The Weird Thing Storks Can Smell

Not only can storks smell, but white storks will show up to a field if they smell cut grass... and storks aren't herbivores.

Host: Hank Green (he/him)
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[laurachapple]

Zoology is like 75% pranking the animals.

[blackoceancreativeuniverse]

New, from the makers of DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE, it's STORK, HERON, CRANE! It's hours of educational yet confusing fun.

[silentgamer]

If I throw some left over fish in my garden, within minutes a seagull or 2 show up. So yeah they can smell!

[petrichor]

Can confirm: there are a lot of storks on freshly mowed fields in Germany...
Also, albatrosses use smell to find their way home on the open sea, which is so cool

[jacobjerny]

I’d say the answer as to WHY those storks know is pretty simple: leftover programming from the ice age. When bison, aurochs, and mammoths would graze the grass, the storks would follow behind them, looking for disturbed insects, rodents, and reptiles. Just like cattles and crows in the Americas.

[juncohill]

Zaboomafoo taught me that turkey vultures have a great sense of smell. If you look at them from the side, you can see through both of their nostrils! This lets the air move more freely through their nose. A quick internet search tells me they can smell carrion up to a mile away. I love birds :D

[hunterGk]

How do the storks know to associate the smell of cut grass with food? Probably the same way a cat knows the sound of a fridge opening does. Food is an incredibly strong motivator and creates associative memories quickly in all the animals I've ever worked with, which makes sense given it's kind of important. If you've ever been walking a dog and it's found a burger or something that someone's dropped under a bush one day, then it will check that spot every time you walk past it for some time. All it would take is for one crane to come across the food source, then maybe another one in the area sees it and goes to see if there's something worth investigating; or maybe it's passed from parent to chick. This is the sort of cultural knowledge that can make the difference between passing on your genes or not. Super cool.

[nilshendrikeckert]

Not too long ago storks had declined quite a bit here in Germany, but nowadays there a bit more of a common sight again

[TheTerranInformed]

I love that it was a kid who asked the question

[CthulhuianBunny]

*Sees greater adjutant
...Okay, maybe a wattle on a non-avian dinosaur wouldn't look so silly.

[baldieman]

At a guess, I would propose that the storks evolved the ability to smell cut or trampled grasses at a time when herds of megafauna (European Bison etc) were grazing the lowlands of Europe.
As with some egrets today, following herds of big, clumsy herbivores is a good way to find the insects and rodents that are trying to avoid being trampled.

[jasonglass]

Here in Nebraska freshly tiled soil will draw in North American Robbins. They will all stand around you in a big circle waiting for you to finish so they can come in and check for food. Now I wonder if barn swallows and flycatchers are drawn in by the smell of cut grass or by the sound of a lawnmower?

[ThainaYu]

I bet it was the same reason we like the smell of cutted grass

Grass has been release this kind of smell and chemical since the time herbivore exist. Especially the grass forager like ungulate that mow the grassland even before human farmer

For stork there was an insect, for us is the beef and mutton itself that would be abundance for hunting

[jonathanwilliams]

Hey there, if you're wondering who one of the scientists is who published that paper...
That's my Dad, Jonathan Williams who works with his team at the Max Planck Institute for "Polymerforschung" (sorry don't know the English word for it), yes this is his Google account, we don't have the same Name. If any of you have some questions about the results and experiments I can definitely ask him and reply.

[EddVCR]

0:59 Those are the most beautiful cat eye liner wings I’ve ever seen, and they just wake up like this.

[HotelPapa]

Storks relating the smell of cut grass with good experience finding prey is way less bizarre than Pawlow's dogs salivating at the sound of a bell their tormentor rings.

[moefuggerr]

Here in Florida. Mow the lawn and cow birds show up. They walk around and get the bugs.

[the_gaming_hyena]

Ooh! Another bizarre beast! Can you do a video on hyenas?

[stephendoherty]

In Texas, when we cut our hay, egrets do the same. They flock to our fields to feast on grasshoppers and the like.
Many other birds do so as well, like our mockingbirds, whippoorwills and even crows (when no one else is around).

[BobSmith-tmkj]

I wonder if the reason for their initial association with the cut grass/distressed plant smell is because a large amount of that smell would mean a large amount of bugs eating plants? Maybe tracking some kind of swarming bug like locusts?