The dog never thought that his urine could save a bird's life! | Nature Trumpet

Welcome to the 17th issue of the Nature Trumpet column. In the past half month, we have collected these interesting natural news and research:

1) Real-life Snake, choked to death by a centipede

2) Dog urine protects seabirds, Paw Patrol makes a great contribution

3) In order to protect blue whales, shipping companies decided to take a detour

4) Rock hyraxes that sing rhythmically are more likely to find a mate

5) To avoid being beaten by males, female hummingbirds dress up as men

6) The cockatoo becomes a spirit and fights with humans over the trash can

Snake, dead

A snake swallowed a giant centipede - and then choked to death !

When the snake was found in Florida, USA, it was already dead, but the giant centipede was still stuck in its throat (of course, the centipede was also dead).

The centipede was stuck head-first in the snake's esophagus | Drew Martin

This is a rock-ringed crested snake (Tantilla oolitica), one of the rarest snakes in North America. Scientists haven't seen them in the wild for more than four years , and no one expected that when they reappeared after so many years, they would present such a ridiculous scene.

Scientists were very excited about the corpse of this "unlucky" snake. Although the local museum has 15 well-preserved specimens of the ringed rock snake, none of them died while eating prey. This snake can be said to have eaten in style and in a creative way! (Snake:?)

die together.jpg | Drew Martin

Further research found that the snake was 21 centimeters long and the centipede was one-third of its length. The centipede compressed and blocked the snake's esophagus , and the snake may have suffocated because of this. Snakes often swallow large prey and can spit them out when necessary. But the centipede may have had too many legs and got stuck in the snake's throat, so the snake was unable to spit out the centipede in time.

Scientists have also discovered another possible cause of death: the snake had small wounds in its body, which may have been caused by the centipede when it swallowed it. Although the wound itself was not fatal, the centipede may have taken the opportunity to release deadly venom , and eventually died with the snake.

CT scans of snakes and centipedes | Courtesy of the Florida Museum of Natural History

Paw Patrol

Scientists recently found a magic weapon to protect birds - dog urine !

The birds that need to be protected are black-headed plover that live on Australian beaches. They can remove excess seaweed and maintain the stability of the beach food chain. However, since the 1980s, their population has declined rapidly and is now listed as vulnerable by the IUCN.

Black-headed plover (Thinornis rubricollis) | JJ Harrison / Wikimedia Commons

Although people have made great efforts to protect the black-headed plover, there is still a huge threat that is difficult to solve - foxes . Black-headed plover lay eggs on the beach, and some cunning foxes will wait on the beach and treat the young birds that have not yet learned to fly as a buffet.

How to drive away foxes? Scientists have figured out the weak spot of foxes - they are afraid of dogs ! In the wild, foxes will avoid areas where dogs are active. Moreover, dogs don't have to guard the area themselves. As long as the dog's urine is spread around the nesting area of ​​black-headed plover, the foxes will smell the "urine" and run away.

Black-headed Plover nesting site | Ed Dunens / Wikimedia Commons

Now, scientists plan to not only spread dog urine, but also install fences and horns that can scare foxes near the nesting area. This combination of measures will prevent foxes from eating the chicks, allowing the black-headed plover to safely breed.

Change of route for blue whales

In order to protect blue whales, a shipping giant company changed their routes.

Ocean currents and monsoons have made Sri Lanka's southern waters a rich fishing ground. Not only do humans like to come here to fish and angling, but many marine creatures also like to come here to hunt, and blue whales often appear here. However, in the past 10 years, more than a dozen blue whales have died after colliding with merchant ships , which has caused dissatisfaction among many environmentalists.

People examine a blue whale killed by a boat | Craig Hayslip, Oregon State University Marine Mammal Institute / Wikimedia Commons

Recently, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) announced that it had adjusted its route near Sri Lanka to move 15 nautical miles away from the coast. This will reduce the chance of cetaceans, dolphins and porpoises encountering commercial ships and causing accidents by 95% . The company also stipulated that its small supply ships must slow down to 10 knots when sailing in the local blue whale habitat.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare believes that this move is good news for both blue whales and humans - while blue whales are safer, local whale watching activities and fisheries will also be able to develop better .

Singing is good for courtship

If you want to find a mate, you must first learn to sing - this is the life experience of male rock hyrax.

Rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) singing | Eyal Bartov

Scientists at a nature reserve in Israel recorded the morning behavior and vocalizations of rock hyraxes between 2002 and 2013. They found that, unlike other animals that often sing in chorus, male rock hyraxes are solo singers .

The frequency and rhythm of male rock hyrax singing are important criteria for females to consider when choosing a mate. Males who sing frequently have more surviving offspring; the more stable the rhythm of their songs, the more likely they are to get a mating opportunity. But this is not because female rock hyraxes love music, they just use their singing to determine the health and fitness of males . Scientists speculate that some physiological diseases of rock hyraxes may prevent them from making precise rhythmic calls, and females use this to select healthy mates.

This rock hyrax is singing seriously | Amiyaal Ilany

In order to attract the opposite sex, male rock hyraxes not only pay attention to the rhythm of their songs, but also know how to immerse the audience in them. When singing, they use a crescendo method, singing louder and louder as the song progresses; at the end of the song, the complexity of the song will reach its highest level , and the females present will be fascinated by it unconsciously.

Women dressed as men

In order to avoid being beaten by males, female white-necked hummingbirds have learned to "dress as men".

Young white-necked hummingbirds, both male and female, have bright blue and white feathers. As they grow up, males retain their bright appearance, while most females become duller. Strangely, 20% of females actually camouflage themselves as males, retaining the bright coloring of their childhood .

A female white-necked hummingbird (Florisuga mellivora) on the left and a male and a female masquerading as a male on the right | Jillian Ditner

Females disguised as males of the same species are not common in the animal world. Researchers found that male white-necked hummingbirds are like bullies, guarding their territories and fighting with competitors for food resources. Females who are smaller and less combative than them will be attacked more. However, those female birds disguised as men will be attacked and driven away by males when they eat at the feeder.

Female white-necked hummingbird dressed as a man | Irene Mendez Cruz

The females who are "disguised as men" only look like males, and their behavior, strength and size are similar to other females. However, this bluffing appearance is enough to reduce the attacks of males and give them the opportunity to eat more food. However, when courting, "disguised as men" has no benefit. Male white-necked hummingbirds still prefer to mate with females with dull appearance .

Trash can battle

In Australia, cockatoos are competing with humans over trash in their bins.

The local cockatoos have long learned to open roadside bins and feast on leftover pizza and bread. This is not a good thing - they pick through the bins and leave trash all over the floor, and human food can be a health hazard to them.

Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita): Eating pizza today, hehe | Dr John Martin / Twitter

The nearby residents came up with some countermeasures. At first, they used bricks, metal or bottles filled with water to press down on the lids of the trash cans. However, after a few days, the parrots learned to open the lids that were pressed by heavy objects . What's more frightening is that they will learn from each other. As long as one "student" figures out how to open the lid, other parrots can learn it by observation.

Cockatoos: It's just a brick. It's a piece of cake! | Barbara Klump/Current Biology

The battle between humans and birds escalated. Some people fixed heavy objects on the lid of the box, some tied the lid with elastic ropes, some put nails on the sides to prevent them from landing, and some tried to scare away the parrots with plastic snakes... Some of these methods worked for a few days, while others were completely ineffective.

This competition will not end so easily. We will have to wait and see who will be the final winner.

Someone put a doormat on the dumpster and someone jammed the lid with a shoe | Barbara Klump

References

[1] Enge, KM, Gray, JA, Sheehy, CM, III, Ferraro, T., Martin, DM and Mays, JD (2022), What killed the rarest snake in North America?. Ecology. Accepted Author Manuscript e3857. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3857

[2] https://phys.org/news/2022-09-dog-urine-threatened-hooded-plovers.html

[3] https://phys.org/news/2022-09-shipping-giant-sri-lanka-whales.html

[4] Demartsev, V., Haddas-Sasson, M., Ilany, A., Koren, L., & Geffen, E. (2022). Male rock hyraxes that maintain an isochronous song rhythm achieve higher reproductive success. Journal of Animal Ecology, 00, 1– 12. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13801

[5] Falk Jay J., Rubenstein Dustin R., Rico-Guevara Alejandro and Webster Michael S. (2022). Intersexual social dominance mimicry drives female hummingbird polymorphism.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B. http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0332

[6] Barbara C. Klump, Richard E. Major, Damien R. Farine, John M. Martin and Lucy M. Aplin. (2022).

Is bin-opening in cockatoos leading to an innovation arms race with humans? Current Biology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.008

Author: Cat Tun

Editor: Mai Mai

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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