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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Monday, December 15, 2014

The Caterpillar Defense

Let's say you're a baby bird. In particular, you're a chick belonging to the species Laniocera hypopyrra, a.k.a. cinereous mourner. You hatch out of your egg and find yourself in a nest up in tree in a rain forest in Peru. You can't fly. You can only wait for your parents to bring you food. You are, in other words, easy pickings.
So what might you do to avoid getting snatched up by a predator? Perhaps you might hold very still so as not to attract attention. If you're a cinereous mourner, however, this is not what you do. You grow brilliant orange plumage. You make yourself absurdly easy to see.

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