Study on the characteristics of head and neck movements of geese walking in a straight line at different speeds

Jiajia Wang^1*Zheng Zhang¹Xinming Jiang¹Dongyan Huang^1*Wei Song¹Fu Zhang²Zhihui Qian³Lei Ren³Luquan Ren³

• ¹Jilin Agriculture University, Changchun, China
• ²Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan Province, China
• ³Jilin University, Changchun, Hebei Province, China

Background: The avian cervical spine, a crucial anatomical structure connecting the cephalic and thoracic regions, serves a critical function in maintaining visual stability during locomotion. Extensive studies have documented characteristic head-bobbing behavior in small-bodied avian species (e.g., Columba livia domestica and Coturnix coturnix) during terrestrial movement. However, the kinematic patterns of Anser anser domesticus during ambulation across varying velocity parameters remain unexplored in current literature.Objective: To investigate whether head bobbing occurs during head and neck movements; to analyze differences between head and neck movement characteristics under different walking speeds.Methods: High-speed photography equipment was used to obtain images of domestic geese in different linear walking states (slow walking, normal walking, fast walking) and to analyze gait changes and head-neck movement characteristics under varying movement states.Result: The results demonstrate that domestic geese exhibit nodding behavior similar to other birds, comprising thrust and hold phases. During a full nodding cycle, the thrust phase lasted significantly longer than the hold phase. Furthermore, the closer a goose's neck joint is to the trunk, the greater the joint angle variation observed across three motion states. This indicates that neck nodding depends on lower cervical joint motion. Concurrent analysis of head trajectories revealed horizontal stability during locomotion, with vertical fluctuation amplitude progressively decreasing as movement speed increased.