The little auk is a small seabird that would fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. At only about 150 grams, this featherweight bird eats 20% of its body weight in prey each day. And this takes some underwater hunting skills. Diving up to depths of 27 meters, the bird spots and slurps its prey, much as fishes do. Read more about the world’s only slurping seabird here in my first piece for Hakai magazine.
Photo credit: Manfred Enstipp
IN an encounter between a hungry frog and its insect food, at first it appears the frog is chasing after the insect but the frog’s been played by the insect all along. Find out how in my first piece for ‘Nature inFocus’.
Photo credit: Kaka Bhise
A link between pupil shape and the feeding behaviour of animals has been made by studying the eyes of 214 species. By modelling how differently shaped pupils collect light, researchers in the UK and US have argued that the shape of an animal’s pupil – the aperture through which light enters the eye – is related to whether that animal is predator or prey.
The study reveals that herbivorous prey animals such as deer and zebras are likely to have horizontal pupils, while predators actively hunting during the day – like cheetahs and coyotes – usually have circular pupils. Furthermore, animals that hunt at night, or both day and night, tend to have vertical pupils. This vertical group includes some foxes, cats and snakes…
Read the full story at Physics World.
Photo credit: David Corby
Richa Malhotra 