STUDYING EVOLUTION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 September 1924, Page 13

STUDYING EVOLUTION.

SOME CURIOUS FACTS IN NATURE THE GIRAFFE DOOMED.

Evolution, with its threats and promises f<?r the future, can best be studied at the Zoo, says Mr L. G. Mainland well known as a writer on animal sublets—in The World of to--1 Jay.

Tiie 1 desire for food of a special kind is the factor in modifying tne body of an animal. Take the giraffe as an extreme example; and imagine a swiftmovmg, glazing beast of the field sampling leaves and approving the change... ■

Mne-higher he could stretch his neck the tenderer and more succulent became .the diet. Thereafter the chief instinct of the race was to reach higher and higher; and in the end this Excelsior urge produced a beast that measures 18 feet in an ordinary standing position.

lhe trees which are the giraffe’s prey did net stand still under its persecution. 'ln self-defence they put on extra inches of rough, bark, and taught their shoots not to burst too near the ground. So the contest went on between the diner and his meal—one reaching and the other evading. And now there are signs that the giicifro is reaching the limit of his tether, and is becoming impracticable. Unless he strikes a new idea and modifies his body in a different direction he is doomed to extinction, as happened many years ago to the sabre-toothed tiger, which for purposes of slaying developed huge canine teeth that finally prevented him from properly masticating his food.

The ant-eater is another horrible example of too much selective evolution. He has made such a habit of poking his nose into the deep recesses of ants’ nests that his head' has become a. mere bradawl in outline, an-1 his brains have almost vanished. His forepaws are simply a set of burgling tools, and he has to walk on his knuckles in a most uncomfortable way, thus reducing his speed when he tries to escape from his enemies.

The chief iob of every living thing is to go on living; and in this connection there are many amusing protective dodges to be observed at the Zoo. When the American hog-nosed snake is first approached he performs a Grand Guignol act. He flattens part of his bedy .and inflates a horrid hood like that of a cobra, and suggests the warning “I am Death.”

Take one more step forward. Anticlimax. The brute collapses, the hood shuts like a broken umbrella, and the snake turns on its back and appears perfectly lifeless. Stir it with a stick and you will not get a wriggle. Now turn your hack for a moment; the corpse comes to life, and makes an undignified holt for cover. The point c,f this' drama of “Menace, Death tuid Flight’’ is that the hognosed snake is one of the most harmless and defenceless reptiles in the world. The three acts have been evolved and patiently perfected through centuries of striving to bluff attackers.