Toco - the most beautiful cub on the Amazon River

I went to the zoo last week. I wanted to see the colorful parrots, but I was attracted by a bird with an ugly voice and a silly look. It is the one below.

Let’s take in this appearance first, starting with the big yellow and red mouth that catches your eye, the contrasting black and white feathers, the orange eyeshadow with blue eyeliner, and the retro red warm leggings.

How about it? Is this contrasting color combination trendy? I dare say that only Toco can pull off this color combination. I forgot to introduce Toco, this is it - Toco Toucan (I don't need to explain why it is called Toucan), a bird widely distributed in South America. Because they have no habit of migration, they live in a few fixed habitats from generation to generation.

If you feel familiar with them, that's normal, because they were extremely popular before the Internet, and they also "took" a lot of advertising endorsements, and even many cartoon characters were based on them.

For example, the Guinness beer and cereal ads in 1930.

They also appear in "Rio" and "Dora the Adventurer".

The most interesting thing is the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, which has even adopted Toco as its official image. It's a bit sour, but who can blame them for their unique appearance?

However, as old internet celebrity birds in Europe and the United States, their presence has long penetrated into every aspect of our lives, but in fact they are not really understood by the public.

Toco Toucans prefer to live in semi-open habitats, such as woodlands, tropical savannas, and other places with scattered woodlands. As for why their colors are so bright, it is because the light in the woods is more variable, and bright colors make it easier to hide themselves.

The most colorful and eye-catching thing about them is their big beak. The Toco Toucan has the largest beak of all toucans. It can reach 23 cm in length, is orange-yellow, dark red in the lower part and cavity, with a black base and large spots on the tip.

Their beaks look heavy, but they don't actually cause any burden to their lives. The inside of the beak is hollow, supported by bone pillars, and filled with keratin tissue with gaps in the middle. Their tongues are almost as long as their beaks and are very flat.

So here comes the question: Why does a small bird have such a big beak?

To be honest, people have been studying why their mouths are so big since they were discovered. Naturalist Darwin believed that such a mouth might have a greater chance of attracting the opposite sex when courting.

Later it was confirmed that in addition to being convenient for courtship, the huge, brightly colored beak can serve as a visual warning to other birds when competing for and defending territory, easily scaring off the enemy without a "fight". It is also more convenient to eat other birds' eggs .

When it comes to eating, it is true that its mouth is big, so it can eat anything. The Toco Toucan is an omnivore, and usually eats mainly fruits. Occasionally, when it gets tired of eating, it will find frogs and insects to change its taste. If it is in a bad mood, it will dig out other people's bird eggs, and even eat other people's baby birds.

When it needs to drink water, this mouth can also serve as a straw. Standing on a tree, the bird can drink water from a 360-degree angle . The life of a bird is very comfortable.

Of course, in addition to its function as a warning for eating and drinking, the beak of the Toco Toucan has another unique skill - regulating body temperature.

Birds don't sweat, but like rabbits and elephants, they need to get rid of excess body heat by moving blood quickly through non-insulated tissues in the body (such as the beak and ears), thereby dissipating the heat into the air.

Rabbit ears are rich in blood vessels

But why do I only call the beak of the Toco Toucan a special skill? Because an adult Toco Toucan can use its beak to dissipate 100% of the heat. Compared with it, rabbits and elephants are simply weak.

The beak area is a key factor in achieving this level of heat dissipation. The beak of a toco can account for 30%-50% of its body length, and there are a large number of blood vessels on the surface, which can radiate a lot of heat in high temperatures and when flying. Not only that, they can also control the blood flow in the beak, which can keep warm in a cold environment.

In order to confirm that the toucan's large beak has the function of regulating temperature, Canadian evolutionary physiologist Glenn Tattersall conducted experiments.

He randomly selected six toucans (four adults and two chicks), installed a thermal imaging camera above each bird, simulated the temperature difference in the toucans' living environment (10℃-35℃) and collected thermal imaging pictures every 10 seconds.

The toucans were given two hours to acclimate before each simulated temperature change. The temperature was gradually increased or decreased (randomly) within a range of 2°C to 8-10°C or 35-36°C. A total of 110 hours of video data were collected and analyzed during the experiment.

The picture above shows a toucan releasing heat with its beak.

Figure A: Toucans experience minimal heat loss at 20°C.

Figure B: Heat dissipation in the beak of the same toucan two minutes later

Figure C: Toucan has moderate heat loss at 25°C.

Figure D: The same toucan two minutes later with the heat spreading almost throughout the beak.

This set of images shows us the toucan's ability to control blood flow in its beak.

Figure E: A toucan in an environment of 10°C has almost completely stopped blood flow in its beak, achieving a heat-insulating effect.

Figure F: A toucan in an environment of 35°C allows more blood to flow to the outer area of ​​its beak to ensure that its core temperature does not get too high.

Figure G: In an environment of 22°C, the blood vessels at the front end of the toucan's beak contract while those near the head are in a relaxed state.

Figure H: The blood vessels in the beak fully dilate when the temperature reaches above 35°C.

The results of the experiment showed that the toucan does rely on its huge beak to regulate temperature and control the flow of blood in the beak. When the toucan is flying, it can even release 4 times the heat generated when it is stationary.

So don't be fooled by his big mouth, a big mouth is very useful. But I have to tell you secretly, although Toge's mouth is strong, it still can't fit into the tree hole, hush~