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Index of Subjects This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_kp1eQGyBmrkkJBsHkI1GkQ) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi everyone, Another species known to exhibit this behaviour is the Black-bellied Plover which uses a rapid foot movement on the tidal mudflats to stimulate mud-dwelling worms/polychaetes (e.g. Glycera sp. = bloodworm) to come to the surface. The nature of mud and its consistency changes when pressure/vibration is applied so this may be one reason why the behaviour works in the aquatic environment. All the best, Lance =========================== Lance Laviolette Glen Robertson, Ontario lance.laviolette@lmco.com =========================== ________________________________ From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] On Behalf Of James W. Wolford Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 4:46 PM To: NatureNS@chebucto.ns.ca Subject: Fwd: [NatureNS] Wood turtles and earthworms Yes, I believe I have heard or read that they do stomp or tramp the ground to stimulate the emergence of earthworms. Similarly, woodcocks have been observed on lawns doing a rhythmic rocking and stomping motion with their feet, presumably again for the same reason. Thanks for the note, Dave, and I'll pass this on to Tom Herman, John Gilhen, and Fred Scott for their comments. Cheers from Jim in Wolfville From: David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com> Date: February 17, 2008 4:22:05 PM AST To: NatureNS@chebucto.ns.ca Subject: [NatureNS] Wood turtles and earthworms Reply-To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Dear All, Feb 17, 2008 I vaguely recall having mentioned this previously in some context, but in the early 1970's while preparing sidewalls of soil pits for mapping of apple roots we noticed that scraping the sidewall with the edge of a small mason's trowel to smooth the surface stimulated earthworms to emerge from the sidewall. This applied especially to rigid (shatters under pressure but slakes in water) or compact soil. I now notice that making use of this response is called grunting (Nat. Hist. 8-13, Aug, 1989). In northern Florida, earthworms are collected for bait by driving a wooden stake into the ground and rasping against it with a notched stick or old car coil spring. The vibrations induce the earthworms to emerge from the soil surface. This is all old news but even older news to Wood Turtles in central Pennsylvania & New Jersey who stomp their fore feet to induce earthworm emergence (& stomping by Wood Turtles has been observed in Michigan and Wisconsin). Gulls and Plovers in Europe catch earthworms in damp meadows by tramping rapidly with both feet alternately or by vibrating one foot against the ground. One Robin or one Ruffed Grouse can make an astonishing of noise in dry leaves which leads me to wonder if this and the gait of robins are also forms of grunting for earthworms. And do out Wood turtles stomp ? Yours truly, Dave Webster, Kentville --Boundary_(ID_kp1eQGyBmrkkJBsHkI1GkQ) Content-type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3268" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; khtml-nbsp-mode: space; khtml-line-break: after-white-space"> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=152325914-18022008><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Hi everyone,</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=152325914-18022008><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=152325914-18022008><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Another species known to exhibit this behaviour is the Black-bellied Plover which uses a rapid foot movement on the tidal mudflats to stimulate mud-dwelling worms/polychaetes (e.g. <EM>Glycera</EM> sp. = bloodworm) to come to the surface. The nature of mud and its consistency changes when pressure/vibration is applied so this may be one reason why the behaviour works in the aquatic environment.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=152325914-18022008><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=152325914-18022008><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>All the best,</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=152325914-18022008><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=152325914-18022008><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Lance</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr align=left><!-- Converted from text/rtf format --> <P><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>===========================</FONT></SPAN> <BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Lance Laviolette</FONT></SPAN> <BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Glen Robertson, Ontario</FONT></SPAN> <BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>lance.laviolette@lmco.com</FONT></SPAN> <BR><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>===========================</FONT></SPAN> </P><BR></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left> <HR tabIndex=-1> <FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] <B>On Behalf Of </B>James W. Wolford<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, February 17, 2008 4:46 PM<BR><B>To:</B> NatureNS@chebucto.ns.ca<BR><B>Subject:</B> Fwd: [NatureNS] Wood turtles and earthworms<BR></FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV></DIV><BR> <DIV>Yes, I believe I have heard or read that they do stomp or tramp the ground to stimulate the emergence of earthworms. Similarly, woodcocks have been observed on lawns doing a rhythmic rocking and stomping motion with their feet, presumably again for the same reason. Thanks for the note, Dave, and I'll pass this on to Tom Herman, John Gilhen, and Fred Scott for their comments.</DIV> <DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV> <