It’s no news that cuckoos are brood parasites: they lay their eggs into the nests of other bird species – a clever trick that spares the rearing and feeding of their own offspring. We’ve all heard the story. But why do other parent birds let this happen? Are they too stupid? Too inept? Or simply clue-less? Admittedly, cuckoo’s eggs do usually look deceptively genuine. But the cuckoo chick? Not even remotely! It quickly grows into a giant that looks nothing like its new family. So why don’t the adoptive parents notice the sham then?
Some cuckoo chicks even go as far as to kill the other chicks in the nest. In most cases, however, they just smuggle their eggs into the nests of other birds, some of which are intelligent enough to spot this easily. Still, they don’t throw the egg out. Until recently, the ornithologists’ theory was: the “victims” have yet to learn to counteract. Turns out: they may even profit from having strangers’ chicks in their nest! So is cuckoo’s behavior a phenomenal trick or an evolutionary riddle?
Winter casts a very special, magical spell. It’s a time for traditions and customs: snowmen come to life, Santas wander through brightly-lit Christmas markets, much to the delight of the children.
But indigenous animal life pays no heed to this human idyll. For them, winter is a time of austerit...
In May 2016, the renowned elephant researcher Ian Redmond is unexpectedly attacked by an angry elephant in the middle of a Kenyan mountain forest. He survives and his injuries mostly heal. But what remains is the question: Why did the matriarch he calls Kali to attack him?
Since the 1980s, Ian R...
Blossoming trees, meadows splashed with color, and juicy fruit – traditional mixed orchards are a little paradise right on the outskirts of our cities and villages. Here, plants, animals, and man live in a mutually dependent symbiosis. It is a world of its own, that turns with the rhythm of the s...
