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There is much more to the pigeon than meets the eye (and more to their vision than we once thought).  This fascinating video by True Facts Educational delves into the bobbing heads question.  The answer is quite simple - they are only trying to keep their world still.  This video goes into much more detail than that, of course, but this is only the beginning.  It turns out that there are a lot of questions we could ask about pigeons, but are too distracted by our daily lives to go and seek the answer.  So, what other questions does this video ask?

First and foremost, something that we have seen countless times.  We all recognise the signs when pigeons are getting amorous.  There is the head bowing and the tail feather fanned out – and the female trying to get away at all costs.  The signals the male gives are very similar to those he displays when feeling aggressive, but they are part of an elaborate courtship dance.  You know he's got it right when the female allows a little beaking to go on (yes, you read that correctly – watch the video to see it in action!).   It isn’t some kind of pigeon French-kissing, though – it enables the giving of a gift.   That raises another question – why do their nests so often look like a hopeless mess, like they haven’t bothered to make much of an effort to give their eggs a place to call home?  There’s a good reason for that, too…

One thing that genuinely surprised me is the fact that most pigeons mate for life.  Their courtship rituals always look so random to me – but perhaps I wasn’t paying enough attention!  When I watch them (with some amusement) in the local park, it all looks a little random, but their behaviour is far more sophisticated than it first appears. Watch the video below and discover much more about the humble pigeon – it might surprise you just how complex the behaviour of this bird we all take for granted truly is. 

The Malabar pied hornbill (Anthracoceros coronatus) is a striking bird to say the least, especially when it is in full flight.  As you can see from the picture, it has a large casque above its upper mandible.  A casque is thought to serve as a clue to others of its species about sex, maturity or even social status.  The casque of the male Malabar pied hornbill is, for example, larger than the females (the one in the picture is female).  The casque might also serve to reinforce the bird’s beak or even act as a call enhancer.  They have been observed being used in fights between members of the same species.  So, the function of a casque is more a hypothesis than a fact, but the above are the most likely reasons why birds have them. Image Credit

For me, the most fascinating aspect of the life of the Malabar pied hornbill, which is found in India and Sri Lanka, is the way that they raise their chicks.  The female lays the eggs in a tree hollow, which the male seals up with a home-made cement, leaving only a small hole through which he passes food to the mother and growing chicks. Although the bird is an omnivore, the main component of its diet (75%) is figs.  When the chicks grow too large for the female to remain inside the cavity, she breaks out, and then seals it back up again.  She joins the male in passing food through the little hole until the chicks are ready to fledge.  Fascinating!

Did you know that when it feels threatened, a slow loris can stay motionless, gripped onto a single branch, for hours? That isn’t the only remarkable fact about this animal, which is endangered.  Their single biggest threat is us – you can obviously see the attraction from the picture of the Javan Slow Loris above – and in their own habitat they are often taken as “living toys” for children.  They are also victims of the international global animal smuggling network and videos of them in captivity often get hundreds of thousands if not millions of hits. They look very passive and docile in the videos – and do you know why that is?  It is because their defense mechanism is to freeze – so what you are seeing in these videos is not a slow loris happily joining in the fun, but an animal that is so scared that it has become motionless. Image

The video below is a TED-Ed Lesson by Stephanie A. Poindexter, directed by Reza Riahi and it focuses on the life of the slow loris in the wild, looking at when they diverged from other primates (an awfully long time ago) and how that defensive mechanism works when they are confronted with danger.  Although they are omnivores, they also love to eat tree gum – and it is thought that they sequester the toxins from the gum for their own use.  They are venomous – the only primate to hold that particular badge, and one of the few venomous mammals in existence.  They secrete the toxin from their armpits, mix it with their saliva and spread it on their teeth, so when they bit another animal, it will start a flesh-rotting process almost immediately.  They also spread it all over their coats, which makes it a highly effective anti-parasite balm. Some animals (like cats and civets) hate even the vaguest smell of slow loris saliva, so you can see how their venom has multiple uses.

So, if a slow loris ever adopts its venom pose (the very cute hands above its head that so many people think is the slow loris joining in the fun), accompanied by swaying and throaty noises, make a quick exit.  However, the “people” who work in the illegal trade of the slow loris do something unspeakable – they file down their teeth so the venom cannot be carried that way, or they remove the teeth altogether before selling the wretched animal on. It is mind-boggling to think that people want to keep slow loris as pets given the suffering that they go through and, let’s face it, that they are still potentially venemous. Having said that, wildlife researchers have revealed that the biggest victim of slow loris venom is, wait for it, other slow lorises.

This is a fascinating photograph, not only for the obelisk Position that the dragonfly has positioned itself in, but because of the name of the species – the Halloween pennant (Celithemis eponina).  It is native to North America and the West Indies. It gets its name because when it flies, these colours look a bit like traditional Halloween decorations (orange and black), especially when it perches with its wings held out like little flags. Image

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Wait... the obelisk position?  Here is the same dragonfly from a different angle. Basically, it’s doing a handstand (like the blue dasher above) and there are a few reasons why it might exhibiting this strange behavior.

How do I look in these?  That age old question about sunglasses is now not only restricted to our own species.  Now the dogs are getting in on the act too.  A surprise hit, it has been described as one of those money making ideas that should never have worked but in fact makes millions.