Animal news

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Birds pretend to be injured

Some birds pretend to be injured to draw predators' attention away from their offspring and onto themselves. Seeing it approach, a female bird quietly sneaks away from her nest to go near the predator and lure it by beating the ground with one wing and crying out as if in pain. This makes her appear vulnerable in the predator's eyes. However, she's always careful to leave enough space between herself and the predator to let her escape. Her "performance" invariably attracts the predator's attention. It approaches in the expectation of an easy meal, not realizing it's being led away from the bird's nest. When it's safely out of reach, the female bird will stop pretending to be injured and, just as the predator reaches it, will fly off.Source

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Hyena's laugh explained

A team led by Frédéric Theunissen, from the University of California at Berkeley, and Nicolas Mathevon, from the Université Jean Monnet at St. Etienne, France, recorded the calls of 26 hyenas in captivity. They found that variations in the giggles' pitch and timbre may help hyenas to establish social hierarchies, they reported this week in the open-access journal BMC Ecology. The researchers found that while the pitch of the giggle reveals a hyena's age, variations in the frequency of notes can encode information about dominant and subordinate status.Source

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Birds can teach us about healthy eating

Two University of Rhode Island scientists believe that birds choose certain berries because they offer protection against oxidative stress that occurs during long flights. Oxidative stress can lead to inflammation and a variety of diseases in birds and humans. The research may benefit human health as well as bird conservation. If further research shows the direct link between bird health and diet, then the findings will play a critical role in habitat protection for migratory birds. Source