BEHAVIOUR 2015* Ranging behavior of edible bird nest swiftlet(Aerodramus fuciphagus) in Kuala Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia (#866)
Swiftlet
of the genus Aerodramus built their nest from their saliva. The edible nest (en) has been consumed by humans for centuries for its medicinal properties and
health benefits. Traditionally, the nests were boiled together with rock sugar
as delicacies, but today, en also has been commercialized into health and
cosmetics product. Despite the importance of the product, there are still many
questions remains within the nest builder, the Edible Nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) therefore, we
conduct this research to understand their ecology and behavior in nature. The ranging behavior of Aerodramus spp. and its foraging area
were investigated in the Kuala Langat district. The swiftlets was successfully
tagged and radio-tracked on a vehiclefrom
March to July 2013. We found that swiftlets had an average core area of
1687.06ha, measurable home range size of 6437.47ha and average flying distance
from the bird ranch ranged from 2-6 km. They
were mostly found roaming in open field, young oil palm plantations and nearby
forested area. Pearson correlation analysis shows that 50% core feeding range
area and 95% measurable home range area
was negatively correlated to the wind velocity (mph) at r=0.8057, P = 0.0287
and r= 0.820, P= 0.024, respectively. The average flying speed of swiftlets was
positively correlated to the wind velocity and the correlation was significant
(r= 0.8423, P<0.05). This preliminary observation suggest that in windy
condition, the flight range of the EBN swiftlet is smaller as the wind speed
aids in the latter in their insect foraging activities