Victorinox Classic Knife: Weird Science puts electronics in the backpacks of wild animals

Backpack-wearing colugos show ideas about gliding are for the birds: A number of mammalian species, like flying squirrels, have evolved the ability to glide for long distances. Some researchers have suggested this is a way to save energy, since a nice long glide takes a lot less power than climbing down from one location and climbing back up to another. But it's an idea that has been difficult to test until now, when miniaturized electronics have allowed researchers to fit culogos with motion-sensitive backpacks.

The tracking system shows that, to glide to a new location in the canopy, colugos have to expend a fair bit of energy to climb upwards before launching into the air—based on the biomechanics of it all, they could typically do better by moving horizontally through the canopy to their final location. And, whichever way they go about things, neither of those movements end up adding a whole lot to the animal's energy budget. So, the authors suggest that gliding's just a matter of getting someplace quickly, rather than a way to conserve energy.

Mixing GPS tracking and vomit times: "Seed dispersal is critical to understanding forest dynamics," this paper starts, reasonably enough. But, before long, the authors are feeding seeds to captive toucans and measuring how long it takes before they're vomited back up (an average of just over 25 minutes, in case you were curious).

Then, just as with culogos, miniature backpacks appear, strapped on to wild animals—in this case, a GPS system on a toucan. Given the distance travlled and the amount of time involved, the authors can estimate just how far a toucan is likely to take a seed before puking it back up. Nearly half the seeds get over 100m from their site of origin.