the Legend
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UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
Locker project to give cyclists alternatives BY TREVOR KENNEY
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f you happen to see more bicycles on the University of Lethbridge campus this spring, it might not be solely related to better weather conditions. Rather, it could be the more favourable conditions created for riders, thanks to a collaborative initiative between Sport and Recreation Services and Parking and Security Services. A total of 30 new bike lockers, a shared purchase by the two campus units, will arrive on campus at the end of April, giving campus commuters more options should they choose to go green and leave their cars at home. “Parking Services was introduced to bike lockers in 2009 and had the opportunity to meet with company representatives in the spring of 2010,” says Dick Lutwick, parking manager. “At that time we decided to place five lockers on campus on a trial basis.” Located outside the 1st Choice Savings Centre, the five lockers served as a pilot project that was quickly accepted by the campus community. “The original plan called for the manufacturer to leave them there for two months just to see what kind of response we’d get and that two months has stretched into a year,” says Kevin McFadzen. “We found five people who were interested in using them and after that I established a list
HURLY STUDY EXPLORES HUMMINGBIRD HABITS BY TAMERA JONES, UK (Natural Environment Research Council, with U of L Communications staff and researcher input) Hummingbirds are a welcome sign of spring, and a colourful reminder that the flowers in your garden are not just nice to look at, but are also an important food source. But hummingbirds don’t rely on taste alone when deciding how much nectar to drink from a new flower. Instead, they wait to see how they feel after their first meal, a new study reveals. This is unexpected, because scientists know that hummingbirds can detect minuscule changes in nectar concentrations from one flower to the next. This “choice behaviour” research is one result of nearly 20 years of hummingbird study at the University of Lethbridge
of others who were wondering how they could get into a locker and whether we had plans to get more on campus.” McFadzen is an avid cyclist and had been introduced to the locker concept while attending the University of Victoria. He had an interest in bringing them to the U of L and found like-minded attitudes in Parking Services. “We view this investment as supporting green initiatives,” says Lutwick of the joint $30,000 purchase. “It supports the University’s commitment to environmental sustainability. By promoting the use of alternative transportation, we can accommodate a larger campus population without increasing our parking infrastructure.” But why are the lockers needed when there are ample bike racks at various campus locations? “I’ve got bikes I don’t ride to school because they’re too expensive and I don’t want them damaged, sitting in the elements all day or simply getting stolen,” says McFadzen. With the success of five lockers on campus, a survey went out to the U of L community about its appetite for more. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. “I was actually surprised from our survey last year,” says McFadzen. “I’d always talked to people about them but I realized I was probably talking to a biased group, those who already ride bikes.”
Westcastle Field Station by U of L Biological Sciences researcher Dr. Andrew Hurly, Dr. Sue Healy and numerous colleagues and students from the University of Lethbridge, the University of Edinburgh and the University of St. Andrews. Hurly and Healy have been studying cognition, behaviour and ecology of rufous hummingbirds since 1992. Approximately 40 undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Lethbridge, the University of Edinburgh and the University of St. Andrews have been involved in the hummingbird research project. Like their extraordinary talent for flying thousands of kilometres from Mexico to Canada, taking the right amount of nectar onboard is a bit of an art – especially for such a tiny bird that weighs just three grams. If they drink too much weak nectar, the extra load makes flying inefficient; if they don’t take on enough of the same nectar, they’ll have to eat again much sooner. On the other hand, if they drink too much of a rich nectar, they could easily get fat. “The birds will almost
The lockers can fit an entire bike and is complete with hooks to hang gear such as helmets and wet clothes. They will be made available on a rental basis, much like gym lockers inside the 1st Choice Savings Centre. “Some people would like to have a daily rental but that would get into substantial costs, having to have electronics out there to monitor that use,” says McFadzen. “Plus, if someone rides in with an expensive bike expecting to have a locker and finds they are all taken, then what option does that leave them?” Neither Lutwick nor McFadzen expect the entire campus to suddenly adopt bicycles as their preferred mode of transport because of this initiative but they see it as taking away obstacles for those inclined to go green. “I’m hoping that it gets less cars coming to campus,” says McFadzen. “We have 30 lockers, so in reality, probably 20 people who are already riding their bikes to campus will take advantage of these lockers. But if it adds another 10 bikes to campus and encourages 10 people to leave their cars at home, that’s something. It’s a start and hopefully it will catch on.”
Would you rather leave your bike in exposed racks or take advantage of enclosed bike lockers? More choices will be available this spring with the addition of 30 new lockers to campus.
A hummingbird feeds from a constructed feeder. Photo by Dr. Andrew Hurly
certainly be able to detect the change in taste, but it seems they choose to ignore it until they get post-ingestive information before altering how much they drink the next time,” explains Healy from the University of St. Andrews, a co-author of the study. The researchers wanted to see how a group of wild rufous hummingbirds that breed in the Canadian Rocky Mountains responded
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to changes in food quality. They dotted feeders containing different concentrations of nectar solution along the Westcastle river valley to be ready for the birds’ return to the area from their overwintering grounds in Mexico. Nectar concentrations in the flowers hummingbirds feed on vary from as low as seven per cent sugar to as high as 60 per cent. The researchers started by filling
the feeders with a 14 per cent sugar solution. Once the birds got used to this concentration, Healy and her colleagues changed to a 25 per cent solution. They found that the birds didn’t change how much nectar they drank, sometimes persisting until the fourth meal. “They take the same volume irrespective of concentration,” explains Healy. When they trained the birds to expect more concentrated sucrose in the feeders and then switched to the weaker solution, they got exactly the same result. Hummingbirds usually feed every 10 or 15 minutes, and only drink for a few seconds at a time. But because they digest nectar so quickly, they don’t have to wait long to get the information they need to decide how much to drink for their next meal. Other researchers have found that other creatures, like molluscs, wolves and cattle also rely on post-ingestive information about food before deciding how much to eat the next time. So even though hummingbirds certainly prefer sweeter nectar, it may not be surprising that taste alone is not enough to make a decision.