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InvisibleRebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
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Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
Weird Nature
    #1289776 - 02/07/03 07:15 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Today I saw a show on the discovery channel called Weird Nature. This particular one dealt with unusual partnerships formed between different members of the animal kingdom. It was really interesting and made me realize that the "lower" members of the animal kingdom are even more complex and intelligent than I had previously thought!

Here are some of the examples from the show:

Ants have more in common with cattle farmers than you might think. Many ants are actually known to farm aphids! They have a relationship with the tiny insects where they stroke the aphids' lower abdomens and cause them to secrete a sugary substance, which the ants then proceed to eat. Just like a farmer milking his herd of cows! The ants will actually pick some of the aphids up and move them to a better food source to maximize prduction, just as a farmer will move his herd around.

Another example dealth with a certain type of bird in Africa that feeds on the honeycombs of bees. The problem is that the bird needs to get easy access to the honeycomb. In order to accomplish this, the bird is actually known to attract the attention of a certain type of badger, who also feeds on the honeycomb. The bird will lead the badger to the site of the bees' nest, which the badger will proceed to tear apart. Thus, the honeycomb is made available for the bird to eat as well.

The same bird is also known to have a relationship with the local indiginous people who hunt for honey. It will lead them to the bees' nest as it does with the badger and achieve the same results. The people always make sure to leave some honeycomb behind for the bird to eat.

Pretty smart animals, eh?

Another example of animals working together that the show gave was of a certain type of lizard and a scorpion that live out in the desert. Apparently the lizard is sought after as a delicacy by the natives, who seek out it's burrows and simply reach in and grab their prey. However, the desert scorpion also happens to seek out these lizards' burrows to get protection from the heat and sun. The scorpion gets it's protection from the sun, and the lizard gets protection from its human hunters because the scorpion will sting any hand that happens to reach down into the burrow.

Quite an interesting symbiotic relationship if you ask me!

One other example was of the relationship between hummingbirds and different types of aphids that feed on the nectar of the same flowers that the hummigbird does. When the hummingbird stuck his beak into the flower to feed on its nectar, a horde of aphids would climb aboard its beak and crawl into it's nostrils to hitch a ride to the next flower!

How cool is that? I can't believe that such a tiny little insect can have that sort of mental capacity!

The show also gave many examples of wild animals using drugs, in a sense. The first and probably most well-known example they gave was of cats and their interesting relationship with catnip. From the footage they showed, the cats seem to become intensely innebriated by the herb.

Another really neat example was one with bees. It showed how they have a very intricate society, including guard bees who guard the entrance to the hive and check the identity of any bees coming in. It also showed how some bees will actually get themselves drunk by drinking the fermented sap of a certain tree. When these drunk bees eventually made their way home and crash landed in front of the hive, the guard bees would actually throw them out and sometimes even bite off their legs.

That's some crazy stuff if you ask me!

Another crazy example from the show was the relationship between a certain type of lemur and these giant millipedes. The lemurs would grab the millipedes and simply bite them softly to annoy them. When they did this, the millipedes would secrete a substance, which the lemurs would wipe all over their fur. After a while of doing this, the lemurs would become extremely intoxicated as if they were being affected by a strong narcotic.

The show also had a part about these monkeys that lived in a tropical area, and would actually steal alcoholic drinks from people on the beach and get themselves intoxicated! Their drinking behavior was actually very similar to that of humans!

I thought it was so interesting that all these animals actually seeked out a substance for the purpose of feeling some type of pleasure from it. I guess that drug use among humans is not as unnatural as some might think.

The show also mentioned the relationship between reindeer and the Fly Agaric mushroom, but the information they gave about wasn't all that correct from what I know.

All in all it was a very interesting show and really gave me even more respect for the complexity of the animal kingdom. Did anyone else happen to see it at all? If not, what do you think about the examples I gave from the show?

-RebelSteve


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Namaste.

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OfflineSnuffelzFurever
Psychonaut

Registered: 09/17/02
Posts: 734
Loc: Miami, florida
Last seen: 20 years, 1 month
Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1290206 - 02/08/03 04:14 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

i love animals :-) wish we didnt kill em... sniffelz.


--------------------
"I think it's time we stop
Children, What's the sound,
Everybody look what's going down"

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OfflineStrumpling
Neuronaut
Registered: 10/11/02
Posts: 7,571
Loc: Hyperspace
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1290548 - 02/08/03 07:10 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Steve, that was a fun read, definitely :smile:

Very interesting shit - I'm sure you've read/heard about clownfish and anemones as well?


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Insert an "I think" mentally in front of eveything I say that seems sketchy, because I certainly don't KNOW much. Also; feel free to yell at me.
In addition: SHPONGLE

Edited by Strumpling (02/08/03 08:19 AM)

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OfflineEarth_Droid
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Registered: 04/19/02
Posts: 5,240
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1290563 - 02/08/03 07:38 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

The male elephant smells the female elephents urine to see if shes having her period! I learned that on the discovery channel once. I also watched some porn disguessed as a sex ed video on the discovery channel.

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InvisibleRevelation

 User Gallery

Registered: 08/04/01
Posts: 6,135
Loc: heart cave
Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1290565 - 02/08/03 07:40 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

I've seen that before. Very interesting stuff.


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Anonymous

Re: Weird Nature [Re: Revelation]
    #1290898 - 02/08/03 10:35 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

I watched a show about ants once and they said that when a large group of ants are very close together, they are constantly passing information through their antenna together, so it's like they're all connected together on a kind of chemical internet at the same time..pretty crazy.

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Offlineshaggy101
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Registered: 08/16/00
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1291036 - 02/08/03 12:14 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

That was Cool!
Thanks!
I often wonder when a organism becomes" intelligent. " Sometimes it seems to just be refined instincts, but where do you draw the line. Dogs, Dolphins, Whales, Monkeys all seem very smart and aware, Yet so do cats, Badgers, Deer, Snakes, Turtles( If youve never talked with a sea Turtle your missing out ). All animals have something to teach us IMHO...
Of course I talk to trees soo.. :smirk:

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OfflineStrumpling
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Registered: 10/11/02
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: ]
    #1291076 - 02/08/03 12:32 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

I saw that thing on ants - now THOSE are fascinating creatures :smile:


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Insert an "I think" mentally in front of eveything I say that seems sketchy, because I certainly don't KNOW much. Also; feel free to yell at me.
In addition: SHPONGLE

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OfflineTeKHeAD009
Stranger
Registered: 04/04/02
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1291390 - 02/08/03 03:04 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Cool post, I always knew ants farmed aphids, but none of the other stuff you wrote about.

Ants also attack other ant colonies and sometimes termite colonies to steal eggs and raise them as their own for slaves (I think). I used to watch those shows all the time.  :grin: 

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OfflineRemy
Bitches Brew
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Registered: 06/04/02
Posts: 1,343
Loc: Atlanta, GA
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: TeKHeAD009]
    #1291607 - 02/08/03 05:08 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Ants are fucking incredible, and I have a feeling they are a lot more intelligent than we think. If you think farming aphids is cool, check out leaf-cutter ants. They cut leaves, and bring them into their nests, and then use the leaves to propogate fungi, which they eat!

Another very interesting invertebrate is the spider. Scientists test various mind-altering substances on spiders to see how it affected their ability to build a web. Mescaline produced a web that was stronger and more efficient than normal, and LSD created a very beautiful, and gracefully built web. Spider Website If these hallucinogens produce psychotropic effects in spiders, than it should be assumed they have 5htp receptors in their brains. Perhaps they are capable of concious thought, and emotion. Who knows?

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Invisiblebert
bodhi

Registered: 10/14/02
Posts: 2,819
Loc: state
Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1291669 - 02/08/03 05:29 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

If you really want to learn some neat stuff about complex animal behavior, I suggest you get the book 'Emergence'. It talks about how complex behavior arises in ant colonies and as well as our own cities. There are many parallels between the animal kingdom and our own social structure.


--------------------
Persons denying the existence of robots may be robots themselves.

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InvisibleRebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
Male

Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
Re: Weird Nature [Re: bert]
    #1291734 - 02/08/03 05:50 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Thank you so much!  :laugh:

This is the second great book recommendation I've gotten tonight, and I have really been wanting to do more research on these kinds of things!

I'll have to get that book as soon as I can!  I have quite the reading list for myself now!  Thanks again,

-RebelSteve


--------------------
Namaste.

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Anonymous

Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1292017 - 02/08/03 07:43 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Ants are way too evolved to think of as unintelligent. They are the most sophisticated society on this planet. They probably even have the biggest species population on Earth..they might even consider us the inferior species lol. Ants talk in a chemical code..imagine the amount of imformation that could be passed this way, everything the colony needs can be pursued easily just by passing by another ant..

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InvisibleRebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
Male

Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
Re: Weird Nature [Re: ]
    #1292035 - 02/08/03 07:53 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Wow!  Things like this just blow my mind!  They are truly incredible to think about...

I'd like to focus in the field of entomology and maybe do some research in areas such as this later on in life!  I'm definitely going to start doing a lot more research (in the way of reading) about things like this right away, though!

This thread's got me all excited!  Haha... :laugh:

-RebelSteve


--------------------
Namaste.

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Anonymous

Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1292101 - 02/08/03 08:29 PM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Ants are definitly proof that there are many other biological ways of cummunicating. Its all on your evolution and reality.

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Offlinedawn of a new day
un inglohablante

Registered: 01/16/03
Posts: 117
Loc: Earth
Last seen: 18 years, 10 months
Re: Weird Nature [Re: shaggy101]
    #1292653 - 02/09/03 05:38 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Shaggy - Are your conversations with trees shroom induced? The first time that I tripped, I sat and had a telepathic conversation with a tree and gained an intense appreciation for nature. I'd always had respect for nature before, but not in the same sense as after my first experience with mushrooms. Your comment just made me wonder if you'd had a similar experience with trees.


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"Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit . . . unnatural?"
- Bill Hicks

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OfflineStrumpling
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Registered: 10/11/02
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: RebelSteve33]
    #1292741 - 02/09/03 06:19 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

killer thread, Steve :smile:


--------------------
Insert an "I think" mentally in front of eveything I say that seems sketchy, because I certainly don't KNOW much. Also; feel free to yell at me.
In addition: SHPONGLE

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OfflinePHARMAKOS
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Registered: 09/13/02
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: Strumpling]
    #1292782 - 02/09/03 06:34 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

all amazing shit. i have this book of bugs and in the section of ants it has a whole list of wierd things ants do. theres army ants that swarm out and consume everything in there path. the wierd thing is that every night thousands of ants will bite eachothers arms, legs heads whatever and form a huge hill of living ants for the queen to rest in! very wierd. then theres ants that grow mushrooms, farm aphids, theres others that steal all the eggs from an enemy nest and make the offspring slaves, theres tiny yellow beggar ants that hide in nooks and crannys of an ants nest that other ants are to big to access and steal there food... i think theres more that im forgetting but yeah definetly nature is wierd. as for intelligence i read that a test was done where these people would move a bees food supply by a certain amount every night and time how long it took for the bees to find the food. within a week the bees were waiting for the food in its future locations.

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OfflineRemy
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: dawn of a new day]
    #1292808 - 02/09/03 06:43 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

Wow, The first time I shroomed was up in the Appalachian Mountains. I was sitting in a field and directly across from me was a mountain covered in trees. The more I gazed upon the trees, the more human they looked. It appeared as if the mountain was a giant restuarant or bar, and all the trees where conversing with each other, or engaging in social activities. It was quite I sight to behold.

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Offlinemikey_
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Male

Registered: 08/10/02
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Re: Weird Nature [Re: Remy]
    #1293180 - 02/09/03 09:08 AM (21 years, 1 month ago)

there's also a weird nature program about animals that take substances for pleasure.
such as monkeys that eat some sap and roll about in the trees, to cats on catnip.
they are great programs.


--------------------
The poison is the dose - Paracelsus
Let your food be medicine and your medicine be food - Hippocrates

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