Weird science

I don't usually go for Beavis and Butthead-type humor, but National Geographic's Quirkiest News of 2004 got me with the number one story: Herring Break Wind to Communicate, Study Suggests:

The study's findings, now published online in the U.K. science journal Biology Letters, reveal that Atlantic and Pacific herring create high-frequency sounds by releasing air from their anuses.

"We know [herring] have excellent hearing but little about what they actually use it for," said research team leader Ben Wilson, a marine biologist at the Bamfield Marine Science Centre, British Columbia, Canada. "It turns out that herring make unusual farting sounds at night."

I'm sorry, but that is just hilarious.