusive behavior because it is impossible for most species to quantify its frequency
and duration. Radars or satellite telemetry can be used to analyze orientation and duration of long
(migrating) flights but they do not give information about flights of shorter duration. It has been
known for a long time that heart rates and respiration rates are 3 to 6 times higher than resting
level for birds using flapping flight. In this study, our objectives are (1) to describe the heart rate
signature associated with flights and (2) to compare heart rate during flight to heart rates recorded
during other behaviors. Finally, (3) we give an example of flight budget covering eight months of
recording using heart rate signature of flights. In 2003, we implanted heart rate data loggers (HRLs)
in 20 females common eiders (Somateria mollissima) nesting on Christiansoe island (Denmark).
The common eider is a good model for this study as it is characterized by short-pointed wings and
excessive wing-loadings. By observing flying females with HRLs (few days after deployment around
the breeding colony), we know that heart rate increases instantaneously upon take-off, remains at a
very high level throughout the flight period, and then decreases suddenly upon landing. Comparison
with other behaviors revealed that flight heart rate can be confounded only with heart rate associated
to bathing behavior and heart rate upon surfacing from a dive. However, heart rate related to bathing
behavior decreases slowly, and not suddenly, whereas all high heart rates associated with diving were
discarded from the database, using hydrostatic pressure data and a homemade program, to monitor
only flight behavior. We conclude that HRLs could be used (1) to quantify flight budget of freeranging
sea ducks over long periods of time, (2) to record the occurrence and duration of migrations
and, possibly, (3) to identify and measure the duration of the various seasonal phases.
104 ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, USA NOV. 7-11, 2005