Mary's Monday Metazoan: I've always wondered how hoofed animals pick their noses : Pharyngula

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Mary's Monday Metazoan: I've always wondered how hoofed animals pick their noses

Category: Organisms
Posted on: April 4, 2011 11:03 AM, by PZ Myers

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Comments

Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites | April 4, 2011 11:12 AM

"You ca-a-a-a-an pick your friends, and you ca-a-a-an pick your n-o-o-o-o-ose, but you ca-a-a-a-a-n't pick your friends' no-o-o—oh, tha-a-a-ank you!
As I was sa-a-a-a-ying..."

Posted by: Dick the Damned | April 4, 2011 11:20 AM

Looks like it's found a new way, instead of pecking out the eyes, of eating sheep's brains. The sheep hasn't yet noticed the danger, i guess.

Posted by: Glen Davidson | April 4, 2011 11:25 AM

Cows "wipe" their noses with their tongues.

Do the hooved get boogers very often? I don't know. And just what might have crawled up that sheep's nostril I also don't know. Could be any number of things the bird's going for, including parasites.

I hope that it's tasty, but I doubt it.

Glen Davidson

Posted by: madknitter | April 4, 2011 11:28 AM

You see a bird picking a sheep's nose.
I see yarn on the hoof.

Posted by: mo | April 4, 2011 11:30 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_worm

Posted by: Dhorvath, OM | April 4, 2011 11:40 AM

Go deep, the brain is up there somewhere.

Posted by: Frank b | April 4, 2011 11:48 AM

Brownian, you beat me to the friends' nose saying.

Since it is a photo, we don't know how long this tableau lasted. Did the bird do a quit peck and run? Did the sheep hold still? Inquiring minds want to know.

Posted by: Disturbingly Openminded | April 4, 2011 11:49 AM

Glen Davidson: "Do the hooved get boogers very often? I don't know."

Unfortunately, I do know. I was showing a lamb at the county fair. You crouch down next to the animal and ALWAYS keep the animal between you and the judges so their view isn't obstructed. The judges were checking out the lamb's hindquarters which meant I was in front -- at face level with the lamb. The lamb sneezed a GREAT BIG sneeze. You would be amazed at how many boogers can come out of a sheep's nose. I wasn't so much amazed as disgusted.

Posted by: Glen Davidson | April 4, 2011 11:56 AM

Oooh, thanks for that lovely picture, Disturbingly.

No really, thanks, I'm happy to know, as disturbingly as that picture answers my question.

Glen Davidson

#10

Posted by: Audley Z. Darkheart OM, purveyor of candy and lies | April 4, 2011 11:59 AM

*sigh* My life would be so much easier if there was someone else willing to pick my nose.

Is it just me or does that sheep look awfully content?

#11

Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/SaqGVG0xvJEQVwURVamS3DTCdvov0BLhXK1jOsYPPJQ-#b4893 | April 4, 2011 12:09 PM

@10 just beat me to it.

That sheep is definitely smiling.

I can just picture the little family back in the nest, "What'd you bring back for us this time, dad?". "Food. Now just shaddap and eat."

A great symbiotic relationship.

MikeM

#12

Posted by: Grahame | April 4, 2011 12:31 PM

So much for my lunch break.

#13

Posted by: Larry | April 4, 2011 12:36 PM

Got any tin foil I can chew on or fingernails to run across a blackboard? They might help me get that picture out of my mind.

#14

Posted by: daveau | April 4, 2011 1:07 PM

You are entirely missing the point that a just and loving god designed it that way.

#15

Posted by: Epikt | April 4, 2011 1:11 PM

Apparently there are evolutionary niches I never suspected existed. Or was the bird's beak intelligently designed for sucking sheep snot?

#16

Posted by: Epikt | April 4, 2011 1:15 PM

Oops. Scooped by daveau.

#17

Posted by: daveau | April 4, 2011 1:28 PM

Don't worry about it Epikt; it shows you're thinking.

My hypothesis is that there is a snot-eating insect that is eaten in turn by the bird. Or possibly that the bird is placing something valuable in the nostril for safe-keeping, since no one would think to look there.

#18

Posted by: AKron | April 4, 2011 1:40 PM

This is the stuff I keep comin' back here to see!

#19

Posted by: blf | April 4, 2011 2:46 PM

That “bird” is a really impressive booger.

#20

Posted by: savage.spheniscus | April 4, 2011 3:01 PM

Ok, I can't believe I was just reading about oxpeckers and their penchant for blood which led me to this interesting read about vampire finches. Then I pop onto pharyngula and there's yet another snot eating bird. Marvelous!

#21

Posted by: Redn0mad | April 4, 2011 3:04 PM

Yum Yum.

#22

Posted by: and7barton | April 4, 2011 3:09 PM

Them thar crows (as we country people like to put it), also pick over cowpats, presumably for insects. They have an .....er......interesting diet.

#23

Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline. | April 4, 2011 3:23 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_worm

Ack ack ack ack ack aaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

#24

Posted by: Kate from Iowa | April 4, 2011 3:44 PM

Nature...it's even more disgusting than you remembered.

Although nose-picking seems to be a theme lately. Our alternative paper's April Fool's Day issue had a blurb about boogers being found to have nutritional value. Guess I was wrong, and not everyone learns to keep thier hands out of thier noses (or in this case, a bird's head) by the time they've left headstart.

#25

Posted by: mo | April 4, 2011 4:05 PM

@ #23, Sili:

(thankfully?) not available in my country :p

#26

Posted by: Quodlibet | April 4, 2011 4:11 PM

Eeewe.

#27

Posted by: K. E. Decilon | April 4, 2011 4:24 PM

Like kinky sex, I suspect that picking boogers is an activity that many more people engage in than will admit it.

Do you think that evolution could explain the remarkable co-incidence that the human nostril is almost the exact same size as the human index finger?

#28

Posted by: Pacal | April 4, 2011 5:02 PM

Nose boogers and snot almost as yummy as ear wax!

Drool!!

#29

Posted by: F | April 4, 2011 5:18 PM

I had a dog do that to me, only she wasn't perched on top of my head, and I was trying to get away.

#30

Posted by: feralboy12, der Ken-Puppe Sie außerhalb in 1983 verlassen | April 4, 2011 5:47 PM

Symbiosis. Such a beautiful thing.

#31

Posted by: chigau (◦_◦) | April 4, 2011 6:45 PM

mo #5
I see your http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_worm
and raise you a tongue louse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua

#32

Posted by: savage.spheniscus | April 4, 2011 6:51 PM

I think the tongue louse is full of all kinds of awesomeness. I want to catch a fish with one, it would totally make my day.

#33

Posted by: Jadehawk, cascadeuse féministe | April 4, 2011 7:01 PM

Do you think that evolution could explain the remarkable co-incidence that the human nostril is almost the exact same size as the human index finger?

index finger?

you either have huge nostrils, or very slender fingers

#34

Posted by: Dhorvath, OM | April 4, 2011 7:02 PM

K.E.Decilon,
Kink is something you share, just not with everyone.

Nose picking seems to be pretty commonly an alone thing - not too many people sitting around talking about wiping their ass either.

#35

Posted by: David Marjanović | April 4, 2011 7:11 PM

index finger?
you either have huge nostrils, or very slender fingers

Or s/he just means "diameter" and not "length" by "size".

#36

Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM | April 4, 2011 7:24 PM

I've always wondered how hoofed animals pick their noses

Now PZ can die happy, knowing the answer to this question.

#37

Posted by: marcus | April 4, 2011 7:53 PM

Ewe! I mean eeewwwww! No, not me. You!

#38

Posted by: erud1 | April 4, 2011 8:27 PM

possibility:
http://www.entomology.cornell.edu/cals/entomology/extension/vet/aid/sheep/nosebotfly.cfm

#39

Posted by: Rachel Bronwyn | April 4, 2011 8:41 PM

Lambing season began on February 27 with one set of triplets. The following day, there was another set of triplets. Within three weeks of the beginning of lambing season we had seventeen lambs. I don't know how many there are now but it's a big number.

In short, there will be a lot of birds picking a lot of sheep noses this year.

#40

Posted by: AmandaS | April 4, 2011 10:35 PM

This is why birds have amazing visual acuity and almost no tastebuds.

#41

Posted by: Jadehawk, cascadeuse féministe | April 5, 2011 2:32 AM

Or s/he just means "diameter" and not "length" by "size".

I was assuming diameter

#42

Posted by: ScottDogg | April 5, 2011 5:30 AM

A Prophecy has been Fulfilled!

2 Bleater 20:26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Jeckle with them: then came the Graminivorous Ruminant Aries, the shearing shed doors being shut, and stood in the grass, and said, Fleece be unto ewe.

20:27 Then the Lamb of God saith to Jeckle, Reach hither thy beak, and thrust it into my nose: and be not faithless, but believing.

20:28 And Jeckle answered and said unto him, O My Holy Divine Ovine Saviour!

20:29 Aries bleateth unto him, Jeckle, because thou hast pecked me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not pecked, and yet have believed.

#43

Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/_4KIfrwRxNWU8qEsAFrxolQ6Tw--#4599c | April 5, 2011 5:46 AM

For such a bright lad, sometimes David's reading comprehension is surprisingly poor.

Anyway, #27 matches my observation; perhaps you have unusually dainty nostrils or just haven't explored what will actually fit into them.

#44

Posted by: David Marjanović | April 5, 2011 6:03 AM

I was assuming diameter

So was I for maybe 5 minutes till I thought I must have misunderstood something, went back, and decided you must have taken "size" literally (as "total volume"). After all, I do remember you as having a small nose, but not that small, and your fingers are IIRC small, too!

I have no problem putting 1 1/2 times the length of the index fingernail into my nostrils, and the limiting factor isn't the diameter of the finger (as it is for the thumb, of which just the nail goes in without pressure), but the shape of the cartilage inside the nose.

The pinky finger belongs into the ear instead; that's why it's called auriculaire in French.

Fleece be unto ewe

:-D

#45

Posted by: Abhoth the Unclean | April 5, 2011 8:19 AM

The same holds for cows. Furthermore cows can scratch their eyes with their back hooves whilst standing up. Their tongues serve to scratch almost anywhere except on the topknot(immediately behind the horns). My, very tame, dairy cows love a scratch on the topknot.

#46

Posted by: wisnij | April 5, 2011 1:02 PM

"Bird you are WAY UP IN my PERSONAL SPACE."

#47

Posted by: dezcrawford | April 5, 2011 3:54 PM

The best part about this meal-seeking behavior is that papa-bird will fly back to the nest and regurgitate it for lunch.

#48

Posted by: dezcrawford | April 5, 2011 4:43 PM

Evolution may not explain why the human index finger fits so neatly into the human nostril, but it is a good argument for "intelligent design."

#49

Posted by: LydiLouiKats | April 7, 2011 10:06 PM

They look happy to me, as long as they are happy!
Seriously though this is probably very useful, just like birds on Rhinoceros backs picking off the flies/ticks.

#50

Posted by: microbe.man (NH) | April 9, 2011 3:52 AM

Brilliant image.
Interesting thoughts on the potential parasite with the tongue worms and the sheep nose bot.

Certainly alot nicer than the Kea (sometimes called the "wolves of the mountain" for stripping pieces of meat off a sheep's back).

Though I will always be impressed by the image of the Madagascan tear-drinking-moth:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10826-moths-drink-the-tears-of-sleeping-birds-.html

#51

Posted by: DrMobs | April 9, 2011 7:48 AM

The bird is most likely eating bot fly maggots. Sheep bot flies lay their eggs in the nostrils of sheep and the larvae hatch in the sinuses. If heavily infested, the sheep can get "blind staggers".

The bird is probably one of the best ways of ridding the sheep of some of the larvae. Humans, horses and cows can also be infested by bot fly maggots.

We have had these maggots drop out of sheep nostrils on the operating table. Shudderworthy, at best.

#52

Posted by: Healthy | April 21, 2011 5:21 PM

Man, you are always picking...
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