Florida's 'Worm Grunters' Collect Bait Worms By Inadvertently Imitating Mole Sounds
Friday, October 24, 2008 - 07:28
in Biology & Nature
Vanderbilt biologist Ken Catania has discovered the secret of "worm grunting" -- the Florida practice of driving a wooden stake into the ground and rubbing it with a long piece of steel to produce a grunting sounds that drives nearby earthworms to the surface where they can be collected for bait. The worm grunters are unknowingly mimicking the sounds that the worm's arch-enemy the mole causes while burrowing.