Frequency signatures: Barbary Sheep to Beluga Sturgeon
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 169–192.
Barbary Sheep
Sand-Coloured Climber on Broken Rock
Grazing • Browsing • Cool-hours
That makes it a bimodal system: cool-hours foraging and bursts of climbing escape.
Barbel
A Body Shaped to Hold
Holding position on gravel in fast water with a flat belly and large pectoral fins • Using the current's own force to press itself down • Feeling for invertebrates in the gravel with four barbels
Since feeding is continuous, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Bare-necked Umbrellabird
Amplified Lek Resonator
Cryptic • Canopy • Forager
That clear separation between an energy-thrifty, cryptic foraging mode and a short, high-intensity resonant display mode makes this a bimodal system with low and high frequencies.
Bare-throated Bellbird
Reinforced-Body Call Blast
Calling • Perched • Seasonal
Because the system runs on repeated high-output signalling from a fixed position, it is a mid-frequency system.
Barn Funnel Weaver
Silk Tunnel Ambush Grid
Anchored • Sheltered • Patient
This anchored, shelter-first architecture makes the barn funnel weaver a low-frequency system: dense, patient and retreat-led.
Barn Owl
Facial Disc as a Dish
Quartering • Listening • Placed
That makes it a mid-frequency system: a steady searching pattern in which the sensor rather than the speed does the work.
Barn Swallow
The In-Flight Harvest Engine
Airborne • Continuous • Collecting
That makes the swallow a mid-frequency system: steady, repeatable and built to gather small amounts without ever pausing the process.
Barnacle Goose
Socially Inherited Route
Grazing the flush • Flying as a family • Returning to the same ledge
Because a single continuous grazing operation is maintained across a moving geography, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Barramundi
A Mouth That Opens Into a Vacuum
Holding • Structured • Waiting
That makes it a bimodal system: patient holding and one instantaneous engulfment.
Barred Eagle-Owl
Silent-Approach Perch Drop
Still in the mid-storey • Ear tufts level • Listening down
Because hours of near-costless listening fund a movement lasting a second, this is a bimodal system.
Barreleye
Rotating Tubular Eyes Under a Dome
Upward • Searching • Motionless
Because the same system is reconfigured for the situation rather than running one way, it is an adaptive system.
Basking Shark
Open-Mouth Ram Straining
Cruising • Open • Passive
Because enormous scale is carried by continuous low-intensity intake, it is a low-frequency system.
Bat-eared Fox
Ears Tuned to Termites Underground
Listening • Walking • Digging
That makes it a mid-frequency system: steady, continuous acoustic searching.
Bateleur
Rocking Thermal Search Glide
All-day • Quartering • Cheap
Because the system converts continuous cheap coverage into a steady return, it is a mid-frequency system.
Bawean Deer
Night-Shifted Cover Browsing
Nocturnal • Hidden • Solitary
Because feeding runs as a steady nightly cycle, it is a mid-frequency system.
Bay Duiker
Wedge-Shaped Thicket Dive
Nocturnal • Diving • Solitary
Because the system runs on quiet continuous foraging with short committed escapes, it is a mid-frequency system.
Baya Weaver
A Nest Inspected Half-Finished
Weaving a hanging shell from torn grass strips • Pausing at the helmet stage for inspection • Completing only the nests a female accepts
Since nests are built within weeks, it operates as a mid-frequency system.
Bearded Reedling
A Gut Rebuilt for Winter
Insects • Summer • Soft
That makes it a bimodal system: a soft-food active season and a hard-food conserving one.
Bearded Seal
Built to Probe, Not to Track
Diving to the bottom • Sweeping the sediment • Back to the ice
Steady repeated bottom foraging makes this a mid-frequency system.
Bearded Vulture
Bones Dropped Onto a Known Rock
Carrying • Dropping • Swallowing
That makes it a low-frequency system: patient, cheap, and aimed at a resource with no queue.
Bee Hummingbird
Gram-Scale Hover Budget
Hovering • Refuelling • Constant
Because a maximum-rate daytime state alternates with a genuinely suppressed nocturnal one, this is a bimodal system.
Beira
Oversized Ears Shedding Heat
Eared • Waterless • Rocky
Because browsing and moving run as a steady daily cycle, it is a mid-frequency system.
Belted Kingfisher
Rattle Along a Linear Territory
Patrolling • Rattling • Bounded
That makes it a mid-frequency system: steady, repetitive patrolling of a fixed line rather than concentrated effort at a point.
Beluga Sturgeon
Upstream Gravel Spawning Run
Sea-fed • River-spawning • Decadal
Because the entire cycle runs on a scale of decades, it is a low-frequency system.