Owlets spend more time in REM sleep than adult owls
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and
the University of Lausanne have discovered that the sleeping patterns of baby
birds are similar to that of baby mammals. What is more, the sleep of baby
birds appears to change in the same way as it does in humans. Studying barn
owls in the wild, the researchers discovered that this change in sleep is
strongly correlated with the expression of a gene involved in producing dark,
melanic feather spots, a trait known to covary with behavioral and
physiological traits in adult owls. These findings raise the intriguing
possibility that sleep-related developmental processes in the brain contribute
to the link between melanism and other traits observed in adult barn owls and
other animals.