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--Apple-Mail-2-318967936 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed CHOOSING a date in a disco can be a serious mistake. Captive birds have a similar problem. The stroboscopic effect of fluorescent lights in farms and zoos may prevent them from assessing potential mates properly. Jennie Evans and colleagues from the University of Bristol, UK, studied about 50 captive European starlings. The birds were divided into groups and their choice of mate monitored under both standard fluorescent tubes, as used at many zoos, and high-frequency tubes, similar to natural light. Because of their faster visual processing, the birds perceive the low-frequency tubes in the same way as humans see stroboscopic disco lights. Normally female starlings are attracted to males with longer throat feathers, but the researchers found that the birds couldn't pick them out in the flickering light from low-frequency tubes, meaning that the short-feathered male starlings did just as well. Under the high-frequency tubes their behaviour went back to normal and the short-feathered male starlings were dumped. The flickering may cause abnormal firing rates in the neurons leading from the eye to the brain, says Evans, and so interfere with mate choice. The findings, which will be published in Animal Behaviour, are likely to apply to other species of birds too. From issue 2563 of New Scientist magazine, 05 August 2006, page 17 ________________ Steve Shaw Chocolate Lake Halifax --Apple-Mail-2-318967936 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/enriched; charset=US-ASCII <fontfamily><param>Arial</param><x-tad-bigger>CHOOSING a date in a disco can be a serious mistake. Captive birds have a similar problem. The stroboscopic effect of fluorescent lights in farms and zoos may prevent them from assessing potential mates properly. Jennie Evans and colleagues from the University of Bristol, UK, studied about 50 captive European starlings. The birds were divided into groups and their choice of mate monitored under both standard fluorescent tubes, as used at many zoos, and high-frequency tubes, similar to natural light. Because of their faster visual processing, the birds perceive the low-frequency tubes in the same way as humans see stroboscopic disco lights. Normally female starlings are attracted to males with longer throat feathers, but the researchers found that the birds couldn't pick them out in the flickering light from low-frequency tubes, meaning that the short-feathered male starlings did just as well. Under the high-frequency tubes their behaviour went back to normal and the short-feathered male starlings were dumped. The flickering may cause abnormal firing rates in the neurons leading from the eye to the brain, says Evans, and so interfere with mate choice. The findings, which will be published in </x-tad-bigger><italic><x-tad-bigger>Animal Behaviour</x-tad-bigger></italic><x-tad-bigger>, are likely to apply to other species of birds too. </x-tad-bigger></fontfamily><fontfamily><param>Arial</param><color><param>0101,6767,9898</param><x-tad-smaller>From issue 2563 of New Scientist magazine, 05 August 2006, page 17</x-tad-smaller></color></fontfamily> ________________ Steve Shaw Chocolate Lake Halifax --Apple-Mail-2-318967936--
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