Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 26 views

    Nature Cheats

    Uploaded by

    Lyagoubi Maroa
    The cuckoo finch is famous for practicing brood parasitism, which involves tricking other birds into raising its young. It does this by laying eggs in other birds' nests that match the color of the host birds' eggs. When the cuckoo finch chicks hatch first, the host parents spend all their time feeding them and neglect their own young, which often starve to death. Brood parasitism provides evolutionary advantages to the parasitic species by reducing the effort needed to raise offspring.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Nature Cheats

    Uploaded by

    Lyagoubi Maroa
    26 views2 pages
    The cuckoo finch is famous for practicing brood parasitism, which involves tricking other birds into raising its young. It does this by laying eggs in other birds' nests that match the color of the host birds' eggs. When the cuckoo finch chicks hatch first, the host parents spend all their time feeding them and neglect their own young, which often starve to death. Brood parasitism provides evolutionary advantages to the parasitic species by reducing the effort needed to raise offspring.

    Original Title

    nature cheats

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The cuckoo finch is famous for practicing brood parasitism, which involves tricking other birds into raising its young. It does this by laying eggs in other birds' nests that match the color of the host birds' eggs. When the cuckoo finch chicks hatch first, the host parents spend all their time feeding them and neglect their own young, which often starve to death. Brood parasitism provides evolutionary advantages to the parasitic species by reducing the effort needed to raise offspring.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    26 views2 pages

    Nature Cheats

    Uploaded by

    Lyagoubi Maroa
    The cuckoo finch is famous for practicing brood parasitism, which involves tricking other birds into raising its young. It does this by laying eggs in other birds' nests that match the color of the host birds' eggs. When the cuckoo finch chicks hatch first, the host parents spend all their time feeding them and neglect their own young, which often starve to death. Brood parasitism provides evolutionary advantages to the parasitic species by reducing the effort needed to raise offspring.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Unit 5 – Animalia: Reading Text

    Nature Cheats
    If you think cheating is something that was invented by the human mind, think again. Cheating has been
    practised for centuries by creatures like the cuckoo finch. Actually, this bird is famous for
    its con, which is much more sophisticated than anything humans have come up with. Cuckoo finches don’t
    bring up their chicks on their own. They manage to get them raised by other birds.
    How does the deception work? First, a foster parent must be found – someone who will take care of the
    cuckoo finch’s eggs. This role is usually played by two species of birds that lay gorgeously coloured eggs.
    Once the cuckoo finch has found her foster parent, she places a few of her own eggs in its nest together with
    the ones the foster parent has laid. Amazingly, the colour and design of the cuckoo finch’s eggs will always
    be very similar to the eggs of the foster parent.
    That’s not all. In order to make sure their chicks survive, foster parents may change the colour of their own
    eggs so they can tell them apart from the intruder’s eggs. But some cuckoo finches adapt to this strategy. If
    the foster parents’ egg changes from blue to red, then the cuckoo finch’s egg will go red too.
    What is more, the cuckoo finch lays her eggs in the same nest over and over again. For this reason, many
    foster mothers begin to think it’s normal to have chicks that look a little different to their own! This is why
    most of them don’t throw the intruders out of the nest. Moreover, the cuckoo finch’s eggs hatch before the
    other eggs. By the time the real chicks are born, the foster mother is being kept very busy feeding the little
    cuckoo finches. Her own chicks sometimes starve to death!
    Believe it or not, this kind of behaviour isn’t unique. It’s called brood parasitism and you can see it in many
    species of birds, insects, as well as some fish. Take the cuckoo catfish, for example. This parasite manages to
    get its eggs into the mouth of another species of fish. The fraudulent eggs hatch first, and then eat all the
    other babies!
    It still isn’t completely understood how these animals create such clever cons. But one thing is
    clear – the reason animals behave this way. It’s because brood parasitism is a brilliant survival skill! Any
    parent will tell you that bringing up children requires lots of effort. However, if you can have your babies
    raised by someone else … well, then you can spend all your time and energy on producing more offspring.

    A.- CHOOSE THE CORRECT ANSWER


    1. The cuckoo finch lays her eggs …
    a. in a nest where there already are some eggs
    b. in a nest that is similar to the nest of another bird
    c. in a nest that hasn’t got any eggs.
    d. in the nest of one particular species of bird.
    2. Why do the foster parents’ chicks often die?
    a. The cuckoo finch offspring attack and kill them.
    b. They can’t survive because they don’t get enough food.
    c. They hatch too soon and are not strong enough to survive.
    d. The cuckoo finch returns and throws them out of the nest.
    B.- COMPLETE THE SENTENCES ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION IN THE TEXT
    1. For centuries, the cuckoo finch has …..

    2. Sometimes, foster parents will try to make sure their offspring survive by …….

    3. The foster parent thinks the cuckoo finch’s chicks ……

    4. In addition to birds and insects, brood parasitism can also …..

    5. It’s easier to produce offspring if you get someone else to ……


    C.- ANSWER THE QUESTIONS
    1. What is special about the cuckoo finch?

    2. What happens when the colour of the foster parents’ eggs changes?

    3. Why isn’t the foster parent disturbed by the fact that the cuckoo finch chicks are different?

    4. Why are the cuckoo catfish offspring able to eat the foster parent’s babies?

    5. What don’t scientists understand about brood parasitism? What do they understand?

    D.- FIND WORDS OR EXPRESSIONS IN THE TEXT THAT MEAN:


    1. by themselves ……………………..

    2. beautifully ……………………..

    3. differentiate them ……………………..

    4. many times, repeatedly ……………………..

    5. suffer from hunger ……………………..

    6. needs ……………………..

    You might also like