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Oct. 15th, 2004 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophileJust been watching a new comedy quiz show on BBC2 presented by Stephen Fry, called QI. What does QI stand for? Quite Interesting. In which people have to guess various factual answers such as pinpointing a kiwi's nostril, whether it's a good idea for you to feed chocolate to birds, why flamingos are pink etc etc. And it was actually quite interesting, not just a clever name.
For example, the answer to "Why are flamingos pink?" is, as most people know, because of their diet. Of course, most people are under the misaprehension that it's because they eat shrimp that they have pink pigmention. Actually it's from blue green algae.Blue green algae turns them pink.
Another? Okay, well an aveage bird only has 20-30 tastebuds. Humans have about 9000 and they are replaced every 5 days.
Sperm is attracted to the scent of Lily of the Valley. Apparently research has shown that not only does sperm have a sense of smell, but they're only attracted to this particular scent.. This is going to be used in fertility treatments soon.
The woodpecker is actually one of the strangest creatures in existance. They can peck not only at the speed of 15 times a second but their pecking can submit their skulls to the force of 1000 G. If that wasn't odd enough, the woodpecker's tongue is remarkable too. Their tongue are roughly two thirds their own body length. How does a woodpecker fit its tongue into its mouth? It doesn't. The woodpecker's tongue is actualy stored in the mouth, up round the back of the brain and int oa cavity behind the eye socket. Oh, and a woodpecker's tongue also has an ear on the end.
The kiwi has its nostrils at the very end of its beak. The official measurement for a bird's beak is, apparently, from the tip of its beak to its nostril. This means that, officially speaking, the kiwi has one of the shortest bills of any bird.
Finally, when a lighthouse keeper moved into his post on St Stephen's Island (near New Zealand I believe), he became increasingly aware of the number of bird corpses his cat, Tibbles, was bringing in. Noting something strange about the birds he sent a carcass off to be analysed. What was discovered was the birds were a species unique in the are, New Zealand's only flightless perching bird, named the St. Stephen's wren. Sadly, by the time anyone confirmed this, Tibbles had killed every living specimin in existence, the only instance of an etire species being wiped out by a single individual.
For example, the answer to "Why are flamingos pink?" is, as most people know, because of their diet. Of course, most people are under the misaprehension that it's because they eat shrimp that they have pink pigmention. Actually it's from blue green algae.Blue green algae turns them pink.
Another? Okay, well an aveage bird only has 20-30 tastebuds. Humans have about 9000 and they are replaced every 5 days.
Sperm is attracted to the scent of Lily of the Valley. Apparently research has shown that not only does sperm have a sense of smell, but they're only attracted to this particular scent.. This is going to be used in fertility treatments soon.
The woodpecker is actually one of the strangest creatures in existance. They can peck not only at the speed of 15 times a second but their pecking can submit their skulls to the force of 1000 G. If that wasn't odd enough, the woodpecker's tongue is remarkable too. Their tongue are roughly two thirds their own body length. How does a woodpecker fit its tongue into its mouth? It doesn't. The woodpecker's tongue is actualy stored in the mouth, up round the back of the brain and int oa cavity behind the eye socket. Oh, and a woodpecker's tongue also has an ear on the end.
The kiwi has its nostrils at the very end of its beak. The official measurement for a bird's beak is, apparently, from the tip of its beak to its nostril. This means that, officially speaking, the kiwi has one of the shortest bills of any bird.
Finally, when a lighthouse keeper moved into his post on St Stephen's Island (near New Zealand I believe), he became increasingly aware of the number of bird corpses his cat, Tibbles, was bringing in. Noting something strange about the birds he sent a carcass off to be analysed. What was discovered was the birds were a species unique in the are, New Zealand's only flightless perching bird, named the St. Stephen's wren. Sadly, by the time anyone confirmed this, Tibbles had killed every living specimin in existence, the only instance of an etire species being wiped out by a single individual.
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Date: 2004-10-15 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-16 02:24 am (UTC)See http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/002~Animal-Pests/Pets.asp for confirmation of this story.