Friday, January 21, 2022

Wood stork with a fish

This  picture is from last year and it was taken with the iPad so it does not have the clarity and quality of my better camera. But since I was thinking about the anhinga and how it eats, it reminded me of the wood stork because he has a different way of hunting fish. He basically opens the beak and sticks it in the water.  He then moves his head from left to right and back again.  When the nerves in his beak sense  something touching The beak slam shut very very fast and of course whatever he grabbed he pulls out of the water and rearranges it to swallow it with its headfirst down his throat.  A Very interesting thing about the Woodstork is that he breaks the speed record. Scientists say that his reaction time from feeling something touch the inner part of his beak to his beak snapping shut on his “victim” is the fastest neurological action (From the nerve in the beak to the brain and back to close to beak) of any species including man.  Wow!


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