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A cyber egg is being used to gather information about swans' behaviour.
Article here.
Scientists have placed a computerised egg among a group of swans in Dorset.
The silicon-filled "cyber egg" will use mobile phone-style technology to measure movements of the birds at Abbotsbury Swannery.
Experts hope they can learn more about the behaviour of the swans during the hatching of their cygnets.
Prof Chris Perrins, of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford, said: "It's puzzled us for a long time."
A swan lays four to 10 eggs at two-day intervals, but cygnets hatch together.
Prof Perrins added: "Birds don't normally waste energy and yet some preliminary observations during the laying period indicate that a female swan does keep her eggs at least partly warm some of the time.
"But since the eggs hatch together, they are not apparently kept warm enough for development to take place. So why use up energy doing it at all? It seems odd."
Article here.
Scientists have placed a computerised egg among a group of swans in Dorset.
The silicon-filled "cyber egg" will use mobile phone-style technology to measure movements of the birds at Abbotsbury Swannery.
Experts hope they can learn more about the behaviour of the swans during the hatching of their cygnets.
Prof Chris Perrins, of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford, said: "It's puzzled us for a long time."
A swan lays four to 10 eggs at two-day intervals, but cygnets hatch together.
Prof Perrins added: "Birds don't normally waste energy and yet some preliminary observations during the laying period indicate that a female swan does keep her eggs at least partly warm some of the time.
"But since the eggs hatch together, they are not apparently kept warm enough for development to take place. So why use up energy doing it at all? It seems odd."
