Confounded Kiwi Caprices

LATERAL THOUGHTS IN SEARCH OF EVER MORE INTERESTING STORIES FROM BIOLOGY. Robin and the Honey Badger’s mission is to re-charge biology with originality for you, the non-specialist reader. Here we take a long hard look at the form and function of birds which could hardly be more familiar as an outline sketch – but could hardly be more incongruous as an integrated system of body parts. Although globally accepted as synonymous with New Zealand, kiwi are not an evolutionary answer to the mammals missing from these islands. Instead, kiwi can be reconstructed as the special avian answer to an environment too rich in winged or feathered predators.

EXPLORE THE BIO-EDGE FURTHER WITH ROBIN AND THE HONEY BADGER. Each morning Robin and the Honey Badger wake up to a world of Nature with new curiosity. Which aspects of the natural world have been underlooked? Which adaptations or non-adaptations of organisms have been downplayed because of some theoretical bias? Which observations have yet to be integrated because of interdisciplinary timidity? How laterally can we think as we cruise the bewildering diversity of life forms on Earth? Join us in our mission of Exploring the Bio-edge in a series of e-essays that fearlessly - but accurately - cover all corners of biology.