Animals

The March of the Red Crab
A Moth Find a New Home
Suicidal Birds
A leopard and A cheetah
The Spectacular Hornbill
The Antelope with an extraordinary nose
Masquerading Males
Tiny But Powerful
Electric Fishes
Paternal Care
Hairless Cat
Passionate Parrot
Calling Out To Mother
Hot Wheels
Discs On Their Wings
Two-humped Camels
Frozen Frog
Silken Chambers
Earth Pig
Swordsman of the Sea
The Ostrich Trick
Electrifying Meal
Bizarre Turtle
Grey Whales
The Flying Lemur
The Winged Fishing Creature
Llamas
A Different Sort of a Parrot
The Tailless Cat
The Ancestor Of The Rhino
Acquisitive Wood Rats
The Butterflyfish
The Amazing Jumper
The Largest Deer
The Devil’s Coach-Horse
The Porcupine With A Prehensile Tail
The Irritating Fencing
The Acrobatic Otter
The Busy Termite Colony
Superb Mimics
The Canary
Snow Monkey
Jumping Spiders
Glass Lizard
Beetle Rhino
The World’s Smallest Bear
Hygienic Ants
Flat as a Pancake
The Carpet Shark
The Centipede Walk

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The Irritating Fencing

The red cockaded woodpecker makes its nest deep within the heartwood of the conifer tree.
To protect its eggs from rat snakes it pecks shallow holes in a line both above and below the nest. Resin present in the outer layers of the trunk of the tree, starts oozing out of the holes and forms a thick resinous fence around the entrance to the woodpecker's nest.
The rat snake which feeds on birds' eggs and chicks finds the smell of the chemicals in the resin unpleasant. It rears back, arches and writhes and in the process loses its balance and falls.
The woodpecker pecks fresh holes periodically to keep the resin flowing.

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Last updated on :8/12/2005