The upside-down goldfish

Press, 17 April 1982, Page 16

The upside-down goldfish

Wildlife: Questions and Answers. Edited by Dilys Breese. BBC, 1981. 144 pp. $8.75. Why do cuckoos not have identity problems? When do weasels hunt in packs? Who makes a mermaid’s purse and how? These and other wildlife mysteries are answered in this collection of questions submitted by listeners to the natural history unit of the 8.8. C. The programme from which the book takes its title was started back in 1969 to provide answers to queries which people “just can’t get out of their heads.” Among the strange and sometimes exciting phenomena discovered by correspondents have been the regularly recurring cases - the partially albino blackbird, the hedgehog which refused to hibernate, and the goldfish which insisted on swimming

upside down. Among the more bizarre questions have been the “boneless fish," the animal whose head “exploded,” and the bird that was as thin as a pencil. The producer also recalls the memorable day when the energies of three highly qualified zoologists were employed in dissecting a trout and a kipper with a view to deciding which had more bones. Their conclusion — that the - “apparent super-boniness of kippers had more to do with the speed at which breakfast is eaten than with the structure of the animal." Although the questions pertain to the: animal and plant life of the Uniteci Kingdom. the information and explanations should be just as interesting to New Zealand readers for the light they throw on particular aspects of the natural world.—Diane Prout.