Swishing tails guard against voracious insects with curtain of breeze
Bothersome insects are a predicable summer hazard. Swatting them can almost become a sport, but some irritable horses enjoy taking shots at something larger. 'I have been hit many times in the face, and even the eye, by a naughty horse's tail... Sometimes it seems like they're actually aiming for you', laughs Marguerite Matherne from the Georgia Institute of Technology, who recounted the anecdote to her PI, David Hu, when she joined his lab. With a track record of interest in the mechanics of animal grooming, Hu's imagination was gripped. How could the horse aim a tail flick with such deadly precision? '[It] seemed like a question "hidden in plain sight"', chuckles Matherne, recognising that the puzzle presented her with the ideal opportunity to combine her life-long passion for all things equestrian with a career in biomechanics. Matherne, Hu and colleagues publish their discovery that animals swish their tails to...