What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Whatever it is, we’re sure you’ll find an even weirder answer after listening to this. Popular Science‘s hit podcast.
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Fact: Natural history is super weird. Just watch giraffes joust.
by Owen Eber
Whether described as a “ceremonial joust” or a “solemn dance,” there’s something erotic going on between male giraffes. According to field observations by Canadian biologists, Anne Innis Dag, ““Necking is when a male gently rubs his head or neck against the body of another male, or when two males rub their bodies or necks against each other. This arouses the male sexually, and he often mounts the other male, or possibly several other males.”
Historically, scientists have ignored the eccentricities of giraffes and many other animals, or dismissed them as the result of confusion, struggles for social dominance, platonic playfulness, or anything other than sexual attraction. But giraffes offer a particularly strong rebuttal to such practices, because males simply sometimes Avoid male-male contact – in fact there is more contact with males than with females – and as injuries are generally few and far between and existing social hierarchies are largely ignored, it is unlikely that this can be attributed to male aggression.
For more information about Anne Innis, A documentary about her workIf you want to hear more about the weirdness of the Queen of Animals, check out my new podcast. A Field Guide to Gay Animals!
fact: Great tits send messages to each other by shaking their wings
Scientists from the University of Tokyo have discovered that the Japanese titVaried titResearchers have previously found that these birds communicate in a fairly sophisticated way, with a 2018 study showing Birds are the equivalent of musical syntaxIt is known that only humans can use it. That is our ability. Combine words and phrases Create new meaning.
So they wondered if these birds communicated using gestures. There are several types of gesturesMotor or metrical gestures only occur in conjunction with speech. Think of gesturing to emphasize a point. Lexical or iconic gestures also occur with speech and can reflect or elaborate on the meaning of the words being spoken, such as rubbing your hands together when saying it’s cold or using air quotes. Then there are directive or indexical gestures, which occur with or without speech. These are directive, like the point or “ta-da” motion. These are commonly thought to be the only kinds of gestures non-primates can make. Crow and fish He is shown making a gesture meaning “look at this” Dog and elephant It has been shown that humans can understand what you mean when you point at something.
And then there are symbolic gestures. These are gestures that are loaded with inherent meaning. Things like waving, rolling your eyes, clapping, or any kind of inviting gesture. Use dozens of gestures Great tits communicate with each other in ways that studies suggest humans can usually understand. But it seems they can also make symbolic gestures. Listen to this week’s episode to find out more.
fact: These snakes are very good at pretending to be dead
by Jess Body
Usually, when threatened by a predator, an animal’s best course of action is to flee, but a select few choose to hang on and pretend to be dead.And the dice snake is selling especially well.First, they writhe around as if they are in pain, then they defecate, and finally, they cough up a little blood and then vomit it all out.
This technique is surprisingly effective, despite being energy intensive. Listen in to find out more about how these snakes achieve this ultimate performance (and How a group of scientists had fun working together) will be featured in this week’s episode.
