Weather conditions determine which is the optimal strategy along the daily cycle for lesser kestrels to select a commuting or a hunting strategy. Using micro-GPS and accelerometers Jesús Hernández-Pliego et al. show how lesser kestrels solve these dilemmas.

Individuals allocate considerable amounts of energy to movement, which ultimately affects their ability to survive and reproduce. Birds fly by flapping their wings, which is dependent on the chemical energy produced by muscle work, or use soaring-gliding flight, in which chemical energy is replaced with energy harvested from moving air masses. Flapping flight requires more energy than soaring-gliding flight, and this difference in the use of energy increases with body mass. However,...

The primary prey of killer whales in the Strait of Gibraltar is the bluefin tuna. All killer whales observed in this area hunt tuna by chasing individual fish until they become exhausted and can be overcome. However, a subset of pods also interact with a dropline tuna fishery which has developed since 1995. Here, authors investigated the social structure within and among social units (pods).