Dr. Catherine Ivy (Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan, Canada), shared research this morning at the 2025 APS Summit on the remarkable hypoxia tolerance of birds.
Although bar-headed geese (above) are the poster-birds for research on extreme hypoxia tolerance, I was surprised to learn that even many small migratory species of birds fly at relatively high altitude.
Tiny migratory yellow-rumped warblers (~12g), for example, travel for about 6-8 hours at a time. Like families on a road trip, they make pit stops along the way. But that is really where the similarities end as these birds choose to fly at a maximal height of about 4000 meters above sea level. I suppose that reduces the risk of predation, but it also means that the birds undergo high endurance exercise in hypoxic conditions. Dr. Ivy’s research has focused on adaptations in these birds that allow them to perform such impressive feats given their small body size. During her postdoctoral fellowship, she worked with Dr. Christopher Guglielmo at Western University, where she discovered that these birds change their breathing pattern to help bring in more oxygen when flying at high altitude.
Dr. Ivy’s current research, as a new assistant professor, aims to examine the impact of wildfire smoke on the respiratory physiology of birds.
Sources:
Cardiorespiratory coupling across the animal kingdom symposium. 2025 APS Summit, Baltimore, MD
- The time has come…APS 2025 has kicked off!
- Weddell seals dampen inflammatory response to combat dive induced hypoxemia injury
Categories: Comparative Physiology, Diet and Exercise, Extreme Animals, Hibernation and Hypoxia, Physiology on the Road
Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle 