There ’s nothing that excites me more than identify a unexampled freaky creature fact and so you’re able to imagine my excitation when a conversation strike up on Twitter aboutpelicanscooling down by pressure their spines through their mouths . “ Surely not ? ! ” I cerebrate to myself , “ that ’s completely ludicrous ! ” I aver . Well , as it turn out , it was .
The viral Tweet , which exhibit some less - than - flattering shots of a “ pelican ” pushing its spur out in this way , was in fact just a skirt yawning , with the accompanying picture and diagram actually showing a shoebill doing the same thing . Yawn , indeed .
The public debate began when a Twitter user post these haunt exposure and diagram , touch off a spirited disputation about what on Earth Mother Nature was thinking :
But , just as Twitter giveth , it taketh away …
Dr Dani Rabaiotti is a skill communicator and author turn with the Zoological Society of London and , as she points out , these damn images do not show either the pelican or the shoebill shunt their spine through their sassing . What these figure of speech are actually showing are some , still very freaky , gape that hale the bird ’ lower , soft - tissue paper beak over their neck , giving the show of a acantha due to the flesh color of the inner beak . Sometimes pelicans will also stretch out their heads up and seemingly crowd their skulls through the same part of the beak . It ’s honestly quite difficult to watch , never mind explain , so I ’ll go away you to delight this picture that reveals all .
Pelicans need their long stretchable beak for feeding as they use their pouch - similar lower beak to scoop up water and capture Pisces the Fishes as they swim by . The yawn is remember to act as a stretching for the beak , which kick in its so orotund explains the unearthly , contortionist - same movement . Whatever the bird is doing , I mean we can all agree on this .
As for the Balaeniceps rex , we do n’t ask to get into why these birds yawn to institute that they ’re freaky . If theirjudgmental death stareandominous feetaren’t enough to convince you that these birds would make splendid movie villains , try out mind to the speech sound they make …
Yup , Mother Nature sure does move in deep ways .
