Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how birds can travel around the world and always find their way back to a incredibly small mating ground. It turns out that specialized cells on the birds beak, nose, and ears, these cells feed into the neural net and help the bird create its natural gps. The birds are so specialized that their individual receptor cells are able to measure and report back magnetic field direction, intensity and polarity.
Birds amaze me. I wonder if all birds are like that? Or just wild ones? The reason I say this is because I thought of the birds people have as house pets...Do you think they are so used to being caged and fed, they have lost any sense. Like humans loosing their knowledge in survival.
ReplyDeleteI assume that this applies to all birds, although my guess is birds that participate in a long migration have invested much more into this adaptation. I am guessing that the bald eagle has this to a certain degree, and yet for a bird that stays roughly in the same area for its entire life it would wouldn't be as important. But in term of birds loosing this ability, consider the fact that the reason you hiccup is a vestige of when your ancestors had gills, because there was no disadvantage to the hiccup.. (didnt stop anyone from reproducing, it still remains today).
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