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How can you tell the difference between a rodent and a bat dropping by hand and without any specialised equipment?

2 Months later Are we all "The weakest link" ? ( Me included )

I suppose so. Maybe Oddesy can give us an answer and a new question???????????

I shouldn't pop in at the quizzes.


Bats and rodents have different diets, so their droppings are different 'to the touch'. Bat droppings (in clusters) will have a shiny speckled appearance (from all the insect wings) and will crumble like dust when touched. Mouse droppings on the other hand, tend to be scattered about and become hard when dry.

Elzet has it!! Bat droppings will have a sheen to them, primarily because a large component of their diet is made up of moths whose wings are covered is scales. These will give this shiny appearance. Rodent droppings on the other hand will have a far more rubber lie texture and be difficult to break apart.

Ill give another question to get things moving again, this time with MUCH quicker reply

An elephant shrew or sengi produces an elaborate network of trails, which it uses to avoid predation and to forage. When an eagle or other aerial predator threatens it it will zip along these pathways (which it also keeps free of debris) to the safety of its burrow. My question is do you think that this A) an instinctive behaviour or B) a learnt behaviour

It is a behavioural pattern - so I'll say both comes into play, but I found references indicating that they use their parental territory, expanding on it, until they are chased away by the parents and start creating their own trails.



http://www.jstor.org/pss/1380414

E you are correct!

First we need to define the difference between an instinctive and a learnt behaviour. An instinctive behaviour is one which can be performed in the absence of learning. Learning on the other hand is costly as it requires that brain capacity be taken up, this means new neural pathways must be created which requires energy and is therefore a costly exercise. It is also important to consider that learning cannot occur without the animal receiving some kind of reward whether this be in terms of physical or mental well-being. Most often anti-predator behaviour is instinctive and is considered a sign stimulus, which is a stimulus (the eagle) that the animal responds more quickly to than any other stimulus (also with a shorter latency between the stimulus and the expressed behaviour). The sengi is different in that when it responds to a predator the initial response in a sense is instinctive because it involves a series of simple reflexes. a simple reflex is the movement of the shrews muscles without the stimulus being processed by the brain (so it is simply a synaptic response). Now the escape of the shrew involves a sreies of simple reflexes grouped together to make a more complex behaviour. However the animal also has to have learnt the network of pathways in order to make an effective escape, therefore it must remember.

E, your IT!

Great Q and A, Ods. Clever lil' rascals, aren't they?


Off soon for a couple of days, so let me not be selfish. First to post is IT!

[color=#4000FF]Very interesting, Oddesy.[/color]

A pangolin doesn't have teeth.... eish, now how does he "grind his food and digest it??

They have specially designed stomach's that grind up food.. To help they will swallow sand and small rocks

mafunyane You are IT!!!