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https://theconversation.com/why-the-kookaburras-iconic-laugh-is-at-risk-of-being-silenced-208181>
"Once, while teaching a class of environmental science students in China’s
Hebei University of Science and Technology, I asked who knew what a laughing
kookaburra was. There were many blank faces. Then I tilted my head, much like a
kookaburra does, and opened my mouth:
“kok-kak-KAK-KAK-KAK-KOK-KAK-KOK-kook-kook-kok, kok, kok”. I became the
“bushman’s alarm clock”.
Students burst out laughing. Hands waved in the air. They knew. They all knew.
The call of the kookaburra is known worldwide.
Why do kookaburras “laugh”? It’s a declaration of territory. “I am here. This
is my space.”
How long has it been part of the Australian landscape? Indigenous
Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay and Wiradjuri people named the “guuguubarra”, so for at
least 65,000 years.
Genetic analysis suggests its ancestors can be traced back roughly 16.3 million
years. So we can be sure kookaburras have been laughing for a very, very long
time.
It is shocking, then, that the laughing kookaburra is now in trouble. A
combination of human-driven factors – climate change, bushfires and land
clearing – is rapidly driving down numbers of this iconic kingfisher species
across its range along Australia’s east coast."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
