I understand they are smaller and can move faster than humans, but why can they wait so long before moving?
For instance, when you’re driving and a bird is able to wait until the absolutely last second before flying away and avoiding getting hit. What allows animals to have such better reflexes?
In: Biology
Regarding birds they can process images from their eyes much faster than us humans. Essentially they can see “faster” which means they can more accurately estimate speeds and positions of things in their surrounding. So from the birds perspective they move out of the way with some margin as to them the car doesn’t appear as close to hitting them as we perceive.
Regarding reflexes in general they are automatic responses and triggered by a nerve signal being sent to the brain and spinal cord. The reflex happens when the signal is instantly sent back from the spinal cord with instructions to do something. For example if you place your hand on a hot stove you will pull away your hand as a reflex. After a second or two you will feel the pain.
The delayed pain response is because it takes longer time for the signal to travel to the brain and be intepreted than it takes for it to travel to the spinal cord and back to the muscle.
Smaller animals have a shorter distance from their muscles to their spinal cord and brain (since they have smaller bodies). Thus it takes less time for the signal to travel in the body of a squirrel than in our body. Thus they have quicker reflexes than we do.
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