HOW DO MACAWS
KNOW CHEMI STRY?
Some plants have poisonous seeds. This is an effective
method of protection against enemies that try to eat them.
Yet one parrot species living in America can feed on these poisonous seeds.
This is really surprising because while other creatures cannot approach
these seeds, these birds that continually eat them are not affected by them
at all. You are curious about how this happens, aren’t you?
How this parrot species called the macaw is not poisoned has attracted the
attention of scientists too. Scientists observed macaws and witnessed a
quite extraordinary pattern of behavior.
Having eaten these nutritious but poisonous seeds, macaws fly towards a
rocky place. There they gnaw on and swallow some clay-containing rocks.
This is not random behavior. Indeed, rocks that contain clay absorb the
poison of the seeds. This is how the macaw can digest the seeds without
being harmed by them.
How has this bird acquired the medical knowledge to diagnose the poison-
ous effect of the seeds? How does it know how to get rid of this poisonous
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W O N D E R F U L C R E A T U R E S
