Talk:Flying and gliding animals

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A summary of this article appears in flight and Animal locomotion.

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Here are some tasks you can do: Expand: Expand lead to 3 or so paragraphs
Priority 5

• This page seems to be badly formatted..--Thiamshui 16:13, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

• I agree. It needs someone to look at the content, as well as the layout, as quite alot of it is unnecessary. --Chachu207 18:48, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

• Hello. Thanks for the comments and the formatting. I was trying to look up this topic on wikipedia, but there was nothing listing all the types of animal that glide and comparing them, so I decided to make one. Discussions on what kinds of animal show certain kinds of locomotion is interesting from a comparative biology standpoint. I would like to add a little more on generally what makes a glider or flyer. However if anyone else would like too, please feel free. A little on where the animals are from, and what they are like, especially where it concerns aerial locomotion, is useful so that one can make a one page comparison. I'll clean it up when I get a chance. Still learning wikipedia formatting. Nicolharper 19:49, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cats and gliding mammal page

Do cats belong? Couldn't the same parachuting be said for many primates, squirrels, and just about any aroboreal mammal. Also note the gliding mammal page. Should this be merged, split off, or expanded? --Aranae 18:51, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

I think the distinction between parachuting and falling should be made. :) And there is little info in gliding mammal describing the mechanism, it just basically cites a few animals and could very easily be merged and redirected to this page. -Dawson 19:39, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Hi. Thanks for the discussion. I added cats as they are mentioned on the Berkeley Flying and Gliding pages as an example of a parachuter, and I thought they would provide a light comparison to full gliders and parachuters. They do have a 'righting reflex' for falling which many other animals don't have. Whether they should be in the list or just mentioned in some text at the top of the section generally describing the types of animals that fly and glide. I'm not sure. At the moment I'm leaving them in the list, but mentioning that there may be other animals with 'limited parachuting.' Nicolharper 02:07, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Looks good. --Aranae 01:29, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Cheers, and thanks for the user talk. Nicolharper 02:07, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flying and Gliding mechanisms

I'll flesh out the mechanisms when I get a chance, but this may not be for some time. If anyone else fancies writing up on the biomechanics of flying and gliding feel free. The link to the Berkeley site in the section is a good start for information. Nicolharper 02:07, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wing loading in soaring birds need sorting out

Hi Nicolharper here. I am not sure that the section on soaring birds and [wing loading] is correct. Does large size allow low wing loading? Nicolharper 19:21, 18 February 2007 (UTC)