Rabbit Ears: Double Duty
The first thing you notice about a rabbit is its oversized ears which, as one might guess, enhance its ability to hear. The two ears can move independently of each other and can be rotated 270 degrees.
In addition to being designed to catch sound from any direction, rabbit ears regulate a rabbit’s body temperature. There is a very extensive network of blood vessels in a rabbit’s ears that provide a large surface area for heat exchange. These vessels swell (vasodilation) when the rabbit is hot, and contract (vasoconstriction) when it is cool, so much so that they are barely visible in cold weather. In the summer, the increased circulation of warm blood from the body’s core to the rabbit’s ears, where heat is lost to the cooler surrounding air, provides internal air-conditioning for the rabbit. (Photo: Eastern Cottontail)
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What a Snake’s Eyes Can Tell You
You can tell a lot about a snake just by looking at its eyes. Snakes that burrow underground usually have relatively small eyes compared to those that live above ground. The size of the eye and the shape of the pupil can often tell you if the snake is diurnal or nocturnal – typically diurnal snakes have comparatively small eyes with round pupils and nocturnal snakes have larger eyes with elliptical pupils. Both of these characteristics have to do with maximizing or minimizing the amount of light that enters the eyes. The larger the eye, the more light it can gather. The reason for the difference in pupil shape is that round pupils can close very tightly, to a pinpoint opening, shutting out bright sunlight very effectively. Elliptical pupils can open wider than round pupils, and consequently collect more light. (Photo is of a Common Gartersnake.)
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A Frog’s Tympanum
A frog’s tympanic membrane, or tympanum, is the circular patch of skin directly behind its eye that we commonly call its eardrum. It functions much like our eardrum does –the tympanum transmits sound waves to the middle and inner ear, allowing a frog to hear both in the air and below water. In addition, this membrane serves to keep water and debris from entering a frog’s ears. In some species of frogs, such as the Green Frog, American Bullfrog and Mink Frog, their gender can be determined by the size of their tympanum relative to their eye: the male’s tympanum is larger than its eye, the female’s is equal in size or smaller than its eye.
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