D
Dep
Guest
Bats round here are still on the wing -still a few bugs to feed on so no need to go into hibernation yet.
graham said:Nah, it doesn't do the bats any harm at all and allows us to learn about their habits and lives such that we can avoid harming them in the future.
c**tplaces said:You can't account for the Heisenberg Principal, unless you have a star trek transporter of course.
The very act of measuring something affects the results.
It gets bigger :tease:graham said:So? How does surveying a cave affect its size?c**tplaces said:You can't account for the Heisenberg Principal, unless you have a star trek transporter of course.
The very act of measuring something affects the results.
andymorgan said:I'm sure most men may say they are bigger after measuring themselves
whitelackington said:A few years ago, I read that, bat fanatics had now decided that we have an extra species of bat in Britain.
The resoning behind this theory was that pipistrelles seem to have different pitch squeeks.
So, apparently, they either have a high pitched squeek (species A)
or an even higher pitched squeek (species B)
I don't know if they have yet determined any genetic difference? :doubt:
Les W said:I thought that I had heard that they don't interbreed (perhaps they can only find other bats of the same pitch or frequency )
This would make them different species if it is true.
Dep said:Les W said:I thought that I had heard that they don't interbreed (perhaps they can only find other bats of the same pitch or frequency )
This would make them different species if it is true.
This is how speciation works - given enough time the differences (which can be environmental or regional) add up to the point at which the two groups do not intermix and thus cease to share genetic material. Over many gnerations the two gene-pools move away and become incompatible and at that point you have a new species.
Do the species have to be physically incompatible before they're regarded as a new species? I thought they only had to be non-mixing in the wild. In the plant world there are many inter-species hybrids (that's how we have developed many of our cultivated plants). The parents are regarded as separate species, even though they can produce viable offspring, because in the wild they occupy different habitats and do not interbreed. Or so I understand.
Round our way the bats are not left alone in winter (although we lock the sites up to restrict access for cavers) but instead the bat researchers spend ages poking around and shining lights into the corners and cracks and generally disturbing them without any justification. (IMO) They claim to count them but only look in a restricted area when it would be far simpler and more accurate to leave a bat detector at the small enatrnce hole and thus count EVERY bat without disturbing them in any way at all.
whitelackington said:It might be the difference along these lines
Completely different species totaly unable to interbreed
subspecies, don't interbreed because they are on different islands,
but if some swam across and were despearate, just possibly a viable baby might be born, but not very likely.