It hasn't
been clear why certain animal populations are taking a hit, until now
Date: November 15, 2018
Source: Swansea University
A study
using animal-attached technology to measure food consumption in four very
different wild vertebrates has revealed that animals using a high-risk strategy
to find rarer food are particularly susceptible to becoming extinct, as they
fail to gather food for their young before they starve.
In the
first study of its kind, a team of researchers led by Swansea University used
thumbnail-sized electronic tags to record the movement of a number of
individual condors, cheetahs, penguins and sheep in Argentina, South Africa and
Northern Ireland over a six-year period.
Nicknamed
the "Daily Diary," the tags record a mass of data -- everything from
the animal's minute movements through space and time, to the temperature of its
environment and light levels.
The
results from the tags were used to measure:
The
probability that each animal finds food items.
The size
of the food items.
The
effort used to find the food.
The
effort used for all other activities such as rest, play etc.
Professor
Rory Wilson of Swansea University, a world-leading expert on animal movement
and lead author of the study, said: "We know that animal populations
across the world are taking a hit, with the most charismatic animals like lions
and cheetahs being among the worst affected, but up until now it hasn't been
clear why.
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