Meet Japan’s hitchhiking fish
Medaka catch rides on obliging birds, confirming one of Darwin’s hunches
THE JAPANESE picture book “Soratobu medaka” tells the extraordinary tale of tiny stream-dwelling fish called medaka hitching a ride on an obliging bird to a far-off freshwater pool. The story has delighted children in the country since 1999, when it was first published, but now comes an even more delightful twist: it is true.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Flying fish”
From the October 12th 2024 edition
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