The Secret of a Condor with a 3m Wingspan Flying 160km Without Flapping Its Wings

Only 1.3% of Total Flight Time Flapping Wings
Gliding Like Riding Updrafts
UK Research Team: "Skilled Pilot... Demonstrates Flexible Flight Techniques"

Andean condor, a bird of prey inhabiting the southern tip of the South American continent / Photo by Internet homepage capture

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lim Juhyung] The secret behind how the world's largest bird of prey, the Andean Condor, can fly over 100 km without flapping its wings has been revealed.

The condor, with a wingspan of 3 meters and a body weight of 15 kg, is known as the largest and heaviest bird of prey currently alive.

On the 14th (local time), a paper published in the US scientific journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" revealed that Dr. Hannah Williams of Swansea University in Wales, UK, and her British research team, in collaboration with an Argentine team, discovered how the condor flies.

In the paper, Dr. Williams explained, "The condor uses wing flapping for only a very small portion of its total flight time," adding, "and that mostly occurs when taking off from the ground."

She continued, "Even inexperienced young condors travel vast distances without flapping their wings, which allows us to speculate how extinct birds of prey with wingspans twice as large as today's condors might have flown."

The British and Argentine research teams captured eight condors living in the Patagonia region at the southern tip of Argentina and attached location tracking devices to them. These devices recorded how much the condors flapped their wings during a total of 250 hours of flight.

As a result, it was found that condors use wing flapping for only 1.3% of their total flight time. Condors flapped their wings only when taking off into the sky and barely flapped while gliding. One bird flew 100 miles (160 km) over five hours without flapping its wings even once.

Compared to relatively smaller birds like storks and ospreys, which use wing flapping for 17% and 25% of their flight time respectively, condors fly using very little energy.

Two male Andean condors born at Seoul Grand Park in 2009 and 2014 / Photo by Seoul City

The research team explained that the secret to the condor's efficient flight lies in updrafts. When the ground surface is heated by sunlight, warm updrafts blow from the base of a mountain to its peak, and condors ride these currents to glide.

When the updrafts cease, condors flap their wings to move to another updraft. Because of this, condors flap their wings more frequently in the morning when updrafts are relatively weak.

The research team wrote, "Condors take advantage of updrafts," adding, "They are experienced pilots, but we did not expect them to be so skilled at flying."

However, this flying method can be risky. If they fail to find updrafts, they must flap their wings more, consuming more energy.

In particular, in an interview with the UK's BBC, the research team explained that condors must carefully ride the air currents. They said, "Updrafts occasionally blow from the ground, so condors might end up riding updrafts at times they do not want to."

Professor Emily Shepherd of Swansea University, who participated in the study, explained, "This research shows how flexible the condor's flying skills are."

Dr. Shepherd speculated, "Human glider pilots can choose favorable weather to fly, but condors must be able to fly anytime to find food. When they encounter environments unsuitable for riding updrafts, condors inevitably have to flap their wings more often."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.