Snail Discovered That Can Survive Digestion By Birds 82
smitty777 writes "A recent article in the Journal of Biogeography describes research showing that 15% of the snails devoured by birds on a Japanese island can survive the digestive process. This is thought to be the mechanism by which the snail populations can migrate from island to island, similar to the way plant seeds are deposited. From the article: 'In the lab, scientists fed the birds with the snails to find out whether any survived the digestive process. "We were surprised that a high rate, about 15 percent, of snails were still alive after passing through the gut of [the] birds," explained researcher Shinichiro Wada.'" As bad as riding in a bird's digestive tract sounds, I'd take it over flying standby on a puddle jumper.
Bird Discovered (Score:4, Interesting)
...that fails to properly digest snails.
Leucochloridium paradoxum? (Score:2, Interesting)
Perhaps this would explain the evolution of Leucochloridium paradoxum, the flatworm that turns snails into zombies for the purpose of being eaten by birds and hence transport.
Eels Are Faster... (Score:4, Interesting)
When my dad was in his teens, WAY back when, he was fishing for eels out on the ice of Sag Harbor bay.
You cut a hole in the ice and jabbed the eel spear into the mud on the bottom. The eels would get caught between the tines, and you'd pull up the pole and let the eel squirm out into the bucket. Sometimes, you'd get one that was much too small, and you just shake it off on the ice near the hole.
Well, a seagull came down and grabbed the eel before it could escape back under the ice. The bird gobbled it down, but it took a few tries. The bird stood there, watching and waiting for any more. A few minutes later, the bird started doing a funny kind of dance, and the previously devoured eel slid right out the back of the bird.
Still alive, highly pissed off and wriggling like crazy to get back in the water.
The seagull just turned around, grabbed it and swallowed it down again.
It stayed in that time.