MIMICRY
Greetings everyone!
This will be a short blog. Why? Because I am not well, I just came from the doctors and found out I have pneumonia. I have been trying to hide being sick for the last two months but it finally caught up with me. I sure hope you all are faring better!
Speaking of hiding, have you ever heard of threat-reversal mimicry? It is really a simple but ingenious invention. During creation week, God made certain animal’s original DNA to contain what we call, threat-reversal mimicry. “This kind of shrewd trickery, if successful, reverses the roles of attacker and target. The target fools the attacker into actually fearing the target—and the nervy bluff deters the attack. The boldness of the vulnerable target in feigning readiness to attack the attacker is a brilliant reversal of predator-prey roles, but only if the prey successfully fakes out the predator.Such is ordinary life for the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura), which feeds on the ground and nests there or within shrubs, on buildings, or in trees—the same places where opportunistic and omnivorous rats, like Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus, roam for food. Consequently, dove eggs and hatchlings are sometimes vulnerable to prowling predatory rats. How can vulnerable mourning doves intimidate the neighborhood rats? God invented and installed a specialized acoustical mimicry that has benefitted countless doves generation after generation. Their doleful moanings (cooOOoo-woo-woo-woooo) sound sad to humans, like someone mourning. But to rats, that moaning sounds like an owl hooting—and owls eat rodents!”1
Isn’t that fascinating? And now you know the rest of the story! I love God’s creations, they are never ending in their diversity!
God bless and take care,
Willow Dressel
References:
1http://www.icr.org/article/ghost-army
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