Re: Dumb Animals ?

[cnedin@geology.adelaide.edu.au (Chris Nedin)]

colvint@CC.IMS.DISA.MIL wrote:

[stuff about Kakapos]

I think this is a little harsh on the Kakapos', since they adapted to a
ground-living niche in an environment which was substantially free of
ground predators. Thus life on the ground (especially for large, fat
parrots) was a sound evolutionary move. Flight is useful for three main
things:
1) escaping predators
2) feeding above ground
3) travelling large distances (as in sea birds)

Kakapos had no ground based predators, feed on the ground (on seeds, fallen
fruit etc.) and were generally stay-at-home types anyway. So loss of flight
was not a major problem. They were not to know the devistation that
unthinking mammals would bring.

>Apologies to any Kiwis out there (I know there's some of you). I love
>your country and your wildlife, and anyone whose state symbol is an
>arboreal wombat that spends its days stoned on gumleaves can't really
>talk about dopey animals

Umm, I think you are refering to Koalas. They occur in *Australia* not New
Zealand, and they are not stoned, they just sleep a lot. The Kiwi is the
symbol of NZ - another flightless bird.

Chris

cnedin@geology.adelaide.edu.au,   nedin@ediacara.org
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Many say it was a mistake to come down from the trees, some say
the move out of the oceans was a bad idea. Me, I say the stiffening
of the notochord in the Cambrian was where it all went wrong,
it was all downhill from there.