These woodpeckers are so weird scientists thought they were communists

[AndreaJames]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/06/these-woodpeckers-are-so-weird.html

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[Katryn]

I almost feel sorry for the squirrel who tries to steal those acorns. Almost.

[Glaurung]

@AndreaJames

Acorn woodpeckers create acorn granaries that hold tens of thousands of acorns… Since just one of these holes takes an average of 20 minutes to drill, the birds fiercely defend their granaries, and reuse them from year to year.

Sometimes they bypass the whole hole drilling process, say, when they find a hollow tree, or something else hollow that humans kindly provide:

Woodpecker fills antenna with acorns

Another granary that bypassed the hole drilling process: my father told a story of finding a thorn tree on a trip to California. The thorns grew in clusters all over the trunk and branches, and this tree had an acorn wedged into each and every cluster of thorns over the entire tree. (Being a botanist he knew the name of the tree, but it’s been a long time and I have forgotten it).

[armozel]

Commie birb is best birb.

[ugh]

@AndreaJames

Biologist Walter Koenig, a professor emeritus at Cornell University

I really hope this is the same Walter Koenig who played Chekov.

[Boundegar]

The cold war was not in the 1920s.

[Mindysan33]

There were certainly communists and it would have been on people’s minds, considering they just had taken over mother Russia, though.

[the_borderer]

At that time there were a lot of hopes and fears around the world that the October Revolution (100th anniversary tomorrow) would happen in their country. Why would the US be any different?

[Barradeno]

They are not communists, they are mafiosi. They are just being loyal to La Famiglia.

[Boundegar]

Absolutely. Communism was quite popular, almost respectable, before the end of WWII. But the cold war wasn’t in the 20s.

[Mindysan33]

I know…

[FGD135]

No, but he’s the younger brother of commander John Koenig.

[fuzzyfungus]

I am shocked, shocked, that something with bright red markings and an evolved interest in the importance of hammering might have communist tendencies.

The only problem, in this case, is that the capital goods in this scenario are storage equipment, rather than means of production, which is a trifle uncharacteristic.

I’d say maybe some sort of Matthew 6:26-related liberation theology thing; but that specifically emphasizes that bird don’t do food storage; so that seems problematic; unless there is some fine point of translation that excludes tree holes.