SCIENCE LAB SCHEMA

Birds And Bees Can't Do That

YOU COULD EVEN SAY IT GLOWS

Platypuses do it. Opossums do it. Some flying squirrels do it. And breaking news :

Two species of rabbit-size rodents called springhares do it.

That is, they glow under black light, a perplexing quirk of certain mammals that is baffling biologists all over the world.

Springhares, found in southern and eastern Africa, weren't on anyone's fluorescence bingo card.

Like the other glowing mammals, they are nocturnal. But unlike other creatures, they are Old World placental mammals, an evolutionary group not previously represented. Their glow, a pinkish-orange, forms variable patterns, generally concentrated on the head, legs, rear and tail.

Fluorescence is produced by certain pigments that absorb ultraviolet light and reemit it as a visible color. These pigments have been found in amphibians and some birds and are added to things like white T-shirts and party supplies.

But mammals, it seems, don't tend to have these pigments.

A group of researchers, many associated with Northland College in Ashland, Wis., has been chasing down exceptions ever since one member, the biologist Jonathan Martin, waved a UV flashlight at a flying squirrel in his backyard, and it glowed eraser pink.

In some ways adding spring hares to the fluorescent group makes the phenomenon more confusing.

Scientists haven't found a pattern of diet or habits that might explain it. [Cara Giaimo]