Frequency signatures: Sea Krait to Short-billed Dowitcher
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 1,849–1,872.
Sea Krait
Coming Ashore to Find a Drink
Hunting eels in crevices • Hauling out • Drinking fresh water
This is a low-frequency system.
Sea Lamprey
Suction-Mouth Current Anchor
Buried • Enduring • Sediment-tied
That makes the lamprey a bimodal system built on low-frequency, sediment-anchored larval endurance and a steadier mid-frequency adult pattern of attachment and host-riding.
Sea Otter
No Blubber, So Nothing Is Skipped
Diving • Cracking • Grooming • Diving again
High, relentless and short-horizon, this is a high-frequency system.
Sea Pig
Scent-Led Detritus Selection
Walking on inflated tube feet • Reading the mud chemically • Facing into the current
Because everything runs at the rate food falls, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Secretarybird
Stilt-Leg Stomp Strike
Striding • Flushing • All-day
Because sustained walking search supports a rare, extremely brief application of force, this is a bimodal system.
Sedge Warbler
One Aphid, One Flight
Feeding almost exclusively on plum-reed aphids at autumn reedbeds • Nearly doubling body weight in a fortnight • Flying the whole distance to sub-Saharan Africa without stopping
Since feeding is continuous, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Sedge Wren
Nests Woven Into Living Stems
Arriving • Weaving • Moving on
That makes it a high-frequency system: fast, cheap, repeated attempts wherever conditions are briefly right.
Seed Bug
Feeding on the Seed Bank
Fallen seed accumulating on the ground and persisting for months or years as a dormant bank • Stylets inserted through the seed coat and enzymes injected to liquefy the contents • The insect drawing out the liquefied endosperm, so a hard dry package becomes drinkable
Because the supply is persistent, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Sei Whale
Silk-Fine Baleen Skimming the Surface
Skimming • Straining • Near-surface
That makes it a bimodal system: steady surface skimming and occasional engulfing lunges.
Semaphore Crab
Intertidal Signal Platform
Rhythmic • Display-led • Negotiation
That makes the semaphore crab a single, mid-frequency system built around steady, repeated signaling rather than rare deep reserves or brief explosive bursts.
Semi-slug
Half a Shell, No Retreat
A thin shell reduced to a small plate over the back, far too small for the animal to withdraw into • Neither the protection of a snail nor the full flexibility of a slug, but the ability to climb and squeeze into spaces a shelled snail could not • The animal therefore living on vegetation above ground rather than under cover, which is where it meets both the rats and the people that matter
Because activity is nightly, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Senegal Bichir
Paired Lungs Under Ganoid Plate
Armoured • Air-gulping • Unhurried
Low output, high durability and a long life make this a single low-frequency system.
Senegal Bushbaby
Elongated Ankle, Memorised Route
Leaping • Listening • Re-running
Repeated committed movement along a remembered network makes this a mid-frequency system.
Senkaku Skink
Islet-Bound Egg-Guarding Lineage
Sheltered • Brooding • Isolated
Slow breeding, short daily foraging and a population sealed in by the sea make this a low-frequency system.
Serval
Only Attacking What Is Already Located
Standing in grass • Rotating the ears • One vertical pounce
Continuous patrolling and listening makes this a mid-frequency system.
Seven-spot Ladybird
Aphid-Colony Larval Clearance
Finding a colony • Laying into it • Larvae clearing it
Because the system is a continuous cycle of finding colonies and converting them, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Seventeen-year Cicada
Emergence Timed to Outnumber Every Predator
Buried • Root-feeding • Slow-growing
That makes it a phase-changing system: a long buried phase and a single explosive emergence.
Seychelles Magpie Robin
One-Egg Clutch, Territory Held by Song
Ground-foraging • Territorial • Singing
Because the system is a steady daily round of ground foraging within a fixed territory, it is a mid-frequency system.
Shield & Stink Bug
Metal Colour, Bad Smell
Brilliant metallic colour produced by layered structure in the cuticle rather than by pigment • Glands on the thorax releasing a strongly repellent mixture of aldehydes when the insect is handled • The colour functioning as an advertisement of that chemistry rather than as decoration or camouflage
Because discharges are occasional, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Shingleback Skink
Few Huge Young, Heavy Scale
Trundling • Plated • Investing
Slow armoured persistence makes this a single low-frequency system.
Shoebill
Collapse-Forward Bill Strike
Standing • Watching • Hours
Because near-total stillness supports one total commitment, this is a bimodal system.
Shore Crab
Blood Held Against Any Salinity
Moving between full seawater, estuary and rockpool within a tide • Actively pumping salts across the gills to hold internal concentration • Feeding on whatever the change of water exposes
Since tidal movements recur twice a day, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Short-beaked Echidna
Electroreceptive Beak Probing
Nosing damp soil • Reading faint fields • Digging straight down
Because every process here is slow, cheap and measured in months, it operates as a low-frequency system.
Short-billed Dowitcher
A Bill Tip That Opens Underground
Probing • Rhythmic • Sensing
That makes it a mid-frequency system: steady, rhythmic and tactile.