Gliding Behavior of Japanese Giant Flying Squirrels (Petaurista Leucogenys)

Stafford, Brian J.; Thorington, Richard W.; Kawamichi, Takeo

doi:10.1644/1545-1542(2002)083<0553:gbojgf>2.0.co;2

Cited by 45 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Exploiting the principles of claws, van der Waals forces and wet adhesion, animals have evolved to generate the required attachment forces (figure 2) [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. This enables animals to negotiate and exploit complex surfaces with a combination of effective aerial approaches, contact strategies, surface locomotion techniques and take-off manoeuvres of which the dynamics are not well understood [1,[69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85]. By contrast, aerial robots are just starting to implement some of these successful perching and locomotion strategies.…”

Section: Diversity Of Natural and Engineered Surfacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some finches and doves, for example, have been shown to use their wingbeats to absorb 3-10 times the energy absorbed by the legs while landing [100]. Many of these animals pitch upwards to reduce their speed before landing on vertical surfaces, such as tree trunks [1,71,74,[78][79][80][81]85]. This technique is found in a wide range of animals from insects to mammals, though it is more quantified in larger animals.…”

Section: Air-surface Transitions In Flying Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Touchdown to take-off: at the interface of flight and surface locomotion

Roderick¹,

Cutkosky²,

Lentink³

2017

Interface Focus.

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Small aerial robots are limited to short mission times because aerodynamic and energy conversion efficiency diminish with scale. One way to extend mission times is to perch, as biological flyers do. Beyond perching, small robot flyers benefit from manoeuvring on surfaces for a diverse set of tasks, including exploration, inspection and collection of samples. These opportunities have prompted an interest in bimodal aerial and surface locomotion on both engineered and natural surfaces. To accomplish such novel robot behaviours, recent efforts have included advancing our understanding of the aerodynamics of surface approach and take-off, the contact dynamics of perching and attachment and making surface locomotion more efficient and robust. While current aerial robots show promise, flying animals, including insects, bats and birds, far surpass them in versatility, reliability and robustness. The maximal size of both perching animals and robots is limited by scaling laws for both adhesion and claw-based surface attachment. Biomechanists can use the current variety of specialized robots as inspiration for probing unknown aspects of bimodal animal locomotion. Similarly, the pitch-up landing manoeuvres and surface attachment techniques of animals can offer an evolutionary design guide for developing robots that perch on more diverse and complex surfaces.

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Section: Diversity Of Natural and Engineered Surfacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Air-surface Transitions In Flying Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Touchdown to take-off: at the interface of flight and surface locomotion

Roderick¹,

Cutkosky²,

Lentink³

2017

Interface Focus.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…(M=26·g, SVL=62·cm.) Gliding kinematics of flying snakes the body upward, enabling an upright landing on a vertical substrate (Nachtigall, 1979;Scholey, 1986;Stafford et al, 2002). None of the snakes in this study landed on a vertical substrate, but they were not observed to slow down before landing on the ground.…”

Section: Glide Speedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In these field studies (e.g. Ando and Shiraishi, 1993;Jackson, 1999;Scholey, 1986;Stafford et al, 2002;Vernes, 2001), glide performance was estimated using a few basic measurements, such as takeoff height, landing height and horizontal distance (all usually estimated using a rangefinder or maps); and aerial time (measured with a stopwatch). Because straight-line distances were used to calculate performance in these studies, true glide ratio (valid only at equilibrium) and speed are underestimated -the animals actually achieved higher glide ratios and higher speeds during the gliding portion of the trajectory than reported.…”

Section: Comparative Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

A 3-D kinematic analysis of gliding in a flying snake,Chrysopelea paradisi

Socha

O'Dempsey

LaBarbera

2005

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY Flying snake species (Chrysopelea) locomote through the air despite a lack of appendages or any obvious external morphological specialization for flight. Here photogrammetric techniques were used to investigate C. paradisi's aerial trajectory in three dimensions. Two videocameras arranged in stereo were used to record head, midpoint and vent landmarks on snakes that jumped from a horizontal branch at a height of 9.62 m and landed in an open field. The coordinates of these landmarks were reconstructed in three dimensions and used to analyze patterns of position,glide angle and speed concurrently with changes in body posture in 14 glide sequences from different individuals. C. paradisi's trajectory was composed of a ballistic dive followed by a shallowing phase in which the path became more horizontal; for most glide trials, no equilibrium phase was observed. In the ballistic dive, the snake changed posture from generally straight to a wide `S' shape in planview and began aerial undulation. Shortly after the ballistic dive, the snake's speed transitioned from an initial acceleration to stable or to a different rate of increase or decrease. Aerial undulation, in which high-amplitude traveling waves pass posteriorly down the body, was a prominent locomotor behavior. In mid-glide, this undulation occurred with the anterior body oriented approximately parallel with the ground and the posterior body cycling up and down in the vertical plane. The body angle of attack for the anterior body for one trial was 20-40°. Snakes traveled a horizontal distance of 10.14±2.69 m (mean ± s.d.) while reaching an airspeed of 10.0±0.9 m s-1, sinking speed of 6.4±0.8 m s-1 and horizontal speed of 8.1±0.9 m s-1. The glide path shallowed at a rate of 20±6° s-1 and reached a minimum glide angle of 28±10°, with a minimum recorded glide angle of 13°. C. paradisi are surprisingly good gliders given their unconventional locomotor style, with performance characteristics that rival or surpass more familiar gliding taxa such as flying squirrels. As in other gliders, C. paradisi is potentially capable of using aerial locomotion to move effectively between trees, chase aerial prey, or avoid predators.

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“…mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects (Dudley et al, 2007)]. The morphological modifications thought to enhance aerial performance range from the absence of any obvious aerodynamic surfaces in gliding snakes (see Socha, 2002) and ants (Yanoviak et al, 2005) to lateral folds in some gliding lizards and webbed feet in gliding frogs (Russell, 1979;Emerson and Koehl, 1990;Russell et al, 2001;McCay, 2001;Pough et al, 2004) to extensive patagia in flying squirrels (Jackson, 2000;Stafford et al, 2002) and Draco lizards (McGuire, 2003;McGuire and Dudley, 2005). Although several recent studies have quantified aerial performance, they have all focused on a single species or a set of closely related species with a similar morphology (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecomorphological analysis of aerial performance in a non-specialized lacertid lizard,Holaspis guentheri

Vanhooydonck

Meulepas

Herrel

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYControlled aerial descent has evolved at least 30 times independently in different vertebrate and invertebrate lineages. A whole suite of morphological modifications, such as patagia, lateral skin folds and webbed feet, have been suggested to enhance descending ability. In this study, we compare aerial performance (i.e. vertical and horizontal velocity, horizontal distance covered, duration of descent) and morphology (body mass, body width, inter limb distance, surface area and wing loading) among three species of lizards, representing a range of aerial descenders present within the clade. Our performance measurements show that the lacertid Holaspis guentheri performs intermediately to the specialized gekkonid Ptychozoon kuhli and the rock-dwelling lizard Podarcis muralis. The small relative body mass of H. guentheri results in a low wing loading similar to that of P. kuhli thus enhancing its aerial performance. Whereas the latter generates great lift forces and is able to cover great horizontal distances, H. guentheri's low wing loading seems to be responsible for a slow descent and low impact forces upon landing. Our results show that very small morphological changes may result in noticeable and ecologically relevant changes in performance.

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Gliding Behavior of Japanese Giant Flying Squirrels (Petaurista Leucogenys)

Cited by 45 publications

References 16 publications

Touchdown to take-off: at the interface of flight and surface locomotion

Touchdown to take-off: at the interface of flight and surface locomotion

A 3-D kinematic analysis of gliding in a flying snake,Chrysopelea paradisi

Ecomorphological analysis of aerial performance in a non-specialized lacertid lizard,Holaspis guentheri

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