This is the real "death by light"! They are "as if they are facing a formidable enemy" when they see the moonlight丨Nature Trumpet

This is the 68th issue of the Nature Trumpet column. In the past half month, we have collected the following natural news and research worth reading:

1) The smallest dinosaur egg, smaller than a quail egg

2) Oriental wasp, never drunk

3) You can tell whether the chicks are happy or not by listening to their chirping sounds

4) Animals that “die in the light” are afraid of even moonlight

5) Penguins travel 4,000 kilometers from Antarctica to New Zealand

6) The flamingo couple, taking care of other people’s children

Smallest dinosaur egg

The smallest dinosaur egg is actually smaller than a quail egg!

The one on the far left is the smallest dinosaur egg discovered recently | China University of Geosciences

In a recent paper, scientists studied a group of dinosaur egg fossils unearthed in 2021. They were found at a construction site in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China. They were six dinosaur eggs arranged together, from the Upper Cretaceous period 80 million years ago. The smallest of them was only 29 mm long , smaller than a quail egg, and is the smallest dinosaur egg discovered so far.

The research confirmed that they are a new genus and species of the oval egg family of dinosaur eggs, named " Ganzhou Mini Eggs ".

A nest of Ganzhou mini egg fossils | China University of Geosciences

Before this, the smallest dinosaur egg discovered was the oval egg-shaped egg unearthed in Zhejiang Province , which was 45.4 mm long, about the size of a chicken egg.

Oval egg fossil of Jin Guowei, scale bar is 10 mm | Zhang et al., 2014

Through scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction technology, scientists can observe the eggshell and the small dinosaur inside the eggshell when the fossil is intact. After analysis, scientists believe that the Ganzhou mini eggs are a small theropod dinosaur . This group of fossils has opened a small window, giving us the opportunity to further understand the nesting, reproduction, and growth process of dinosaurs in eggs.

Oriental wasp that never gets drunk

The Oriental wasp can drink a thousand cups without getting drunk and is the alcoholic king in the animal kingdom.

Vespa orientalis: The best drinker | Nitzan Cohen

Fruits of plants naturally ferment when they rot, producing ethanol. Many animals love to eat fruits, but when the ethanol content is higher than 4%, they will lose coordination and judgment, become drowsy, and stagger like drunken humans. Many birds will fall to the ground drunkenly after eating fermented fruits, and some will even crash into buildings and die while flying drunk.

Birds that love to eat berries get drunk easily | Henry T. McLin / Flickr

But recently, scientists have discovered that Oriental wasps seem to be an exception. Their food is mainly rotten fruit, but after eating it, they are like normal bees and will not get drunk at all. Scientists fed Oriental wasps a sucrose solution with ethanol added. Even if the concentration of ethanol was raised to 20%, they did not show any adverse reactions; it was not until the concentration of ethanol increased to 80% that Oriental wasps showed signs of drunkenness, but they soon sobered up and returned to normal .

Oriental wasps eating a ripe fig, which may contain ethanol | Eran Levin

An 80% ethanol concentration is enough to kill other animals, but it is a piece of cake for the Oriental wasp. Why are they so good at drinking? Further research found that there are several copies of alcohol dehydrogenase in the genes of the Oriental wasp , which can break down ethanol and make the Oriental wasp unaffected by ethanol.

What’s even more interesting is that they have yeast in their intestines that can ferment beer , constantly producing ethanol in their intestines, which may be the reason why they have evolved the ability to break down ethanol.

Chicken Calling

Are the chickens happy? Just listen to their chirping!

Scientists recently discovered that the calls of chickens can reflect their complex emotions . In a quiet room, they used acoustic equipment to record the sounds of young chickens and analyzed the characteristics of their calls in different situations.

Lonely chicks scream, but chicks with mirrors are calmer | Jordan Thweatt/University Marketing and Communications

The experiment found that if some chicks were locked up alone in a box, they would make loud and sharp calls, indicating that they were in a state of anxiety. But if there was a mirror in the cage, the chicks' calls would become much calmer, probably because they regarded the image in the mirror as a fellow chick and believed that they were not alone.

Many people in the poultry industry have long known that when chickens keep calling, it means they are in pain; but this study found that chickens have more complex emotions and perceptions than we thought . What's more, when people used to measure the stress level of animals, they often needed to measure cortisol levels through blood tests, but catching them and drawing blood would cause great stress to the animals. Now, perhaps all we need is a recorder, and we can use a safe and low-cost way to infer whether animals are happy or not from their calls.

Listen to the chickens' chirping to tell if they're happy | H. Zell / Wikimedia Commons

Moonlight phobia

The forest at night will also be undercurrents because of the moonlight. And the real "death in the light" is that people dare not go out even in the moonlight .

Tailless agouti, which "dies in the light", is inactive in the moonlight | TEAM - Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network

In a recently published new study, an international team of scientists analyzed 2.1 million images recorded by wildlife cameras from 17 forests on three continents. They found that 12 of the 86 mammal species photographed showed a strong avoidance of moonlight ; in addition, up to half of the species changed their nocturnal activities or adjusted their activity levels due to changes in the moon phase.

On nights with a full moon, 30% of animals stay indoors , most of which are nocturnal animals, especially rodents. Many nocturnal animals not only rarely go out during the day, but also wait until there is no moonlight before going out to look for food.

Armadillos also have a fear of moonlight | TEAM - Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network

There are some exceptions. Wild boars, forest rabbits and four-toed rock elephant shrews are moon lovers and like to go out when the moon is bright.

The Sheniu wild boar prefers to move around on moonlit nights | TEAM - Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network

The discovery that animals in the forest "die in the light" has important implications for conservation. Tropical forests are disappearing at an alarming rate due to human deforestation and urban expansion, and the canopy coverage is also decreasing. When the nighttime light in tropical forests increases, the real "darkness" decreases, and the time that animals dare to come out to forage and move around will also be reduced , and the interactions between species will also be greatly affected.

Adelie Penguin Marathon

An Adélie penguin swam alone for more than 4,000 kilometers from Antarctica and finally arrived in New Zealand.

Adélie penguins spotted on New Zealand beach | Joss Debreceny

Recently, New Zealanders found an Adélie penguin in a dog walking area on a local beach. Surrounded by curious dogs, the penguin might be in danger, but fortunately everyone tacitly tied up the dogs and immediately called the penguin rescue team.

After receiving the call for help, penguin rescuers quickly rescued the Adélie penguin and gave it a comprehensive physical examination. It was very healthy and did not carry avian influenza, but the long journey made it lose a lot of weight and was dehydrated. In addition, it was spring in the local area, and the Adélie penguin was almost overwhelmed by the heat. The rescuers moved it into a cool room filled with ice, trying to make it feel at home 4,000 kilometers away from home. Once the penguin fully recovers, the veterinary team will make a plan for it to return home safely.

Adelie penguins' new home in New Zealand | Wellington Zoo

The habitat of the Adélie penguin is in Antarctica. The number of Adélie penguins that have appeared in New Zealand can be counted on one hand. Researchers believe that the Adélie penguins may have been forced to expand their foraging range due to changes in the marine environment, and this poor little penguin happened to encounter an ocean current and was swept all the way to a new continent. In recent years, Adélie penguins have appeared more frequently on New Zealand beaches , which may mean that the marine ecology of Antarctica is facing unprecedented changes.

Little Red Flamingo Couple

A pair of flamingo husband and wife teamed up to raise other people's children.

A pair of male Lesser Flamingos (Phoenicoparrus minor) act as good foster fathers | San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

The lesser flamingo is the smallest of the flamingos. At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a pair of male lesser flamingos in their 40s always nest together. Staff wondered what they would do if they had a fake egg - but the pair were so excited when they saw the fake egg that one of them immediately crawled into the nest and started incubating it .

If a pair of flamingos lose their eggs unexpectedly, they may have another one to make up for it. Zoos sometimes steal the first fertilized egg to encourage the flamingos to have a second offspring, helping to increase the number of this endangered species. Since the couple wanted to be fathers so much, the staff gave them the eggs of another pair of flamingos and let them become foster fathers. After taking turns to incubate the eggs diligently, after 3 weeks, the tennis ball-sized chicks broke out of the shells .

One of the dedicated flamingo adoptive fathers is taking care of his baby | San Diego Zoo Safari Park

The flamingo couple not only incubates eggs carefully, but is also good at taking care of their chicks . In the first week after the chicks are born, they take turns sitting in the nest to keep them warm, protect them from predators, and feed them crop milk. When the chicks grow up to leave the nest and run around, the fathers always follow them closely, responding to their needs at any time.

Foster flamingo fathers turn white as they feed their chicks nutrient-rich crop milk from their digestive tracts | San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

The flamingo couple has become the zoo's golden adoptive fathers . The staff believes that they work so well together and take care of their chicks diligently. After they raise this batch of chicks, they can raise another batch, allowing the zoo to breed as many healthy chicks as possible.

References

[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2024.2409873

[2] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2410874121

[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168159124002077

[4] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.0683

[5] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rare-antarctic-penguin-spotted-thousands-of-kilometres-away-in-petone/DIPSTHIXWNAZ3LJ45JD334GAZE/

[6] https://phys.org/news/2024-10-sex-flamingo-couple-hatches-egg.html

Author: Cat Tun

Editor: Mai Mai