Animal biologists observe the behaviors and structures of their study organisms in a few ways. For example, they sometimes watch animals in the lab if they have study organisms available in captivity, they observe animals in naturalistic field settings if they do field work, and they examine aspects of animals’ anatomy if they have access to museum specimens. In participating as close passive or active observers, biologists often notice things of interest, like the way that bats flap their wings, which seems like it would be really tiresome, or how when a bat chases an insect in the air, it seems to trace its path in a particular way.

After working with and observing animals in flight, these observations can be turned into more specific research questions. For example, how much heat do bats give off by flapping their wings so quickly? What strategies do bats use to outmaneuver agile insect prey in flight and successfully capture prey? To study animal flight, our questions can be very varied as the topic of flight can be pursued from multiple angles. We can ask questions from engineering perspectives, anatomical backgrounds, or physiological contexts to name a few.

After formulating specific research questions, we can form hypotheses that state our questions in an answerable way, so we can predict an outcome, test a scenario, and compare the results with our predictions. For example, I hypothesize that bats will use a lot of heat energy during flight that is given off through their wings. Or, I hypothesize that bats will directly trace the path of a flying moth after “hearing” it fly by with echolocation. We try to make our hypotheses specific, clear, and relevant to the normal and necessary conditions of animal flight. Item description

After setting up a testable hypothesis, we design an experiment to assess it. Experiments involving animal flight can vary greatly in methods and materials. Biologists often make use of lab structures like flight arenas and wind tunnels, biochemistry experiments involving enzymes and assays, and field experiments involving recording equipment and force measurements. Videography is often a crucial part of biomechanics, and upgrades in videography and digitization technology (the tracking of specific points on an animal’s body in space over time) can advance biomechanical experiments and outcomes greatly. Some examples of experiments include testing the temperatures of wing muscles in bats during flight over time, and tracking the trajectories of bats and moths during hunting behaviors. An important aspect of testing, and of testing in animal biology in particular, is repetition of experiments; animals can vary in their behaviors and abilities so it is important to try to maximize the number of individuals and trials tested per condition.

After running a sufficient number of experiments, biologists can assess patterns in the data and determine statistically significant results, leading to new or improved conclusions about many aspects of animal flight.