Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 26, 2026
10:56
Long-term Behavioral Tracking of Freely Swimming Weakly Electric Fish
Published on: March 6, 2014
13.1K
Goal-dependent current compensation and drift in surf scoter flocks.
Ryan Lukeman1, Alexis Christie1, Ronald C Ydenberg2
1Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, St. Francis Xavier University, P.O. Box 5000, Antigonish, NS Canada.
Movement Ecology
|February 3, 2016
Summary
Surf scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) adjust their swimming behavior to water currents. They actively compensate when heading towards foraging sites but drift when returning to open water, demonstrating flexible movement strategies.
Area of Science:
- Animal Behavior
- Movement Ecology
- Hydrodynamics
Background:
- Animals navigating fluid environments face challenges from currents affecting their trajectory.
- Understanding how species like surf scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) respond to currents is crucial for movement ecology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the individual compensatory responses of surf scoters to sideward water currents during collective foraging.
- To compare responses when moving towards a foraging location versus returning to open water.
Main Methods:
- Individual tracking of surf scoter flocks during foraging.
- Analysis of movement paths and orientation in relation to water currents.
Main Results:
- Surf scoters moved slower and compensated for currents by orienting diagonally towards the goal when approaching foraging sites.
- When returning to open water, surf scoters moved faster and allowed currents to drift them diagonally, maintaining a perpendicular orientation away from the goal.
Conclusions:
- Surf scoters exhibit behavioral flexibility, adapting their response to currents based on the movement goal.
- The ducks alternate between active compensation and passive drift, influenced by the changing costs of accuracy.
Related Concept Videos
01:21Carrier Transport
1.1K
The generation of electrical current in semiconductors is fundamentally driven by two mechanisms: drift and diffusion. These processes are essential for the functionality and performance of semiconductor-based devices.
Drift Current:
The drift of charge carriers is started by an external electric field (E). Charged particles, such as electrons and holes, experience an acceleration between collisions with lattice atoms. For electrons, this results in a drift velocity (vd) given by:
Drift Current:
The drift of charge carriers is started by an external electric field (E). Charged particles, such as electrons and holes, experience an acceleration between collisions with lattice atoms. For electrons, this results in a drift velocity (vd) given by:
1.1K
01:11Buoyancy and Stability for Submerged and Floating Bodies
4.5K
In fluid mechanics, buoyancy and stability are key concepts for understanding the behavior of submerged and floating bodies. When a stationary body is fully or partially submerged in a fluid, the fluid exerts a force on the body known as the buoyant force. This force acts vertically upward through a point called the center of buoyancy, which is the center of the displaced fluid volume. According to Archimedes' principle, the magnitude of the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the fluid...
4.5K
01:05Instinctive Drift
1.2K
Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...
1.2K
02:32Osmoregulation in Fishes
54.8K
When cells are placed in a hypotonic (low-salt) fluid, they can swell and burst. Meanwhile, cells in a hypertonic solution—with a higher salt concentration—can shrivel and die. How do fish cells avoid these gruesome fates in hypotonic freshwater or hypertonic seawater environments?
54.8K
01:19Displacement Current
4.0K
Ampère's law, in its usual form, does not work in places where the current changes with time and is not steady. Thus, Maxwell suggested including an additional contribution, called the displacement current, Id, to the real conduction current I.
4.0K
03:33Genetic Drift
45.1K
Natural selection—probably the most well-known evolutionary mechanism—increases the prevalence of traits that enhance survival and reproduction. However, evolution does not merely propagate favorable traits, nor does it always benefit populations.
45.1K