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FACT: Natural historical past is tremendous queer—simply take a look at jousting giraffes
By Owen Ever
Whether described as “ritualistic jousting” or a “stately dance,” there’s one thing erotic occurring between male giraffes. According to the sphere observations of Canadian biologist Anne Innis Dagg, “Necking involved one male gently rubbing his head or neck against the body of another, or the two males mutually rubbing their trunks and necks together. This often sexually aroused one so that he mounted the other or even several other males.”
History is filled with scientists ignoring queerness in giraffes—and many different animals—or writing off such behaviors as being the results of confusion, fights for social dominance, platonic playfulness… mainly all the pieces besides sexual attraction. But giraffes current a significantly robust rebuttal to that apply, as a result of males don’t simply typically neck with different males. They really neck with males extra usually than females. A basic lack of accidents—and a basic disregard for the prevailing social hierarchy—makes it unlikely that we are able to blame these encounters on male aggression.
You can study extra about Anne Innis by trying out this documentary about her work. And you possibly can study extra in regards to the queerness of the animal queendom by trying out my new podcast, A Field Guide to Gay Animals!
FACT: Japanese tits ship one another messages by waving their wings
By Rachel Feltman
Scientists from the University of Tokyo had been observing the Japanese tit (Parus minor). They’d beforehand discovered that these birds talk fairly sophisticatedly; in a 2018 research, they argued that the decision combos utilized by the birds amounted to compositional syntax, which solely people are recognized to make use of. That’s our skill to place phrases and phrases collectively to create new meanings.
So now they had been questioning whether or not these birds may use gestures to speak. There are a number of sorts of gesture. Motor or beat gestures can solely happen in tandem with speech—assume gesticulating to emphasise a level. Lexical or iconic gestures additionally happen with speech, and might echo or elaborate on the which means of the phrases being spoken—like rubbing your palms collectively as you say you’re chilly, or utilizing air quotes. Then there are deictic or indexical gestures, which may occur both with or with out vocal speech. They’re indicative, like a level or a “ta-da” movement. It’s typically thought that these are the one form of gestures non-primates could make. Ravens and fish have been proven to make gestures that appear to imply “look at this,” and canine and elephants have been proven to grasp what people imply after they level at one thing.
Then there are symbolic gestures. These are the gestures loaded with inherent which means. A wave, an eye-roll, a clap, a come-hither movement. Chimps use dozens of gestures to speak with one another, and analysis means that people can normally determine what they imply. But now it looks as if the Japanese tit may be able to symbolic gestures, too. Listen to this week’s episode to study extra!
FACT: These snakes are extraordinarily good at enjoying lifeless
By Jess Boddy
Typically when threatened by a predator, it could be in an animal’s greatest curiosity to make a break for it. But a choose few determine to remain put and play lifeless as an alternative—and the cube snake sells it significantly effectively. First, it writhes round as if in ache. Then, it poops itself. Finally, it brings all of it house by coughing up a little blood.
The approach is shockingly efficient, regardless of how energetically intensive it’s. Hear extra about how these snakes pull off the final word efficiency (and the way a group of scientists had a ton of enjoyable learning them) on this week’s episode.