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| Photo by J.M. Garg (Wikimedia Creative Commons) |
by Peggy Robin
You know I hate the noise of leaf blowers. I thought I would
never, ever have a good word to say about them. But now I do! It’s because of science.
Harvard researchers wanted to find out how tropical lizards are able to hold
onto their tree limbs during hurricane force winds. So they set up an experiment
and mimicked the force of the hurricanes using a leaf blower in a lab. You can
see the experiment in action here:
Don’t worry – the lizards who could not hold on in 108 mph
winds (yes, they cranked up the leaf blower to over 100 mph!) were blown into a soft net,
unharmed. Rattled perhaps, and deafened, most likely, but otherwise OK.
That’s not the only strange animal story in the news this
week. Have you seen the cover story of the Sunday Washington Post magazine? It’s
been available online for the past few days (see:
https://wapo.st/2LH0kn7).
It’s the oddball but heartwarming story of a crane named Walnut who needed a
mate for life. But she had been hand-raised by humans and so found herself confused
and unattracted to the male cranes sent to woo her. Then a man came along who
seemed to understand her and appreciate her. He even learned to do the crane
mating dance with her. Through his devotion to her, and with the help of artificial
insemination (there’s science put to good use again!), he brought about the
laying of many rare crane eggs. Their love story may go on for many, many
years, as the white-naped crane from China can live to be 60 or more. Her human
mate, named Chris Crowe, is now 42, and may one day want to retire from his job
as a bird keeper at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute in Front
Royal, VA – but as the Washington Post story tells us, he knows he would never
be able to leave her. “I’d feel like a jerk,” he says gallantly.
After a week of news of fires, floods, and many other forms
of disaster, it’s always nice to hear of a couple dedicated to each other’s
welfare, together for the long haul – and especially so when they come from
different backgrounds, or in this case, different species!
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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