Religions > Atheism > More Weird Animal Tricks: Calif. Squirrels Heat Tails for Defense
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Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"johac" |
| Date: |
14 Aug 2007 06:33:55 PM |
| Object: |
More Weird Animal Tricks: Calif. Squirrels Heat Tails for Defense |
Our animal friends never cease to amaze me.
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Calif. Squirrels Heat Tails for Defense
Aug 14, 5:18 PM (ET)
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
WASHINGTON (AP) - California ground squirrels have learned to intimidate
rattlesnakes by heating their tails and shaking them aggressively.
Because the snakes, which are ambush hunters, can sense infrared
radiation from heat, the warming makes the tails more conspicuous to
them - signaling that they have been discovered and that the squirrels
may come and harass them, explained Aaron Rundus, lead author of a study
in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
The tail "flagging" places the snakes on the defensive, he said.
Adult squirrels are not the snakes' prey, Rundus said in a telephone
interview. The adults have a protein in their blood that allows them to
survive the snake venom, and they have been known to attack and injure
snakes, biting and kicking gravel at them.
Rather, the snakes are looking for immature squirrels, which they can
kill and eat, said Rundus, who did the research while at the Animal
Behavior Graduate Group at the University of California, Davis.
Researchers are not sure just how the squirrels cause their tails to
heat up, but they think it may be by shunting warm blood from the body
core into the tail.
"It's such a new discovery that it leaves a lot of questions," he said.
But apparently it isn't just a reflex, because they only do it with
rattlesnakes.
Confronted by gopher snakes, which can't sense heat, the squirrels wave
their tails vigorously, but don't bother to heat them up.
So how did they discover that the squirrels heat their tails?
The researchers were studying how squirrels reacted to various predators
and noticed that with rattlesnakes they waved their tails even more in
dark conditions than in the light.
That prompted the researchers to view the encounters using an infrared
camera, and they discovered the squirrels' tails were much warmer than
normal when dealing with rattlesnakes.
Learning more about these complex communication methods among animals
may help improve understanding of how complex human communications have
evolved, Rundus said.
He said it serves as a reminder that to understand more about animal
life, we need to pay close attention to how animals act. "There is
potentially a lot going on out there that we're not aware of," he said.
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070814/D8R11OU80.html
--
John #1782
"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be
white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides."
- Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) Founder of the Jesuit Order.
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| User: "Geoff" |
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| Title: Re: More Weird Animal Tricks: Calif. Squirrels Heat Tails for Defense |
15 Aug 2007 09:03:30 AM |
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johac wrote:
Our animal friends never cease to amaze me.
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Calif. Squirrels Heat Tails for Defense
Aug 14, 5:18 PM (ET)
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
WASHINGTON (AP) - California ground squirrels have learned to
intimidate rattlesnakes by heating their tails and shaking them
aggressively.
Heard about this on NPR yesterday. Way cool.
.
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: More Weird Animal Tricks: Calif. Squirrels Heat Tails for Defense |
15 Aug 2007 11:46:24 PM |
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In article <AIidnXe99vQpml7bnZ2dnUVZ_oqhnZ2d@giganews.com>,
"Geoff" <gebobs@yahoo.nospam.com> wrote:
johac wrote:
Our animal friends never cease to amaze me.
---
Calif. Squirrels Heat Tails for Defense
Aug 14, 5:18 PM (ET)
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
WASHINGTON (AP) - California ground squirrels have learned to
intimidate rattlesnakes by heating their tails and shaking them
aggressively.
Heard about this on NPR yesterday. Way cool.
Yes. Nature is full of surprises.
--
John #1782
"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be
white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides."
- Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) Founder of the Jesuit Order.
.
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