If there is a question to be asked, there is someone from whom to learn
an answer. This, by the way, is not the Jon Stewart Show or Prof. Irwin
Corey: this is dead-on serious. I have trusted Ginny with information
about my cats and dog for years. I wonder if it mightn't be an idea
worth considering to drop a Komodo Dragon into the midst of the next AWP
meeting in the name of herd-thinning.
Ken
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Yet another question]
Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 01:36:49 -0400
From: Ginny Palmieri <[log in to unmask]>
To: Kenneth Wolman <[log in to unmask]>
References: <[log in to unmask]>
Most birds do not have saliva, no. There are some exceptions (most notably birds of prey.)
Parrots, parakeets, canaries, etc., and most song birds have dry tongues (which feel really,
really cool, like a very soft finger, btw.) Birds with wet tongues (saliva) don't have crops.
Crops are found in those birds with dry tongues. The crop is an expanded area of the
esophogus, and there is a fluid with digestive enzymes found there. It comes from a
submaxillary gland, which is not activated until the mechanical act of swallowing begins.
Essentially, that's saliva, which begins the digestive process through the action of the
enzymes. The crop also use mechanical means of breaking down foods, which is
why some birds require grit or dirt in their diets.
I have never seen a bird drool. I don't know if those with saliva can or not, but I would
assume that the possibility exists.
Reptiles can and do drool. Komodo dragon saliva carries a lethal dose of bacteria, which
is fast acting and disables and often kills its prey. They are famous for drooling great ropes
of this toxic swill, and may rank among the most disgusting of all animals. However,
like birds, most reptiles have a fairly dry tongue until the act of swallowing begins,
at which point the submaxillary gland pumps fluid into the mouth to assist in the swallowing
process. Given the way snakes eat, probably a good idea to get some lubrication into
the act, I'd say.
Normally, I think snakes have fairly dry mouths, but I know that drooling can be a sign
of some kind of illness in the larger, constricting snakes. I'm no herpatologist, though,
and you'd have to ask one of them if you wanted more (and more accurate!) detailed
information on reptiles.
Me
>>> On 5/9/2009 at 1:44 PM, Kenneth Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> You're my local animal expert. I never thought of this. DO any of them?
>
> ken
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Yet another question
> Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 13:30:32 -0400
> From: Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> References:
> <[log in to unmask]>
> <001401c9d0c9$4691bd50$0601a8c0@shakespeare>
> <000501c9d0ca$360cceb0$a2266c10$@com>
>
>
>
> This time I'm taking advantage of the considerable oddity of
> poetryetc, not to speak of the surprising erudition of its members..
>
> It's Spring, so naturally my thoughts turn to saliva. In my mind's
> eye I conjured a drooling chicken. Hence the question: do birds
> drool? do they even salivate? What about reptiles? No jokes about
> rabies, please--I've already run through them.
>
> My mind is like a stone
> skipping on water, which one day
> will sink, tee hee.
>
> Mark
>
>
--
Ken Wolman http://awfulrowing.wordpress.com/ http://www.petsit.com/content317832.html
---------------------------------
"All writers are hunters, and parents are the most available prey."--Francine du Plessix Gray
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