Birds too can build fireproof homes

Washington, July 11 (ANI): Its not just humans, birds can also build fireproof homes, say Japanese researchers at Kyushu University in Fukuoka.

To woo females, male great bowerbirds of northern Australia build bowers that are not only attractive, but also fire resistant.

These bowers have two walls of twigs partially flanking a six-foot-long passageway that the birds cover with conspicuous bits of bones, stones, shells, and fruits, reports Live Science.

In 2006, a part of savanna outside the city of Darwin was caught in fire.

Lead researcher Osamu K. Mikami says that of the nine bowers there, only three were destroyed. The remaining six stayed intact.

According to the proportion of burned to unburned savanna, the researchers say that all nine should have been destroyed, but six of them survived.

They said that bowerbirds remove flammable leaves and litter from around their bowers, or cover them with decorations. That behaviour may have evolved because it creates a firebreak.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Ethology. (ANI)