The bird spent 11 hours in the flight of his life trapped in the storm, completing five circles ranging from 31-50 miles in diameter, which tracks with data on the storm’s movements. His altitude was about 15,420 feet compared to his species’ typical cruising altitude of about 328 feet. And his eye-watering speed of 56-106 mph must have been truly daunting compared to his typical top speed of 6-37 mph.
What happens when a seabird gets caught in a typhoon?
Answer: Thanks to wildlife tracking technology, now we know.
Scientists got quite the wealth of unanticipated data in 2019 when a streaked shearwater seabird with a GPS bio-logger got caught up in Typhoon Faxai over southeastern Japan. The bird was one of 14 that got the trackers, but it was the only one to be affected by the storm.
The bird spent 11 hours in the flight of his life trapped in the storm, completing five circles ranging from 31-50 miles in diameter, which tracks with data on the storm’s movements. His altitude was about 15,420 feet compared to his species’ typical cruising altitude of about 328 feet. And his eye-watering speed of 56-106 mph must have been truly daunting compared to his typical top speed of 6-37 mph.
Being a seabird who only comes to land to breed, he was probably less than impressed with the view from the typhoon, since he spent most of his time in it while it was over mainland Japan. He finally broke free when the storm tracked back out over the Pacific Ocean and lost momentum and was reunited with his flock near their nesting island.
The bird spent 11 hours in the flight of his life trapped in the storm, completing five circles ranging from 31-50 miles in diameter, which tracks with data on the storm’s movements. His altitude was about 15,420 feet compared to his species’ typical cruising altitude of about 328 feet. And his eye-watering speed of 56-106 mph must have been truly daunting compared to his typical top speed of 6-37 mph.
