Even Michael Schumacher couldn’t catch him with his Ferrari. peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) is the true master of the sky when he goes hunting; There is no animal that can keep up with this. When it dives into its prey, it can reach speeds of 380 km/h or even 400 km/h. A. Unrivaled real flying bullet. It’s no surprise that these extraordinary gifts inspired filmmaker George Lucas, who named one of his galactic ships the ‘millennium falcon’.
No one would have expected this due to its size. The peregrine falcon is a small and compact bird, but has been equipped by evolution with good muscles and also wings ready to glide.
Its entire anatomy seems designed for one purpose: to increase its speed.. And so as not to steal some of the aerodynamics, its tail tends to hide under its wings when it begins its tremendous dive.
In fact, if it can reach such speed during descent, it is because it shares the physical and aerodynamic fundamentals of a missile. This is what keeps him alive. Its ability to fall from a height allows it to catch small and medium-sized birds completely off guard.He knocks it out mid-flight with a swipe of his claws.
The first thing a peregrine falcon does when it sees a good prey is to make a perfect plan to get to this magnificent delicacy. Hunting methods are very complex and often the capture of prey is the result of a joint attack of the male and female.
Therefore, if they are flying at a high altitude, when they spot their prey, they often choose to drop on it at a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour (sometimes up to almost 400 kilometers per hour), leaving it unconscious in the air.
A study testing the ideal flying physics of a hawk found that the theoretical speed limit for low-altitude flight was 400 km/h, and for high-altitude flight it was up to 625 km/h. However, the actual measured maximum speed In 2005, Ken Franklin recorded a hawk flying at a maximum speed of 389 km/h.
For comparison, world champion Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari Enzo has a top speed of 350 km/h. I would lose the race against someone Falco peregrinus.
A wonder of nature
However How can an animal resist such a violent descent without suffering pain to its senses? In order to do this, the bird activates many mechanisms that evolution has provided it with for this purpose.
Air pressure resulting from a dive at 320 km/h, bird lungsHowever, the small bony holes in the peregrine falcon’s nostrils direct the shock waves of the air entering these nostrils, allowing the bird to breathe more easily at that critical moment thanks to the decrease in the change in air pressure.
For protect your eyes At such tremendous speeds, hawks use their nictitating membranes (third eyelid) to disperse tears and clear debris from their eyes, while also preserving vision.
When the peregrine falcon reaches its target Knocks prey into the air with one of its claws it squeezes, stuns or kills, and then returns to catch it in mid-air. He then devours her on the floor.
The pilgrim also spends some of his time perching on stones and keeping an eye out for any movement. Ornithologists describe the character of this species as somewhat unstable, as it “sometimes attacks and kills any passing bird without warning.”
“In these cases, it seems to be stunned by what it has done and may abandon its prey and return to it later,” experts explain.
His favorite flavor is pigeon A flying machine that can outrun most winged predators thanks to its size, wingspan and flight power. Except for one: the peregrine falcon is quick-moving, fast, and delivers a blow that stuns the pigeon.
HE Falco peregrinus peregrinus In Europe it occupies the British Isles in the west, France in the northwest, the north and northeast, and perhaps the coasts of the Pyrenees and Cantabria in Spain.
Again, It is in danger of being replaced by subspecies in our country. Brookei, It currently occupies southern France, most of the Iberian Peninsula, southern Italy, the Mediterranean islands, Greece, Asia Minor and northwestern Africa. Further north lives a species that occupies the tundra of Eurasia and the islands of the Arctic Ocean, from Lapland to the Lena River in Siberia. calidus.
It presents a marked inverse sexual dimorphism; This means that females are significantly larger and heavier than males.
Its preferred habitat is sea cliffs or inland cliffs, and it avoids forests whenever possible, as its survival techniques require flying over open terrain.
However, despite these few preferences, the peregrine falcon Generally very resistant to changes. You may also find a pair nesting at sea level or 3,000 meters above sea level.
It also adapts to any situation and climate, so it lives in polar regions, deserts and hot wastelands, tropical places and even cities. Although periods of famine (due to scarcity of prey) and serious damage caused by humans (due to the ingestion of pesticides and other agricultural poisons) have passed, his great capacity for adaptation made him the hero of one of the most successful pages of the book. conservation history.
Although only 650 specimens were counted in breeding grounds in the United States in 1975, when their populations were decimated by DDT, it is now estimated that this breeding population has reached ten thousand specimens.
According to the last census in Spain in 2008, the population was around 2,800 couples.It is widely distributed on the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.
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