Wildlife Corner

[Tizer]

`Beetle-mounted camera streams insect adventures' LINK

[Cathy]

Can you see it?

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[Tizer]

Yes, the goat's looking the opposite way to the bird! Amazing, I couldn't see it until I read the caption.

[Stanley]

Perception is funny isn't it. I saw it immediately. Must be the way my brain is wired.

[Tizer]

Unlike most people I don't see images in my mind. I think my brain is like a computer working without a screen - it can do all the mental operations but only prints text and not images. I can still say what something looks like and make a crude drawing because, like the computer, I've got all the raw data in my memory. But I don't have an image in my mind that I can copy. I often don't recognise people if I'm not seeing them frequently.

[Stanley]

That's interesting Peter. I see and remember the images. I see them in colour as well unless the original was a B&W image. But, I am lousy at putting names to faces.

[Cathy]

Do scientists really understand Whale - song?
I’m not sure but I heard a report this morning saying that our Whales are much happier and this is due to less ships using our oceans. They are also appearing in some of their old ‘playgrounds’ where there aren’t any ships at the moment.
Lovely to hear.

[Stanley]

I listened to a programme on this subject only the other day and from what the researchers were saying whilst they don't 'understand' they are learning a lot more. They said that whales reared in the same area share the same songs, in effect a dialect. They can identify where they were reared even when they are on migration.
They also said that they had detected more song where maritime activity has lessened, their hearing is so acute that the sounds emitted by modern big ships really trouble them. Some have linked this with strandings leading to death.
I love whales and listening to their songs....

[Tizer]

Sound travels 800 times faster under water than in the air because water is much denser than air. Whales can communicate over miles of ocean and pick up ship sounds from far away. The temperature and pressure properties of the ocean are such that sound can get `channeled' over great distances. This web page explains that: LINK

[Cathy]

Thanks Tize .

[plaques]

While on the subject of whales. Some of the larger species of whales have their eyes set so far back on heir heads they can't possibly have any forward vision unless they rock their heads from side to side. Do they actually have a forward blind spot or does their brain fill in the void? just asking.

[Cathy]

I found this Plaques

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[plaques]

Thanks Cathy, Just as I thought they must move there heads side to side, a bit like someone with monocular vision. Although they may have some degree of persistence which joins up the images.

[Stanley]

Seeing both sides at once with different images, they would perhaps see (!) binocular vision as a nuisance!

[Wendyf]

Horses have a blind spot directly in front of their heads, which is why you should always approach them from the side.... unless you have a treat held out of course!

[Stanley]

Very true Wendy! The old horseman at Alf Watson's once told me that a Fisherman's Friend always worked and was good for their respiratory systems. I proved that many times. They love them.

[Wendyf]

It seems that horses use monocular and binocular vision. Relaxed and grazing they are using their monocular vision, which allows them a 360° view apart from a small area in front and behind, good enough to see movement but unfocused. When they lift their heads and turn towards a sound or movement their binocular vision comes into play and things are brought into focus.

[Stanley]

I always knew they were more intelligent than us!

[Stanley]

Lots of activity on the Green this morning. I think it was a parliament of rooks that had roosted there overnight and as we walked down the road they were taking to the air, hundreds of them. I think they were rooks, not big enough for crows. They all flew off heading SW.

[plaques]

The old adage, If you see a bunch of crows they are rooks. If you see a rook by itself its a crow.

[Stanley]

That's what I thought Ken. In addition, they were smaller than our local crows who are permanent residents on the Green, they are large magisterial birds who allow nothing to disturb the even tenor of their lives.
Is it true that birds that walk as opposed to hopping have more developed brains?

[plaques]

Is it true that birds that walk as opposed to hopping have more developed brains?
I have read that it takes less energy to walk than to hop. With small birds the difference may be marginal but worthwhile for larger birds.So why do the marsupial quadrupeds like kangaroos chose to hop? Over to you Cathy.

[Cathy]

Plaques - because they can! Haha

Kangaroo’s legs are like springs, it means they don’t waste effort on breathing. The up and down motion inflates their lungs.

[Tizer]

Is it true that koalas pouches open downwards because they are descended from wombats which dig burrows and would fill the pouch with soil if it opened towards the wombats head?

[Cathy]

3rd time lucky, I keep getting thrown off

Koalas and Wombats are very closely related, from way back. Koalas climb and Wombats dig.
Both have backward facing pouches.
Here is what I have just learnt- Koala’s have a special sphincter muscle along the outer edge of the pouch opening, a bit like a drawstring. It means that the baby’s don’t fall out of the pouch when Mum climbs.
Isn’t nature wonderful