Sunday, November 29, 2009

Twittering for living

Amazing facts about biological evolution of cuckoo chicks:

... an extremely short incubation period, which ensures that the cuckoo chicks usually hatch before the host's chicks.
...having killed its rivals, the cuckoo chick must stimulate an adequate rate of feeding by its host. It appears to accomplish theis task by behaving as if it were the equivalent of a whole brood of its host's chicks. It does so by emitting a rapid begging call that mimics the begging sounds, as well as the calling rate, of a complete brood of its host's chicks.

Niche Construction, p 11.

tags: evolution, biology, niche construction,

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