Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!

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- osmanthus
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Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
OP - November 11, 2012, 11:16 PM

This is a cunning stunt.

Zoologger: The bird with a password-protected nest

Quote
Most parents are security conscious but Australian superb fairy-wrens take it to another level. They have no choice: fairy-wren mothers often have their nests hijacked by Horsfield's bronze cuckoos (Chalcites basalis).

The cuckoo egg looks like the wren eggs but hatches earlier, at which point the cuckoo chick ejects the wren eggs. Unless the mother wren realises an intruder is in the nest, she raises the cuckoo as her own, wasting time and food.

But the cuckoo only gets away with it 60 per cent of the time. In the other 40 per cent of cases, the wren detects the cuckoo within days, abandons it, and starts another nest. That's because the mother teaches her chicks a password while they are still inside their eggs. Once hatched, the mother abandons the nest if they can't give the password.

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- ateapotist
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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #1 - November 11, 2012, 11:29 PM

If there was a title for most evil animal in nature, I would award it to the cuckoo. Parasitic brooding is just pure evil!

*awaits Os's smartass comment about my human-centric view of evil

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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #2 - November 11, 2012, 11:33 PM

*just to keep Teapot happy, makes gratuitous smartass comment about anthropomorphising natural ecosytems, and the obvious deficiency of intellect of those who fall into this trap*

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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #3 - November 11, 2012, 11:38 PM

Is happy.

Quote
That's because the mother teaches her chicks a password while they are still inside their eggs.

Gotta love evolutionary biology. It produces a never-ending list of interesting facts.
I suppose the arms race of evolution will continue as the cuckoo evolves the ability to learn the 'password' song like the fairy-wren chicks from inside the egg.

"Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so." -- Bertrand Russell

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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #4 - November 11, 2012, 11:44 PM

That's the obvious next stage, if you are consciously trying to formulate a strategy. No telling whether or not cuckoos wll manage to evolve such a trick though. Fascinating stuff, anyway.

I have those wrens at my place, and I can tell you for a fact that they are not actually intelligent. The little buggers are cute as anything, but they're a tad thick. The males will fight with their own reflection all day if you leave them to it.

*waits for someone to draw the obvious parallel with humans*

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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #5 - November 11, 2012, 11:44 PM

Allah did it

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #6 - November 11, 2012, 11:52 PM

Quote from: osmanthus on November 11, 2012, 11:44 PM
The males will fight with their own reflection all day if you leave them to it.

That must be really entertaining to watch.

Also, very cool info, birds who at birth already know a password. The world is full of strange and interesting things.

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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #7 - November 11, 2012, 11:57 PM

Yeah it's funny, but I get a bit worried about them doing themselves an injury from constantly head butting my truck's mirror. Also, they get kinda excited and shit themselves all down the door.

They'll start off by fluttering past the truck and catching a glimpse of "the invader", so they fly over and start having a go at him. He never backs down, whcih just pisses them off more. They intermittently fly to the top of the mirror and check the other side of it. When they hop down again, there the bastard is! Attack!

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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #8 - November 12, 2012, 12:13 AM

best I have round here is squirrels who can never remember where they buried their nuts, your entertainment sounds way better. minus the poo flying everywhere.

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Re: Fairy wrens have password-protected nests!
Reply #9 - November 12, 2012, 12:14 AM

osmanthus is proud that, so far, I can always remember where my nuts are...........................

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