Apr. 3, 2003 SANTA CRUZ, CA -- Coots, the Rodney Dangerfields of
the bird world, just might start to get some respect as a result
of a new study showing that these common marsh birds are able to
recognize and count their own eggs, even in the presence of eggs
laid by other birds. The counting ability of female coots is
part of a sophisticated set of defense mechanisms used to thwart
other coots who lay eggs in their neighbors' nests, according to
Bruce Lyon, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary
biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Lyon
studied hundreds of coot nests in British Columbia during a
four-year investigation. His latest findings appear in the April
3 issue of the scientific journal Nature. "The ability of
females to count only their own eggs in a mixture of eggs is a
remarkable feat that provides a convincing, rare example of
counting in a wild animal," Lyon wrote in the published paper. A
member of the rail family, the American coot (Fulica americana)
is a slate-gray b