Page 110 - Wonderful Creatures: Children! Have You Ever Thought ?

WONDERFUL CREATURES

On land, albatrosses walk with
a waddle and appear to be
very clumsy, but in the air,
they are among the most gra-
ceful of sea birds.

over the sea for hours without flapping its wings. But

how can it perform this quite difficult task? What makes
this bird so strong?

First of all, a great amount of energy is needed to keep these giant

wings permanently wide open. To have a better understanding of

the difficult task albatrosses carry out, let's compare albatrosses
with humans. It is difficult for a man even to keep his arms open in
the air for a brief time. Soon his muscles begin to ache and he

lowers his arms. However, albatrosses can fly suspended in the air

for hours with their wings wide open.

There is a locking system inside the wing bones of albatrosses that
enables them to keep their wings open. By means of this locking

system, they don’t use any muscular strength. This makes flight
much easier for the bird. By virtue of this special system, it can fly

without stopping for days, weeks, or even for months expending
only a very little amount of energy.

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