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From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Squirrel Questions
Message-ID: <78300001@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 88 03:37:00 GMT
References: <22811@mordor.s1.gov>
Lines: 15
Nf-ID: #R:mordor.s1.gov:22811:p.cs.uiuc.edu:78300001:000:704
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Oct  2 22:37:00 1988


I recently saw an article (was it in SCIENCE NEWS?) about dropping
cats.  It seems that many animals, when given enough time, can orient
themselves for the drop.  They splay their arms & legs apart for
maximum wind resistance, and spread their landing over a wide surface
area to minimize the damage.

The article went on to say that this is why cats generally survive
falls of greater than 3 stories, but are often killed in lesser falls.
In a longer fall, the animal has enough time to right itself & prepare
for landing.

Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,ihnp4,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies