The wonders of nature

 

Every so often I like to research some interesting facts and share them with you so you can enthral and fascinate your friends at parties and other gatherings like at the dentist's waiting room.

Did you know that the crow in Japan has developed an intelligent trick to crack walnuts? He sits on the traffic lights and waits for the lights to go red. Then he flies down and places the walnut under the tyre of a vehicle and flies back on the traffic lights. When the lights go green and the cars move forwards they crack the nut. The bird waits until it goes red again and picks up the broken nut pieces. 

Also, eagles have learnt that one way to crack a tortoise and eat the insides is to drop it from a height and then fly down after it. The ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus was killed by a tortoise. It was dropped by an eagle from a great height and landed on his head. Ironically, Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avoid a prophecy that he would be killed by a falling object.

The centipede when it is chased by a predator it detaches one of its legs and throws it at the predator. The predator stops to eat the leg whilst the centipede runs away to safety. Unfortunately, many centipedes die shortly afterwards when they return to retrieve their shoe.

As you know, the rhinoceros is very short sighted. Some scientists tried to remedy the situation by designing special spectacles that would fit around the rhino's head and over the eyes, like some scuba diving people do. They failed because the rhinoceros would not sit in the optician's chair. He wriggled left and right trying to escape, and he knocked the whole place about with various equipment and lenses flying all over the place. Also, he could not read the various sized alphabets on the reading chart.

Did you also know that you cannot talk to earwigs? In their language they do not have any vowels. Just consonants like MMMMMM for tasty food, NNNNNN for No, PPPPPP for doing No. 2 and so on. Scientists say the tiny creatures have turned a deaf ear to communicating with humans.

Some people relax by listening to the song of whales on CDs or tapes. Also on You Tube. You can hear them go Woooooo Woooooo Wooooo and it is very relaxing. Whales however relax to a totally different tune!