Q&A: Vertical Sleepers, Sky Dances and the Infamous Worm Dance

About this episode

Steve and Lizzie answer listener questions about animal behaviors including starlings' murmurations, gulls' worm dance, and sperm whales' vertical sleeping.

This week on That’s Just Wild, Steve and Lizzie tackle more of your wildest questions! 🐦 Mesmerising murmurations & the “rule of 7”… how do starlings move as one without crashing mid-air? We unpack the simple behavioural rules behind those hypnotic sky dances — and why each bird only needs to track a handful of neighbours. 🌅✨ 🐛 Ever seen gulls doing a strange little “worm dance”? We get into the surprisingly clever ground-drumming behaviour that tricks worms into the surface — and why it works so well. 🌊👀 🌙 Do sperm whales really sleep vertically? We explore the bizarre world of “upright” sleepers in the animal kingdom — and what this unusual behaviour tells us about life beneath the surface. 🐋💤 📝 Leave us a review to let us know what you think — every comment means a lot to the whole team 💚 🔔 Make sure you follow That’s Just Wild wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode 🎧 Go to thatsjustwild.com to get ad-free listening, special deep-dive episodes and exclusive That's Just Wild goodies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Hosts: Steve, Lizzie

Topics covered

• animal behavior
• bird movement
• sperm whales
• ground-drumming
• murmurations

Keywords

• starlings
• murmurations
• worm dance
• sperm whales
• animal behavior
• ground-drumming
• sky dances

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: That's Just Wild, Acast

Places: the animal kingdom

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