Acorn woodpeckers, or How to build socialism on a particular tree
Woodpeckers are amazing birds over that pretty bother mother nature. All day they are able to peck their beaks wood, exposing your brain to the incredible loads that in minutes would kill any other living creature. A concussion woodpecker is not terrible, because this most important organ are securely Packed and protected from the most extreme loads.
Unlike most other birds, the woodpecker's brain fits tightly in the skull, not shifting in strong shocks and vibrations. The bird skull is made of spongy bone that act as shock absorbers, and an elongated lingual bone encasing the brain, further protecting from over-reaching when hitting the solid wood of a hundred G.
Most species of woodpeckers, and there are more than 200 actively destroying blows of the beak of wood trunks to find food. But only acorn woodpeckers do this in order to, on the contrary, to hide their supplies. Zheludevich woodpeckers favorite food is oak acorns and nuts. To survive the winter, the bird has to do the food which she keeps in a kind of vertical "barns" carved in tree trunks.
Acorn woodpecker breaks in living and dead trees with hundreds of holes, into each of which he firmly put an acorn or walnut. Each of the prepared poultry recess is of sufficient magnitude to securely hold the acorn, but its depth is insignificant, to avoid any issues when removing the supplies.
In spite of this, a woodpecker is not insured against force majeure — sometimes the nuts fall out and get lost or sit in the tree so tightly that the bird can't remove them. But these problems occur very rarely, because the acorn woodpecker is a real professional in wood processing.
Stocks of woodpeckers can be very impressive. One day the watchers of Arizona, USA, found in the walls of an old wooden water tank of over 200 kg of acorns! Of course, this "barn" was not one bird and not even a pair, and the whole pack working together.
Acorn woodpeckers are forced to combine their efforts to create a winter inventory, because the acorns and nuts are necessary not only to collect and consolidate, but also to protect from foreign encroachment. Woodpeckers have chosen a method of food storage has a significant drawback — the food is on the mind and wanting to venerate foreign savings is always enough.
The ubiquitous squirrels, chipmunks, ravens and even woodpeckers from other colonies not averse to plunder the vault where you can store up to 50 thousand of acorns and nuts. Therefore, the group of woodpeckers vigilantly guarding their "granary tree", bravely attacking thieves, even surpassing them in size. The tree, carefully inlaid with acorns — a real family Shrine woodpeckers, which are often passed down from generation to generation.
Work on the store does not stop even for a moment. Wood tends to crack under the action of weather factors and, over time, some nests no longer hold the acorns. Woodpeckers constantly check to see how tightly kept their food and if you suspect that the hole securely make close new.
Each acorn woodpecker, consisting in the community, making a contribution to the creation of reserves for the winter and without hesitation would use them for sustenance. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs — this was the socialist principle of the birds live.
Acorn woodpeckers that live in oak forests of the southwestern States of the United States is the only birds in the world, creating a centralized food stores and organizes their collective security.