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Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 |
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Animals Attack Human Technological Infrastructure
We are accustomed to termites feasting on our homes' timbers and mice gnawing in the walls, but in recent years many species have developed a taste for more sophisticated fare:
- Pine martens are chewing through the electical wiring of Swiss cars. Mammal repellents popular there.
- British dormice seem to enjoy the electrical fittings of Rolls Royces.
- The keas (mountain parrots) of New Zealand have an innate urge to strip out the rubber gaskets around car windows.
- Land crabs on Tahiti bite through the electrical cables of film crews. Rarely are they electrocuted.
- New Zealanders have to put metal collars on telephone poles to prevent bushy tailed possums from getting at the cables.
(Ager, Derek; "Unwary Animals and Vicious Volts," New Scientist, p. 47, January 9, 1993.)
Comment. We mustn't forget that sperm whale that got tangled up in an undersea cable over a mile down!