10 Interesting Facts You Didn't Know about Animals

 10 Interesting Facts You Didn't Know about Animals

Mythsand mysteries make the fascinating, but even odd creatures ought to beunderstood. We explore a few recent findings, common misconceptions andamazing adaptations. - Ben Mauk 

 

 

Crocodiles Swallow Stones for Swimming

 

Thestomach of a crocodile is a rocky place to be, for more than onereason. To begin with, a croc's digestive system encounters everythingfrom turtles, fish and birds to giraffes, buffaloes, lions and even(when defending territory) other crocodiles. In addition to thatbellyful-o'- ecosystem, rocks show up too. The reptiles swallow largestones that stay permanently in their bellies. It's been suggestedthese are used for ballast in diving.

 

Whale Milk Not On Low-Fat Diets

 

Nursinga newborn is no "small" feat for the whale, whose calf emerges, after10 to 12 months in the womb, about a third the mother's length (that'sa 30-foot baby for the Blue whale). The mother squirts milk into thenewborn's mouth using muscles around the mammary gland while the babyholds tight to a nipple (yes, whales have them). At nearly 50 percentfat, whale milk has around 10 times the fat content of human milk,which helps calves achieve some serious growth spurtseas much as 200pounds per day. 

 

Birds Use Landmarks to Navigate Long Journeys

Canyou imagine a road trip vacation without missed exits, stubborn driversor map-folding disasters? Of course noteyou're not a bird. Pigeons canfly thousands of miles to find the same roosting spot with nonavigational difficulties. Some species of birds, like the Arctic tern,make a 25,000 mile round-trip journey every year. Many species usebuilt-in ferromagnets to detect their orientation with respect to theEarth's magnetic field. A November 2006 study published in AnimalBehaviour suggests that pigeons also use familiar landmarks on theground below to help find their way home. 

 

 For Beavers, Days Get Longer in Winter

 

Beaversbecome near shut-ins during winter, living off of previously storedfood or the deposits of fat in their distinctive tails. They conserveenergy by avoiding the cold outdoors, opting instead to remain in darklodgings inside their pile of wood and mud. As a result these rodents,which normally emerge at sunset and turn in at sunrise, have no lightcues to entrain their sleep cycle. The beaver's biological sense oftime shifts, and she develops a "free running circadian rhythm" of29-hour days.

Mole-Rats aren't Blind

Withtheir puny eyes and underground lifestyle, African mole-rats have longbeen considered the Mr. Magoos of rodents, detecting little light and,it has been suggested, using their eyes more for sensing changes in aircurrents than for actual vision. But findings of the past few yearshave shown that African mole-rats have a keen, if limited, sense ofsight. And they don't like what they see, according to a report in theNovember 2006 Animal Behaviour. Light may suggest that a predator hasbroken into a tunnel, which could explain why subterranean diggersdeveloped sight in the first place.

 

Baby Chicks and Brotherhood

 

It'sa mistake to think of evolution as producing selfish animals concernedonly with their own survival. Altruism abounds in cases where a helpinghand will encourage the survival of genetic material similar to one'sown. Baby chicks practice this "kin selection" by making a specialchirp while feeding. This call announces the food find to nearbychicks, who are probably close relations and so share many of thechick's genes. The key to natural selection isn't survival of thefittest animal. It's survival of the fittest genetic material, and sobrotherly behavior that favors close relations will thrive.

 

Many Fish Swap Sex Organs

Withso many land creatures to wonder at, it's easy to forget that some ofthe weirdest activities take place deep in the ocean. The strangepractice of hermaphroditism is more common among species of fish thanwithin any other group of vertebrates. Some fish change sex in responseto hormonal cycle or environmental changes. Others simultaneouslypossess both male and female sex organs.

Giraffes Compensate for Height with Unique Blood Flow

 

Thestately giraffe, whose head sits some 16 feet up atop an unlikelypedestal, adapted his long neck to compete for foliage with othergrazers. While the advantage of reach is obvious, some difficultiesarise at such a height. The heart must pump twice as hard as a cow's toget blood up to the brain, and a complex blood vessel system is neededto ensure that blood doesn't rush to the head when bent over. Six feetbelow the heart, the skin of the legs must then be extremely tight toprevent blood from pooling at the hooves.

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Elephants Do Forget, but They're Not Dumb

 

Elephantshave the largest brainenearly 11 pounds on averageeof any mammal thatever walked the earth. Do they use that gray matter to the fullest?Intelligence is hard to quantify in humans or animals, but theencephalization quotient (EQ), a ratio of an animal's observed brainsize to the expected brain size given the animal's mass, correlateswell with an ability to navigate novel challenges and obstacles. Theaverage elephant EQ is 1.88. (Humans range from 7.33 to 7.69,chimpanzees average 2.45, pigs 0.27.) Intelligence and memory arethought to go hand in hand, suggesting that elephant memories, whilenot infallible, are quite good.

 

 

Parrot speech

 

Parrotspeech is commonly regarded as the brainless squawking of a featheredvoice recorder. But studies over the past 30 years continually showthat parrots engage in much more than mere mimicry. Our avian friendscan solve certain linguistic processing tasks as deftly as 4-6 year-oldchildren. Parrots appear to grasp concepts like "same" and "different","bigger" and "smaller", "none" and numbers. Perhaps most interestingly,they can combine labels and phrases in novel ways. A January 2007 studyin Language Sciences suggests using patterns of parrot speech learningto develop artificial speech skills in robots.

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