The failure of High Range landscape project to take off in Kerala

This is a cross post from my regular blog Tahrcountry musings.( http://tahrcountry.blogspot.in/ ).  I had stopped maintaining the blog Highrange Tidings, but thought this particular post from Tahrcountry Musings is worth a repost here. The matter is of great significance to High Ranges of Kerala.

The failure of High Range landscape project to take off in Kerala should act as an eye opener to planners in Kerala. It was a grandiose project conceived with very good intentions. But, in a thickly populated and highly literate state like Kerala the planners should have taken much more care before even thinking of implementing it.
The project funded by UNDP was planned in near secrecy with deliberations limited to few individuals. The interaction with local administrators lacked the urgency and empathy that was obviously needed. The local administrators were treated with disdain and supercilious attitude.
The attitude of UNDP officials also came in for criticism when they visited areas like Munnar. They had the know all attitude.Disdain and insouciance was written large in their demeanour. A furious estate manager rang me up and said" Who the bloody hell the UNDP officials think they are. They were trying to lord it over us. We do not like the attitude"
Even the wording of the project document had lot of lacunae. Sentences like an increase in protected area is expected was thrown out of context by the politicians and the bogey of taking away peoples' rights was spread by the politicians with ulterior motives. The officials concerned failed to read the danger signals in time or may be they took it lightly in their stride.
The church which has sizable followers in High Ranges also took a negative attitude. The mix of politicos and church was potent. Emotions were whipped up by interested elements with ulterior motives and their own agendas.
The failure of proper dialogue spelt the death knell of the project. Even within the departments proper dialogue was not initiated. Forest department which was the nodal agency failed miserably in this respect. When the newly appointed chief of forest forces Dr B.S Correy was asked about his comments on the project by a journalist he was frank enough to admit that he does not know anything much about the project. "It was conceived by a coterie within the forest department and they tried to implement it according to their will and pleasure". That in a nut shell explains the reasons for the failure of the project.

Discontinuing the blog

Due to paucity of time and the demands of other pressing chores I am discontinuing this blog. I will continue to maintain my other blog tahrcountry( http://tahrcountry.blogspot.com/). Hop on to tahrcountry for informative posts on wildlife.

One up the arse of BSNL

Hi guys,
             Sorry about the tone and tenor of the title.There is no better way to express my ire and woe. My telephone line and internet connectivity went dead three weeks back and BSNL the provider is yet to repair it. The constant answer is cable fault. If even after 3 weeks they cannot pin point and repair the fault they should leave this job and hand over the service to private firms. Is it a deliberate ploy by interested quarters working hand in glove with private providers to destroy the BSNL ? It seems to be a real possibility

Amazing protective properties of green tea

I am a green tea buff. I got hooked on to it from my very first sip years back in Munnar. I have initiated many to the delights of sipping green tea and I closely follow every bit of news about green tea.

It was with great pleasure that I read in journal Biology and Nature the latest on green tea. Scientists have discovered that drinking green tea could protect the brain against developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

The researchers from Newcastle University wanted to find out whether the protective properties of green tea were still active once the tea had been digested. They found that when green tea is digested by enzymes in the stomach, the resulting chemicals are actually more effective against key triggers of Alzheimer's development than the undigested form of the tea. Digested compounds also had anti-cancer properties, significantly slowing down the growth of the tumour cells.

Watermelons - Yummy and Functional Fruit

    I have a weakness for watermelons. The other day I was munching delectable watermelon that my friend Ramesh from wynad had procured. After polishing off the watermelon I told Ramesh about the medicinal properties of watermelon. Ramesh was all ears and wanted me to put the info in my blog. 

So guys here it comes.    Watermelon is an excellent fruit that can ward off ill effects of prehypertension. Watermelon is the richest edible natural source of L-citrulline, which is closely related to L-arginine, the amino acid required for the formation of nitric oxide essential to the regulation of vascular tone and healthy blood pressure.   

When university of Florida researchers administered six grams of the amino acid L-citrulline/L-arginine from watermelon extract there was improved arterial function and consequently lowered aortic blood pressure in all nine of their prehypertensive subjects. Watermelon has vasodilatory effect, and this may prevent prehypertension from progressing to full-blown hypertension.   

Watermelon is also a rich source of vitamin A, B6, C, fiber, potassium and lycopene. So guys go ahead and eat watermelons when the season comes. 

The Declaration of 17,066.49 Acres of KDH Area as Reserve Forest

The declaration of 17,066.49 acres of KDH area as reserve forest is the best thing that could have happened in Munnar. This was a long overdue process. We congratulate Forest Minister Benoy Viswom and the officers at the top echelons of the forest department for the ceaseless efforts that they have made to make this demand from environmentalists come true. It is actions like this that are the need of the hour.

Stale things like my tree, your tree, their tree are Ok to garner attention for some time. They pale in to insignificance in the long process. It should not be the number of seedlings that matter. What matters should be the seedlings that grow on to become trees. I am sure that if all the seedlings that were planted to date had grown to become trees we would have needed dredging the Arabian Sea to find the required land. So go for quality instead of harping on clichéd words and sentences. 

We wish you the very best in your endeavours.

Some Random Thoughts

The increasing thrust of ecotourism in wildlife reserves makes me squirm. While the tour operators makes merry and their cash registers keep ringing, there is absolutely no mechanism to routinely monitor the negative impacts of tourism in wildlife areas. Is it a deliberate turning the face away from the facts? I doubt so.

Many policy makers think that prefixing the three letters ECO is the panacea for all the evils affecting us. Very little thought is given to implications. Why is it that we cannot have a mechanism for monitoring the reserves on a regular basis? In the mad rat race for mega bucks the eyes of the administrators seem to get blighted.

Forethought has become a rarity among our administrators. Look at the recent strike of auto workers in Kerala. It was clear as day light that a strike was round the corner with the increase in fuel prices. Instead of living in fools’ paradise and giving sermons the minister and administrators should have come up with well thought out plans. This did not happen. Many foreign tourists were put to lot of bother by the strike. Some of them even missed their flight. A state that calls itself God’s own country meted a devils own treatment to the foreign and domestic tourists.

I feel that the Indian Institute of Management should come up with a short term courses for ministers and administrators that are rooted in emergency fire fighting. The ministers and administrators seem to forget that it is the common man’s tax money that they fritter away. 

Greetings

Happy New Year

We wish you the very best in your conservation mission for 2011.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.

Greetings

                             Wish you a very happy X'mas and New Year 


Next blog post will be only on 1st of January. Have a great time.

Roadsides Vegetation can be used as a Carbon Sink

I read the other day a very interesting paper on the possibility of using roadside vegetation as carbon sink.

The study was carried out through GIS techniques and two regions were considered. A set of equations was used to estimate the rate of occupancy over the study areas, as well as amounts of fixed C under the above scenarios. The authors say the average occupancy rate was 0.06%. The simulation showed a higher potential for C sequestration in scenario 2, being the estimated amounts of CO₂ sequestered from the atmosphere per km of roadside: 131 tons of CO₂ km^-1 of highway to native species and 655 tons of CO₂ km^-1 of highway for exotic species (over period of 10 years for both estimates).  The authors claim that it is possible to predict the very high potential for C sequestration if managers and planners consider roadside as area for afforestation.

Roadside vegetation: estimation and potential for carbon sequestration

 Braga Alves C , Alves SH 

Journal of Biogeosciences and Forestry 

The Delayed Legacy of Invasive Species

I am posting this in between my break

I read yesterday a very interesting paper titled “Socioeconomic legacy yields an invasion debt”

Globalization and economic growth are widely recognized as important drivers of biological invasions. Recent studies have demonstrated that on broad spatial scales, the impact of human activities overwhelms the influence of climate and geography on species invasions.   The new research demonstrate that socioeconomic legacies on alien-species richness are important across a broad array of taxonomic groups and might extend back at least one century. The authors say “However, many of the most problematic alien species are not recent arrivals but were introduced several decades ago. Hence, current patterns of alien-species richness may better reflect historical rather than contemporary human activities, a phenomenon which might be called “invasion debt.” Their results suggest that the consequences of the current high levels of socioeconomic activity on the extent of biological invasions will probably not be completely realized until several decades into the future.

Socioeconomic legacy yields an invasion debt

Franz Essl, Stefan Dullinger Wolfgang Rabitsch,Philip E. Hulme Karl Hülber, Vojtěch Jarošík^e, Ingrid Kleinbauer, Fridolin Krausmann,Ingolf Kühn,Wolfgang Nentwig,Montserrat Vilà^j,Piero Genovesi,Francesca Gherardi^,, Marie-Laure Desprez-Loustau,Alain Roquesⁿ, and Petr Pyšek  .

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option

A Cross Post from Tahrcountry.blogspot.com

We don't usually post the same thing on Highrange Tidings and Tahrcountry. Here is something that is of great interest to wildlife mangers. So I am posting here also, what I had posted on Tahrcountry. This is to facilitate better readership from the mangers.

A Must Read Paper for Wildlife Managers

I am still in the midst of my break. I just read this interesting paper on human leopard conflict and thought it is worth an immediate post.

Translocation as a Tool for Mitigating Conflict with Leopards in Human-Dominated Landscapes of India

VIDYA ATHREYA, MORTEN ODDEN, JOHN D. C. LINNELL K. ULLAS KARANTH

Conservation Biology,

A few years back, I was pilloried by self styled environmentalists for opposing vehemently the translocation of a leopard from Wayand to Parmabikulam.  For the men at the top and for the uninitiated politicians it is a quick fix method for alleviating the man animal conflict. They never bother about the ecological impacts. A release without a comprehensive study of all factors involved is fraught with lot of imponderables.

VIDYA ATHREYA,     MORTEN ODDEN JOHN D. C. LINNELL and  ULLAS KARANTH  have  come up  with an excellent paper on the impacts of translocation of leopards based on their study in the Junnar region (4275 km2, 185 people/km2), Maharashtra, India. The authors’ report that prior to the large-scale translocation program, there was an average of four leopard attacks on humans each year between 1993 and 2001. Surprisingly after the translocation program was initiated, the average increased to 17 attacks.

The attacks decreased when leopards were removed for releases far away. According to the authors potential explanations for the aberrant behavior include increased aggression induced by stress of the translocation process, movement through unfamiliar human-dominated landscapes following release, and loss of fear of humans due to familiarity with humans acquired during captivity.

The study emphasize the potential ineffectiveness of translocation to reduce human–carnivore conflict   The authors suggest that making improvements to the administration of compensation programme for wildlife attacks and linking this to some form of insurance scheme that can be administered by local communities might help increase tolerance for low intensity, chronic predation on livestock by leopards. This is likely to decrease the demand for management action to remove leopards.

I feel this paper is a must read for the wildlife managers. So guys go ahead and read it.

I am thankful to Dr Ullas Karanth for sending me a copy of the paper.

Taking a Break

I am taking a break for the next 10 days. Consequently, there won't be any updates during this period.

Climate talks - Legally binding commitments not acceptable Jairam Rameshji

Dear Jairam Rameshji,

                                  I am writing what an ordinary citizen of the country feels. Remember it is these guys that have put politicians like you on the driver's seat.

                                  

                                 Legally binding commitments are not acceptable right now. May be at a distant future date, when things have been sorted out we can think about it. Your intention may be to give India's image a boost but it has proved counterproductive in the mind of the ordinary citizen He feels it is a sellout of country's interests.  We don't want any instrument that is against the present tenets of Kyoto protocol.

                               I am repeating here what I had written in one of my early blogpost. 

                               

If each person on the planet has the right to the same carbon footprint, the scale and speed of emissions cuts required by developed nations is far greater than the commitments governments are currently willing to make

If the world is to have a 2-in-3 chance of staying within the 2 °C rise between now and 2050 no more than 750 billion tonnes of carbon can be released between these two dates. If this calculated emission is distributed according to population levels, many developed nations would face almost immediate carbon bankruptcy.

At current rates and with 4.6 per cent of global population, the US would receive a 35 billion tonne allowance between now and 2050. US would use it up in around six years. The European Union's budget would run out in 12 years and China's in 24.  India and Brazil's allowances would last 88 and 46 years respectively at current rates.

Industrialized countries are duty bound to carry out rapid and comprehensive decarbonisation if there is any credibility in their utterances. So take up the cudgel Rameshji instead of going on the defensive

Post Script: This is not about climate talk: This is about the pat down of Indian Ambassador in US. The ordinary citizen on the street feels that US ambassador to India also should also be subjected to same kind of searches. He does not want any statements like “We are taking up the matter with US”. If I am the external affairs minister I would keep quiet and put a probe up the arse of US ambassador on his next visit to an Indian airport.

Tools for modeling wildlife corridors

A couple of my friends asked me the other day details about tools available for modeling wildlife corridors. To the best of my knowledge the ideal source of information for the job is corridordesign.org

The copyright for the entire description belong to corridordesign.org

Here is what is available at corridordesign.org.  They are best suited for designing corridors in a heterogenous landscape at a regional (e.g. 2 - 500 km long) scale.

CorridorDesigner 

CorridorDesigner  provides one method of modeling wildlife corridors with ArcGIS.

Here are some other free tools for modeling wildlife or ecological corridors, connectivity, or habitat.

CIRCUITSCAPE

Circuitscape is a stand-alone Python program which borrows algorithms from circuit theory to predict patterns of movement, gene flow, and genetic differentiation among populations in heterogeneous landscapes. It uses raster habitat maps as input, and predicts connectivity and movement patterns between user-defined points on the landscape. Circuitscape is distributed by Brad McRae of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at University of California, Santa Barbara.

CONNECTIVITY ANALYSIS TOOLKIT

The Connectivity Analysis Toolkit provides conservation planners with newly-developed tools for both linkage mapping and landscape-level 'centrality' analysis. Centrality refers to a group of landscape metrics that rank the importance of sites as gatekeepers for flow across a landscape network. The Toolkit allows users to develop and compare three contrasting centrality metrics based on input data representing habitat suitability or permeability, in order to determine which areas, across the landscape as a whole, would be priorities for conservation measures that might facilitate connectivity and dispersal. The Toolkit also allows application of these approaches to the more common question of mapping the best habitat linkages between a source and a target patch.

FUNCONN - FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY TOOLS

FunConn is a functional connectivity modeling toolbox for ArcGIS, distributed by Dave Theobald and the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. The goal of the functional connectivity model is to allow landscape connectivity to be examined from a functional perspective. Functional connectivity recognizes that individuals, species or processes respond functionally (or behaviorally) to the physical structure of the landscape. From this perspective, landscape connectivity is specific to a landscape and species/individual/process under investigation.

HABMOD/CONNMOD/ARCRSTATS - HABITAT MODELING TOOLBOX

Formerly called ArcRstats, the HabMod/ConnMod toolboxes produce multivariate habitat prediction rasters using ArcGIS and the open-source R statistical package for implementing classification and regression (CART), generalized linear models (GLM) and generalized additive models (GAM), and includes a connectivity modeling toolbox. The toolbox is distributed by Pat Halpin and the Marine Geospatial Ecology Laboratory at Duke University

CONEFOR SENSINODE

Conefor Sensinode quantifies the importance of habitat areas for the maintenance or improvement of landscape connectivity. It is conceived as a tool for decision-making support in landscape planning and habitat conservation, through the identification and prioritization of critical sites for ecological connectivity.

PATHMATRIX

Path Matrix is a tool for ArcView 3 to compute matrices of effective geographic distances among samples, based on a least-cost path algorithm. It was developed by Nicholas Ray of the Computational and Molecular Population Genetics Lab, University of Bern, Switzerland.

OPENMODELLER

openModeller aims to provide a flexible, user friendly, cross-platform environment where the entire process of conducting a fundamental niche modeling experiment can be carried out. The software includes facilities for reading species occurrence and environmental data, selection of environmental layers on which the model should be based, creating a fundamental niche model and projecting the model into an environmental scenario.

STATMOD ZONE

StatMod is an extension for ArcView 3.3 that helps users create logistic regression and CART models using the statistical packages SAS and S-PLUS. It is distributed by Chris Garard of Utah State University.

MAXENT

Maxent provides a maximum-entropy approach for species habitat modeling. The software takes as input a set of layers or environmental variables (such as elevation, precipitation, etc.), as well as a set of georeferenced occurrence locations, and produces a model of the range of the given species. It is distributed by Princeton University.

GRASP

GRASP (Generalized Regression and Spatial Prediction) is a package for the statistical softwares R and S-PLUS for creating predictive models of species distributions using Generalized Additive Models (GAMs). It is distributed by A. Lehmann, J.R. Leathwick and J.McC. Overton at the Landcare Research Institute, New Zealand.

BIOMAPPER

BioMapper is a stand-alone package for developing ecological niche and habitat suitability models using only a species presence data. It is distributed by Alexandre Hirzel of the Laboratory For Conservation Biology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

DESKTOP GARP

DesktopGarp is a software package for biodiversity and ecologic research that allows the user to predict and analyze species distributions using presence data. The package is distributed by the University of Kansas Natural History Museum.

SPATIAL DATA MODELER

Spatial Data Modeler is a collection of geoprocessing tools for adding categorical maps with interval, ordinal, or ratio scale maps to produce a predictive map of where something of interest is likely to occur. The tools include the data-driven methods of Weights of Evidence, Logistic Regression, and two supervised and one unsupervised neural network methods, and a knowledge-driven method Fuzzy Logic.

PATCHMORPH PATCH DELINEATION TOOL

PatchMorph is an extension for ArcMap which delineates habitat patches from a habitat suitability or land cover map.

MARXAN

Marxan delivers decision support for reserve system design. Marxan finds reasonably efficient solutions to the problem of selecting a system of spatially cohesive sites that meet a suite of biodiversity targets.

PANDA

PANDA is a stand-alone application developed to provide a user friendly framework for systematic protected areas network design to ArcGIS users. Through the use of P.A.N.D.A. the designer can explore different hypothetical configurations of a system of protected areas in the planning area.

CLUZ

CLUZ is an ArcView GIS interface that allows users to design protected area networks and conservation landscapes. It can be used for on-screen planning and also acts as a link for the MARXAN conservation planning software. It is currently being developed at DICE and is funded by the British Government through their Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species.

LINK

LINK is a set of ArcGIS tools designed to analyze habitat patterns across a landscape. LINK uses species habitat matrices to model potential species habitat and habitat diversity. What sets LINK apart from its predecessors is that it uses raster data sources—raster data sources allow LINK to model habitat over a much larger area than its vector based ancestors.

JENNESS ENTERPRISES

Jenness Enterprises has created many extensions for ArcView 3.3 useful to ecological applications. Jeff Jenness created the CorridorDesigner ArcMap extension.

HAWTH'S TOOLS

Hawth's Analysis Tools is an extension for ArcGIS (specifically ArcMap). It is designed to perform spatial analysis and functions that cannot be conveniently accomplished with out-of-the-box ArcGIS. Most of these analysis tools have been written within the context of ecological applications such as movement analysis, resource selection, predator prey interactions and trophic cascades.

New Trends in Monitoring Tigers

The other day I read a very interesting  paper “Monitoring tigers with confidence” authored by Matthew LINKIE,Gurutzeta GUILLERA-ARROITA,Joseph SMITH, and D. Mark RAYAN.

The paper gave me insights in to the latest trends in tiger monitoring. With the tiger population on the decline, conservationists urgently need to know whether or not the management strategies currently being employed are effectively protecting these tigers. This knowledge depends on the ability to reliably monitor tiger populations.

2 seminal methodologies, camera traps and occupancy surveys have enabled the monitoring of tiger populations with greater confidence. The paper discusses in detail these two methodologies.

The authors say only 2 published camera trap studies have gone beyond single baseline assessments and actually monitored population trends. .For low density tiger populations obtaining sufficient precision, from camera trapping remain a challenge. This is because of insufficient detection probabilities and/orsample sizes. Occupancy surveys have overcome this problem by redefining the sampling unit. They go for grid cells and not individual tigers.

Use of genetic information for identifying and monitoring tigers opens up exciting possibilities. The impact of the different threats to tiger populations and their response to varying management intervention is made much more feasible with the adoption of these complementary studies.

The authors say for most priority tiger conservation areas, tiger population trend data and associated threat and environmental correlates remain unknown. They wind up the paper with the following sentence” Thus, the repeated implementation of the rigorous approaches described in this paper are essential to demonstrate to protected area managers, donors and policy-makers alike those strategies that work and, just as importantly, those that do not work, so that systematic evaluations can be made for improved management of tiger and other endangered species in the wild (Sutherland et al. 2004).”

Here Comes Natural Pest Control of Coffee Berry Borer

Here is something that is sure to enthuse coffee growers.

Coffee berry borer is a big threat for coffee growers. It is the most widespread coffee pest in coffee producing countries.  The female coffee borer drills galleries into the coffee berries where she deposits her eggs. The larvae then feed on the coffee berries.  The losses are enormous. Yearly coffee losses are pegged at US $500 million.

Now, Dr. Juliana Jaramillo from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, Dr. Eric Chapman from the University of Kentucky, and colleagues have come up with a biological control of the pest.  They have identified a previously unknown predatory thrips (Karnyothrips flavipes ). These thrips feed on the eggs and larvae of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei.

The researchers believe that their findings provide coffee growers and coffee scientists with new insights into a biological control agent that could be conserved and augmented in coffee growing regions.

Details of the research appear in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

The Unfulfilled Dream of Ratan Tata – A Post Script

Again we are veering a wee bit from wildlife. A few days back we had published a blog post, titled " The Unfulfilled Dream of Ratan Tata". We had extolled the virtues of the Tatas, highlighting their social commitment. Lot of water has flowed down the bridge since then. Fast paced developments involving 2G has surfaced and allegations have flown thick and fast.

 

The 2G 'tapegate' has rocked the nation questioning the very sincerity of Tata business house. The transcripts of Radia's conversations, with politicians, industrialists and journalists, published by Outlook have taken a heavy toll of the credibility of lot of people.  A central government-ordered inquiry into the Radia tapes is in full swing.

 

We still hold Tata in great esteem. We feel that the social commitment of Tatas is unparalleled. What Ambanis and other corporate houses have done for the society pale in to insignificance when compared to what the Tatas have done.

 

While extolling the virtues of Tatas, we feel that the Supreme Court petition filed by Ratan Tata asking the question whether the publication of the Radia tapes aren't a violation of privacy rights, was a bad ploy. His comments of India becoming a banana republic are also uncalled for. These two events have left a bad taste in the mouth of lot of people.

 

What Ratanji should have done was to acknowledge the mistake. To err is human. He should have said sorry and vowed never to repeat these mistakes. His stock would have gone up in the minds of the people of India.

 

I have interacted with Ratan Tata on his first visit to Munnar. We had only shook hands and exchanged couple of sentences, but what struck me was the humility of the great man. I was bowled over by the unassuming manner of Ratanji.

 

Ratanji may have overstepped the boundary in the mad rat race of survival in the corporate world, at the behest of his advisors. It is quite pardonable against the backdrop of what he has done for the society. At the same time there was no need for him to hide behind the cloak of Supreme Court petition. He has some bad advisors around him. It is quite possible that there is a Trojan horse lurking somewhere.

 

We wish Ratanji all the best. We are sure that he will come out of this difficult time unscathed.

Untrained Wildlife Wardens, Here is a Piece of Advice For You

Many of our wildlife reserves are managed by officers, who have no formal training in wildlife management. This creates lot of impediments in properly managing wildlife reserves.

I agree that it may not be a feasible proposition to train all officers in wildlife management techniques. Let me ask you a small question. What prevents you from reading wildlife literature? Read everything that you can lay your hands on, concerning the species that you manage. If you are thorough with ecology and behaviour of the species, you will not go wrong in your assessment of ecosystem needs. You will not go about building check dams where it is not needed. You will not go about scraping grass in a pristine grass land ecosystem. I am giving two examples. The list is lengthy.

Reading literature also empowers you. You will be able to talk on equal terms with scientists. You will create a great image about the department in the minds of people interacting with you. The name of the state also gets a boost in the process.

So guys go ahead and read pertinent literature. This is not sermon; it is a sane piece of advice from a man who has spent 30 years in wildlife and has gone around the world after retirement on the strength of experience gained in the field. I can assure you, it is big bonus that you gain in the field. People sit up and take notice of what you are talking and they do it with rapt attention.

Hummingbirds and Gusty Winds

                                                         Image Courtesy: New Mexico State University.

I have always been fascinated by hummingbirds and wondered how the small birds tackle gusty winds. Now the scientists have come up with an answer. A team of researchers at New Mexico State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, and Continuum Dynamics Inc. has built a robotic hummingbird wing to discover the answer.

The wings of hummingbirds oscillate in a figure eight pattern to produce lift on both the downstroke and upstroke. This way they achieve that extra lift they need to hover by creating a vortex on the leading edges of their wings. The Scientists explain that the wings create the vortex with a high angle of attack on the downstroke. Then they flip their wings around on the upstroke, so as they shed one vortex, they create another on the other side of the wing, thereby managing to maintain high lift forces. Thus hummingbirds continually readjust their wing angles to maintain high lift forces.

The researchers hope to identify robust algorithms that will allow the creation of stable ornithopters that can operate reliably under real-life conditions for surveillance and other applications.