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Unpredictable hummingbirds: Flight path entropy is constrained by speed and wing loading

Ilias Berberi, Paolo S. Segre, Douglas L. Altshuler, Roslyn Dakin
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.246926
Ilias Berberi
1Department of Biology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6
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Paolo S. Segre
2Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, 120 Ocean View Blvd., Pacific Grove, CA, USA 93950
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Douglas L. Altshuler
3Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, 4200-6270 University Blvd., Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
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Roslyn Dakin
1Department of Biology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6
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  • For correspondence: roslyn.dakin@gmail.com
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ABSTRACT

Unpredictable movement can provide an advantage when animals avoid predators and other threats. Previous studies have examined how varying environments can elicit unpredictable movement, but the intrinsic causes of complex, unpredictable behavior are not yet known. We addressed this question by analyzing >200 hours of flight performed by hummingbirds, a group of aerial specialists noted for their extreme agility and escape performance. We used information theory to calculate unpredictability based on the positional entropy of short flight sequences during 30-min and 2-hour trials. We show that a bird’s entropy is repeatable, with stable differences among individuals that are negatively correlated with wing loading: birds with lower wing loading are less predictable. Unpredictability is also positively correlated with a bird’s overall acceleration and rotational performance, and yet we find that moment-to-moment changes in acceleration and rotational velocities do not directly influence entropy. This indicates that biomechanical performance must share an underlying basis with a bird’s ability to combine maneuvers into unpredictable sequences. Contrary to expectations, hummingbirds achieve their highest entropy at relatively slow speeds, pointing to a fundamental trade-off whereby individuals must choose to be either fast or unpredictable.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted August 12, 2020.
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Unpredictable hummingbirds: Flight path entropy is constrained by speed and wing loading
Ilias Berberi, Paolo S. Segre, Douglas L. Altshuler, Roslyn Dakin
bioRxiv 2020.08.11.246926; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.246926
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Unpredictable hummingbirds: Flight path entropy is constrained by speed and wing loading
Ilias Berberi, Paolo S. Segre, Douglas L. Altshuler, Roslyn Dakin
bioRxiv 2020.08.11.246926; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.11.246926

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