On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, Alan Morris wrote:
> Michael Todd enquired as to how long is a bee-eaters tunnel. Obviously
> Michael the NPWS office library at Griffith should purchase a copy of
> HANZAB for you! A wise investment for the project! HANZAB says: Length
> of tunnel throughout range 89.4 cm (23.4; 40-150;43), with no difference
> between nests in vertical banks (87.33 av) and flat ground (90.5 av).
This is one of my pet peeves. The specification of bee-eater tunnel
length to 0.1mm is rather too precise - 0.1mm is the diameter of a human
hair. The data probably warrants 1000x less precision, e.g. 90 +/- 20cm.
To be fair to the editors of HANZAB, this likely comes from another
source, one of many biologists apparently never taught what a significant
figure is.
Mind you this all pedantry as the range (40-150cm) is likely what Mick
Todd wanted to know.
Andrew Taylor
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