Page 75 - One Million Things: Animal Life - The Incredible Visual Guide
P. 75

2  FIREFLY                        3  RING-TAILED LEMUR             4    HONEYBEE                     6    ANT
          These night-flying beetles use   Relatives of monkeys, lemurs     When foraging worker honeybees    When ants from the same colony
          light to communicate with each   depend heavily on their sense of   return to the hive, they perform   meet they smell each other using
          other. An organ in the firefly’s   smell for communication. Male   “dances” to tell other workers the   their antennae. In this way, they
          abdomen produces flashes of      ring-tailed lemurs use a scent gland   direction and distance of good   can detect whether or not they
          light that it uses to attract mates.   in their wrist to mark their territory.   sources of nectar and pollen. The   belong to the same group, and if
          Some female fireflies imitate the   They also have stink fights against   other bees use their antennae to   one has discovered a good food
          light flashes of other species to   rivals—rubbing their tails against   detect the smell of nectar and to   source that others can exploit.
          lure male fireflies, which they   their scent glands and waving   track the movements of the newly   Such communication allows ants
          then eat.                        them in the air as “smelly flags.”  returned worker through touch.  to function as complex societies.




                                                                             5  GANNET                         7   TREE FROG
                                                                            Many male and female birds use    Communicating by sound can
                                                                            body language during courtship    be risky, because it may attract
                                                                            and, if they stay together for a   predators. Yet many male frogs,
                                                     5
                                                                            long time, to reinforce the bond   including tree frogs, make a loud,
                                                                            between them. Gannets perform     croaky call to attract females or
                                                                            special greeting ceremonies,      deter rivals. Sounds are produced
                                                                            stretching their necks and beaks   by the vocal cords and amplified
                                                                            skyward and gently tapping or     when air is forced into the
                                                                            rubbing their beaks together.     bulging vocal sac.













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                                                                                     Although they live in packs, wolves often
                                                                                      8   WOLF
                                                                                      get separated when they go hunting. To
                                                                                      maintain contact and identify themselves,
                                                                                      they howl. Howling sounds travel over long
                                                                                       distances and bring the pack back together.














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                                                      (c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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