cars, vans, crossovers have evolved too, with more sloping windshields, smoother grills, hoods, giveing better lift to daring birds, and deflecting collisions.
a win win situation, bird population increasing.
Another example of evolution before our very eyes!
by cantleave 36 Replies latest jw friends
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cantleave
Here's the summary from "Nature"
http://www.nature.com/news/swallows-may-be-evolving-to-dodge-traffic-1.12614
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cofty
Thanks Cantleave.
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prologos
cofty, as an aviation buff, you can see perhaps, that,
had these birds been foundcollected by a pilot rather than a taxidermist,
there would be a strong flight, control angle to this too.
Too bad for these shorter wings. they look more like sparrows.
The swift, a kind of swallow with really long beats swallows in flight. They are the swiftest of birds in their migration from Spain to England leg. way above the legal road speed for vehicles in most countries.
evolution is blind, not always improving to our liking.
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jgnat
Now, if swallows outlast motor vehicles, their longer-winged brethren may make a comeback.
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DATA-DOG
Someone in the Mid-West should conduct a long-term study on Armadillos. http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/nine-banded-armadillo They have moved into areas where they formally could not thrive. It could just be that the climate is changing, not the amradillo itself. It would be hard to say without a study. If the climate of Missouri stays relatively unchanged for the next 10 years, and traffic increases, but the armadillo population continues to increase, then maybe they are evolving better eye-sight and hearing. If they started hunkering down and freezing in place, instead of rising up at any sign of danger, then this should decrease highway deaths.
The ones that could see better, hear better, and freeze if necessary to allow a car to pass over them, would live to pass on their traits to subsequent generations.
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cantleave
Data Dog, there is evidence that road kill is favouring hedgehogs that run in response to a threat, rather than curling up in a ball. If deaths due to traffic exceed deaths from predators, the genes for running away should outnumber those for curling up.
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cofty
I have done my bit to eliminate stupid Pheasants from the gene pool.
Prologos - I love watching swifts. They are the best fliers I have ever seen. Once fledged they will not stop flying continually for the next 2 or 3 years. They even sleep in flight.
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prologos
Cofty, I watched them, as the swallows,
do dynamic soaring, --a flight technique that could have EVOLVED by trial and error, and stuck--
going windward low near the ground, where there is no headwind, and catching the low insects, then
rise against the wind gaining airspeed in the wind gradient, snatching the high flying bugs
on the down wind leg, gaining energy again when losing altitude, and then repeat.
the albatrosses of the landmass. bird brains. going south for the winter.
a turning swallow looks like a spitfire.