Frequency signatures: Kirk's Dik-dik to Large Flying Fox
Each card gives a species’ behavioural archetype, its frequency — how often it commits effort and how long each commitment lasts — and a waveform tracing that rhythm.
Frequency signatures
Each waveform traces one species’ working rhythm — where it spends effort, and where it waits. 2,327 species, A–Z; showing 1,201–1,224.
Kirk's Dik-dik
A Nose That Works as a Radiator
Browsing • Waterless • Nose-cooled
That makes it a low-frequency system: small, careful and built entirely around not spending water.
Kiwi
Bill-Tip Nostril Soil Probing
Probing • Smelling • Nightly
Because probing runs as a steady repeated cycle all night, it is a mid-frequency system.
Klipspringer
Standing on Four Small Points
Placing • Gripping • Watching
That makes it a low-frequency system: little movement, a small range, and safety bought from terrain rather than speed.
Knobbed Hornbill
Seeds Carried Kilometres Away
Large fruits swallowed whole that almost nothing else on the island can handle • Seeds held in the gut and regurgitated or voided intact after a long flight • Distances of several kilometres covered between feeding and roosting, so seeds arrive far outside the parent tree's shadow
Because the cycle is daily and seasonal, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Koala
The Narrow-Diet Detox Engine
Specialised • Detoxing • Resting
That makes the koala a strongly low-frequency system: narrow, economical and organised around processing rather than pursuit.
Kodkod
Body Sized to the Understory
Threading • Climbing • Taking small
Continuous secretive searching through dense cover makes this a mid-frequency system.
Koi
Cold-Suppressed Pond Wintering
Rooting through the bottom • Growing all summer • Taking food from the hand
Since a warm growing season and a cold non-feeding suppression are both obligatory and chemically different, this is a bimodal system.
Komodo Dragon
Anticoagulant Ambush Bite
Waiting • Tracking • Fasting
Because near-zero waiting supports one brief committed strike with a delayed result, this is a bimodal system.
Koran Angelfish
A Pattern Replaced at Maturity
Dark blue with concentric white and pale arcs • Tiny and confined to a crevice or a small territory • Unrecognisable as the adult species
The pattern shift is therefore a change of social identity as much as of appearance, and because it happens once and irreversibly it operates as a phase-change system.
Korean Rat Snake
Belly Edges That Grip Bark
Pressing the edges of the belly scales against bark or masonry • Using the angle where the flat underside meets the flank as a purchase • Climbing vertical surfaces in a series of concertina pushes
Since climbing movements repeat continuously, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Kori Bustard
Sitting at the Ceiling of Flight
Walking all day • Taking what appears • Flying only if forced
Slow and conservative throughout, this is a low-frequency system.
Kowari
Water Drawn Entirely From Prey
Carnivorous • Waterless • Nocturnal
Because hunting is a steady repeated nightly cycle, it is a mid-frequency system.
Kuhl's Pipistrelle Bat
Hunting What Streetlights Gather
Flying circuits around a lamp where insects have accumulated • Calling continuously and steepening the call rate as a target closes • Taking prey every few seconds in a concentration nothing natural supplies
Since calls recur many times a second, it operates as a high-frequency system.
Labyrinth Funnel Weaver
Sheet Web and Tunnel Retreat
Waiting • Tunnelled • Hours
Because it needs both the long wait and the instant response, it is a bimodal system.
Lace Monitor
A Forked Tongue Gives Direction
Flicking a deeply forked tongue to sample the air and ground • Delivering each tip to a separate opening in the roof of the mouth • Comparing the two readings to get a direction as well as a strength
Since flicks recur constantly, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Ladder Snake
Ladder-to-Stripe Ontogenetic Shift
Searching • Constricting • Striped
A routine of repeated searching bouts, shifted from daytime in spring toward dusk in hot summers, makes this a steady mid-frequency system.
Lady Amherst's Pheasant
Ground Scratcher Hiding a Courtship Cape
Scratching • Ground-foraging • Concealed
That makes it a bimodal system: long periods of concealed ground foraging and short bursts of lateral display.
Ladybird Beetle
Aphid Pressure Swarm
Patrolling • Grazing • Balancing
That combination of ongoing patrolling and focused surges makes the family a bimodal system with a mid-frequency baseline and a high-frequency outbreak response.
Ladybird Spider
Burrow-timed Display Shell
Burrowed • Sheltered • Waiting
This makes the species a bimodal system: a predominantly low-frequency, burrowed state punctuated by short, high-frequency bursts of vivid activity for reproduction.
Lake Oku Clawed Frog
Twelve-Set Genome, One Lake
Aquatic • Crater-bound • Lifelong
Because everything runs slowly in a stable environment, it is a low-frequency system.
Lanternfly
A Snout That Never Glows
Driving a stylet bundle through bark into the phloem • Taking sap under the tree's own pressure • Voiding the excess sugar as honeydew
Since feeding is continuous, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Lappet-faced Vulture
Hide-Tearing First Access
Soaring • Searching • Hours
Because it needs both the long unproductive search and the brief dominant feeding bout, it is a bimodal system.
Lar Gibbon
Swinging as a Falling Pendulum
Hanging from one arm with a hook-shaped hand and a ball-and-socket wrist that lets the body rotate freely beneath it • Swinging forward under gravity and releasing at the top of the arc • Reaching the next branch with almost no muscular work because the body is falling rather than being pushed
Because the motion is continuous, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Large Flying Fox
Carrying Seeds Fifty Kilometres
Feeding on fruit and nectar at one site then flying tens of kilometres to a distant roost • Carrying seeds and pollen in the gut and on the fur across that whole distance • Depositing them into forest patches no other animal connects
Because the cycle is nightly and colonial, it operates as a low-frequency system.