Do seagulls have feeling in their feet, can they feel the difference between hot and cold?

toughynutter

There is much debate and like understanding Bird are able to tollerate extreme cold with bare feet because normal body temperature is not maintained in the feet. However this does not mean they have no temperature sensing mechanism "How cold can a bird's foot become before tissue freezing occurs? Can the bird operate the foot, at least awkwardly, at any temperatures short of tissue-freezing temperature? Is the foot richly or poorly equipped with heat-sense and cold-sense nerve endings?Is the heat-sense operative when the foot is very cold? If so, harmful scorching could ensue when standing on a very hot stove is made. Is there a cold-sense meechanism present that does not result in feelings of discomfort, but does warn the bird that the feet are about to freeze; or is it simply that stiffness causes the bird to cease activity, whereupon the feet are drawn up and warmed enough to be saved? How does leg and foot circulation vary with the temperature of the parts (a job best done, perhaps, with tagged atoms)? As far as I know, not even a start has been made to look into any of these questions.--AD. . Moore.,University Of Michigan." http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v063n01/p0127-p0128.pdf Oct 22 07, 11:09 AM