> On 12 August 2020 at 12:52 Bob Pdml <pdm...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > On 12 Aug 2020, at 12:37, Henk Terhell <hterh...@chello.nl> wrote: > > > > Walking to the pool nearby some days ago I saw this bird when it was only > > a few meters away from me. > > It looked at my camera outfit (Pentax K-1) and paid no further attention to > > me while I took some shots. > > There must be some explanation for its quiet behaviour. > > https://flic.kr/p/2jtuZrR > > > > > Beautiful plumage! > > Cormorants can spell (in the Roman alphabet only) using their highly > sensitive sense of smell. > > Evolutionary biologists think this strange capability has arisen through > sexual selection, but that’s just their way of saying “fucked if I know”. > > When the colossally enlarged olfactory gland of a mature cormorant detects > certain combinations of letters - they don’t have to be actual words in a > known language, that would be preposterous - it triggers a release of > endorphins that flood the brain with feelings of bonhomie towards the nearest > living creature. This can go wrong sometimes and lead to unwanted attention > of a sexual nature, but mostly it works ok. > > Anyway, the letter sequence ‘Pentax’ (Not case-sensitive, surprisingly) is > one such endorphin trigger, but for God’s sake don’t your back on the > creature.
Almost certainly true as the Spectacled Cormorant, with its notoriously poor eyesight, went extinct in the middle of the 19th century. This was due to the poor things flying too close to fast moving ships in attempts to read the nameplates and fatally colliding with them - and definitely not to the fact that, alone amongst the Phalocrocoracidae, it was decidedly delicious. Rumour has it that the practice of using captive cormorants for fishing in the countries of southeast Asia is only possible because the birds can be tricked into signing contracts in languages they cannot read by cunning use of certain combinations of Roman letters. Is it a coincidence that we see evidence of the word Pentax causing this effect when that word comes from the said geographical area? I think not. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
