This is fascinating - are the "signatures" regional or individual? If it's the latter that's amazing given an egg develops inside the cuckoo - how can they change the pattern before laying the egg...
This is fascinating - are the "signatures" regional or individual? If it's the latter that's amazing given an egg develops inside the cuckoo - how can they change the pattern before laying the egg mimicking the host's unique "signature" so closely??
Edit- it looks like the answer is in the article:
"Even though cuckoos have evolved excellent 'forgeries,' individual cuckoos don't target individual drongo nests that match their own eggs."
Still amazing, I can't wrap my head around the probability of a cuckoo recognising its own egg patterns, then finding a near identical match. Mind-boggling.
Edit 2: wait, I misread the text - they don't target matching eggs. It's all down to just chance then? My mind is ever further blown. How is this not equivalent to winning the lottery when they get a match??
This is fascinating - are the "signatures" regional or individual? If it's the latter that's amazing given an egg develops inside the cuckoo - how can they change the pattern before laying the egg mimicking the host's unique "signature" so closely??
Edit- it looks like the answer is in the article:
"Even though cuckoos have evolved excellent 'forgeries,' individual cuckoos don't target individual drongo nests that match their own eggs."
Still amazing, I can't wrap my head around the probability of a cuckoo recognising its own egg patterns, then finding a near identical match. Mind-boggling.
Edit 2: wait, I misread the text - they don't target matching eggs. It's all down to just chance then? My mind is ever further blown. How is this not equivalent to winning the lottery when they get a match??
I wonder if the researchers presence put the birds on high alert increasing the chance that the identified the forgeries?
Took me a second too! I had no idea there was another kind of drongo. Very funny mental image