CONSTRAINTS ON THE BIOMECHANICS OF LOCOMOTION IN THE SVALBARD ROCK PTARMIGAN (LAGOPUS MUTA HYPERBOREA): FIELD AND LABORATORY-BASED APPROACHES

• Main Author: Marmol Guijarro, Andres Camilo
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Snow properties; Gait; Svalbard rock Ptarmigan; Biomechanics; Arctic; Locomotion; Arctic Archipelago; Lagopus muta; Lagopus muta hyperborea; rock ptarmigan; Svalbard; Svalbard Rock Ptarmigan
• Online Access: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/410a9bf3-6bcf-4eb9-a1e9-8c2dc85713de; https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/files/216118424/FULL_TEXT.PDF

Terrestrial locomotion is crucial for many animals as a way for to travel to find food, avoid predators, and to find mates and therefore is of great relevance to a species overall fitness. Terrestrial locomotion has been extensively studied in birds of varied body sizes on a treadmill where conditions are idealised, providing great insight into animal locomotion. However, conditions in the real-world are variable and often can depart from these idealised laboratory conditions. The main objective of my PhD is to elucidate the biomechanics of locomotion of wild Svalbard rock ptarmigan moving within their natural environment and how this is constrained. Where possible this will be compared with ptarmigan locomotion from treadmill-based laboratory studies. The Svalbard rock ptarmigan is the only bird that permanently inhabits the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard year-round. It faces extreme environmental conditions, with temperatures fluctuating below freezing during winter, above 5 degrees in summer and annual cycles of 24hr of total darkness and daylight. Although they can fly, they are predominantly ground-dwelling birds that commute over snowy irregular ground to graze for food. These birds therefore are an excellent model species for investigating locomotor biomechanics in the wild as they experience natural fluctuations that will influence the way they move. A comprehensive dataset exists on the Svalbard rock ptarmigan locomotor biomechanics and energetics while moving on treadmills under laboratory conditions. These existing data make the ptarmigan an ideal model to gain insight into how these animals move in the natural environment compared to during the more idealised laboratory conditions and allow us to examine the effects of sex and substrate in a free-ranging wild animal. In this thesis I compared the biomechanics of locomotion in the wild and on a treadmill in males and female ptarmigan using video recordings of their locomotor kinematics. I provided evidence that the biomechanics of locomotion in males ...