Tuesday 3 May 2016

Learning About Migration!

                                           Learning About Migration!

Yesterday we were learning about migration and homing, however it was pretty interesting learning because we went old school learning. This was because our power went off and we couldn't connect to our internet. 
However, it was such an interesting learning periods because we get to make posters and was able to try n example outside class which is sort of like an activity. 

Migration- It is a journey that is often over long distance  after once a year or once in a lifetime often for reproduction or feeding. 
Homing-A short trip home after searching for food and mates.

When migrating birds use visual cues for example like landmarks or motor ways. For homing digger wasp they used cones where home was, however studies shows that it not where the cones were it the shape that the wasp was using as navigating it way to find home. 

As for some birds they use stars as their compass to navigate their way of migrating. In one experiment scientist put birds in a conservatory/star dome, and changed the sky and looked at which way were hoping or wanting to migrate. And they found as they moved the stars it changed it way of migrating.

Some animals e.g pigeons and salmon have been shown using the earth Magnetic field to navigate them to their destination. Experiment with magnets on pigment beats shows that some birds uses magnets because when they put magnetic everywhere it shows that the birds were just flying anywhere and was confused.

And lastly the Sun Compass, as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, a lower path at winter and higher path in summer. A good example for this is the Bee dance(waggle dance) this allows the bees to communicate with the other bees. By using the angle between the direction of the straight run and the ray opposite gravity is the same as the angle between the food source and the position of the sun.

Advantage of Migration: They will be able to get more resources and meet mates to reproduce more of the species. They might get better environment in terms of predators and disease, or some migrate order to the damage of climate change. Even though birds migrating are not always successful however if they stay at the same place it would becomes a competition for nesting sites for an example. This will also attracts predators to the high concentrations of breeding birds and easy meals of nesting. 
However one principal for birds migrating is the search for food and mating.
Another fact birds put on weight before migrating because they need energy so they can basically carry on their journey. 

Thank you for reading!!!!!!!











2 comments:

  1. Hi Lana - wow, huge post! Great work today :) I particularly like how clear your explanation of the research into whether birds may use stars to help them navigate on their migration journey, and work out which way to migrate. One thing that I would improve in the post is about the adaptive advantages and costs to migration; such a long journey costs a large amount of energy; to stay in the air for so long, to walk for a long distance. The migration journey might also lack good habitats to rest or find food. It is often a dangerous journey and many animals may die along the way! Such high costs! Why bother? Food supply in one habitat may become much less in some months, so if the animals didn't migrate they would have no food. Escaping extreme climates and spending winter in a more optimal climate is also helpful to survival. One end of the migration may also be where animals meet to find mates, or places for safer breeding sites, such as nests. I hope that helped :) I also like your fact about birds putting on weight for the journey! Keep up the FANTASTIC work Lana.

    ReplyDelete