Maybe you ’re familiar with the asshole demeanor of cowbirds . Known as “ brood parasites , ” cowbirds lay testicle in another birdie ’s nest and trick the legion bird into raising cowbird offspring at the disbursal of her own . Like I said , bastard . But birds can ascertain to recognize imposter testicle . That’swhere 3D printing process comes in .
To study how host chick , such as the American robin , reject brood parasite eggs , scientist have relied on making fake eggs . That could be eggs fill from another snort ( problematic , also special size and shapes ) or eggs helping hand made from plaster or woodwind ( not empty and not naturalistic ) . A potential solution then ? 3D printing .
In apaper bring out in PeerJ , scientists described how to 3D - print hollow eggs of plastic sate with piss . The eggs can then painted to give them the right colour : dreary for robin ’s egg , ashen for cowbird ’s . 3D printing process give it easier to make faux orchis on demand and also continuously fiddle with size and figure .
Initial test show the 3D - printed eggs stack up reasonably well against other out - dated alternatives . When the fake eggs were paint gamey as a test , Erithacus rubecola bear all the eggs . When they were painted snowy , they accepted only 21 per centum of them — in line with retiring experiment with fake poultice eggs .
But more refined 3D - printed nut could even be skilful . Host birds sometimes essay to pierce eggs they greet as imposters , which is plain not possible when the fake is a solid plaster or wood egg . That could actually be skewing the results . Hollow egg , though , could also be made to be Franklin Pierce - able and all the more realistic .
[ PeerJviaWashington Post ]
Top image : Igic et al/ Peer J
reach out to the source at[email protected ] .
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