Re: ora speeds

[Michael Bruce Habib <mbh3q@virginia.edu>]

The original discussion was in regards to average area 
covered per unit time while foraging, if I recall 
correctly. Since most animals cover the majority of their 
range at walking/cruising speeds (as HP Headden mentioned), 
it is these speeds (regular walking) that are appropriate 
for such an analysis.  (Thus oras would be given a maximum 
of 2kh/hr for average foraging speed).

That was what I gathered as a take-home message, at least.  

-- Mike Habib


> <"Jura" posted the assertion by Auffenberg that oras regualry walk at
> nearly 5 km/h. But when I asked Auffenberg for his data set he said he had
> lost it. It is not possible for an animal with such a low aerobic exercise
> capacity to sustain such speeds. I timed a large sample of oras from
> videos and found  that they move at a typically reptilian pace of 0.5-2
> km/h. When they move at 5 km/h they are hauling, usually in response to a
> stimulus such as a carcasse or combat.>
> 
>   So they CAN move that fast, and it IS possible? No one said that the ora
> must have sustained such speeds normally. Cheetahs are rated on their top
> speeds, rather than their walking speed, so I think this is hardly
> comparable; their cruising speed is, to my knowledge, only 3 times their
> walking speed... Aerobic
> capacity would imply that these forms may not sustain these top speeds
> they have been clocked at, but it does not question they can reach these
> top speeds and using aerobic capacity to limit such would be equatable to
> saying that theropods had a poor metabolism because they have a big liver
> (Ruben et al.).