Shields of survival

In the world of animals, there are animals who have certain features to withstand from the nature's harsh features or conditions. This post will tell about animals with their amazing shields.

As we all know, that camels are known as the ships of the desert for the right reason. Along with its ability to go for longer periods without water, ability to feed on rough vegetation, hooves to even carry over rough terrains, they possess three eyelashes to shield their eyes and keep the blowing desert sand at bay.

Towering beasts- giraffes do boast one of the toughest skins in the animal kingdom which shields them from the sharp Acacia tree's thorns while feeding on its leaves.

 











Along with camel, there is another xerocole (desert resident) which does have other shielding features.. One of these is the Fennec fox. This fox has the largest ears which enable to release lot of heat. Also, its feet have thick fur around their paws to shield is feet from the warm desert sand from burns.


Blubber is an ideal element that is found to keep warm in polar marine animals like walruses,whales,seals,penguins and even polar bears. It is weird to mention a bear in this category, but polar bears  are both bears as well as marine mammals depending much on ice floes and spend lot of duration of their time swimming.

Similarly, the terrestrial polar animals like polar bears, foxes,
wolves, hares have fur in between their toes to shield from the frosty grounds. Without this fur, they would become victims to frostbite (a medical condition affecting skin and tissues which are far from heart due to freezing).

Time to express- 2 (Meanings in the sounds)

To continue from where I stopped my last post, let's talk about how do animals express their feelings or generally communicate in terms of their sounds. It is true that just as we talk for a reason, animals do make sounds which have many purposes. 

Big cats like lions roar not only to shield their territory from other lions but also to communicate and bring back the scattered members of the pride. But, when these predators roar, they can even extend their duration and this voice can be heard far away.In case of tigers, roaring duration is shorter compared to lions. They roar to communicate with other  tigers, after bringing down their prey and even during mating. Also, these pantherines (big cats) have a wider vocal repertoire compared to other wild cats. They make sounds like  'prusten' or chuffing' which sounds like a rattling snort through the nose. Other sounds used are grunt while charging, woof when startled, hiss when getting in an attack mode etc.

Elephants usually make low rumbles to communicate within the herd. They trumpet when they are surprised or excited. Quite surprisingly, giraffes too aren't silent actors in the animal kingdom. These towering giants do make sounds and some voices vary among sexes for different purposes like bulls ( males ) will cough while courting whereas does ( females ) will bellow to call their calves back and calves will bleat and moo for simply communicating. In 2014, scientists have revealed in their research that giraffes do make a strange humming sound at night which is akin to motor bike's engine and the purpose is still a puzzle for scientists whether they are communicating with other giraffes or in their dreams.

Image courtesy of [Humpata1] at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

For some animals, their vocalizing time comes only during the mating season to attract females. Like deer species like moose, red deer, fallow deer during the rut where the males bellow loudly to attract females. The same is evident even in reptiles like crocodiles, alligators where the bulls (males) also bellow to attract cows(females)  as well as to convey sexual readiness. Even, the largest species of birds, ostriches follows the same ritual where the males make booming sounds akin to lion's roar to impress the mates. 

But, some make sound for their meal quest. It is evident in micro (small) bats and only one species of mega (big) bat- the Egyptian fruit bat, dolphins, sperm whales where this process called echolocation is used.

Time to express-1

Animals express themselves by sounds, gestures, facial expressions and other body language. Let's talk about how animal express themselves to their own members as well to humans in case of some animals.

Pets like dogs and cats are known to humans and they do have their own sets of amazing body languages for expressing. It is often told that when dogs wag their tails they say hello or greet. But, don't get fooled by all types of wagging as greets. When it wags to the left it is scared or frightened, slow tail wagging expressing insecurity and rapid ones express aggression. Only when it wags to the right, it is really greeting. When it lies on its back, with paws bent and raised, it says 'You' re my love bug'. Even, when they sneeze they let known other dogs that they are aren't being aggressive but playful.

Cats are no less in body languages They make 100 different sounds while dogs can make only 10. When these felines make a meowing sound they aren't communicating with other cats, but with humans as mewing refers to humans or something to humans in their language. As they are capable of meowing, they are also known to imitate the sound of crying babies if they know that their owners have babies to know that they too are hungry.Also, when these felines are pets they rub their heads on their owners so that to convey their trust.

Apart from dogs and cats, even other animals have been known to express themselves by their own means. Rubbing and holding body parts are two most important expressing methods. Elephants are known to hold each other's trunk not only to greet but also to console other individuals. Polar bears rub each others noses so as to get what they want. In a pride, lions rub each others heads for greeting etc.

This type of behavior holds true for chameleons where they change their colors not only for camouflage but also for indicating moods, temperature changes etc. Brighter colors signify aggression whereas dull or pale colors signify submission.

Accents

It is true that humans have accents based on different regions where they are found like English language accent of U.S. is different from that of U.K. and other countries.

But, this post will reveal that even animals have accents based on regions they are found. 

In the animal kingdom, domestic animals are documented to have accents. Goats have different accents on regions in which they are found. Even, cows have been reported of mooing in different accents. The presence of accents is evident even in birds. Sparrows and many song birds do boast this quality.

It is not only the domestic ones which are found to have accents. Even, the wild ones have them too. Japanese macaques (snow monkeys) boast different accents on the basis of  geographical region of troops where they are found. By the way, these primates are known to buy eatables from vending machines by using thrown coins. And, while playing in the snow they do make snowballs like us for the same purpose - for fun. 

 Even, cetaceans (sea mammals that resemble fish) like whales and dolphins are also reported to have accents. Scientists believe that blue whales of nine different regions have different accents.

Watch your tongue

It is true that a person who sticks out his/her tongue is considered to be immature,childish etc. But in case of some animals, it is a matter of  their survival.

The reptiles, like snakes, who frequently flicker their tongue, are doing it for the reason of smelling (to capture scent particles) and not because they are hungry.

Image courtesy of [by africa] at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Chameleons do have their own uniqueness about their tongues. Their chief weapon which they use for hunting is not the tongue but the sticky adhesive on their tongue which helps them in catching insects. Also, there are species of chameleons whose tongues are longer than their bodies giving them enough flexibility to catch far away insects.Again in this list, amphibians are no exception. Batrachians ( frogs and toads) use tongues only single utility- for catching their prey.
 Moving now from amphibians and reptiles, there are some mammals who use their tongues for even better purposes. Towering beasts - giraffes extend their black colored, prehensile tongues from their mouth for plucking the Acacia leaves from the tree.Also, they use their 18-20 inches long tongue to clean their ears.


Scaly anteaters called pangolins have incredibly long tongue to feed on ants and termites and they can stretch their thin, long tongues into very narrow lanes of termite mounds. No need to use its claws to break open the termite mounds. This makes them one of the animals with longest tongues.

Both domestic and wild cats do have another rough feature on their tongues called as horny papillae used for grooming and rasping the liquid part of the flesh.

Leave the baby alone!

This post is on request from one of my blog readers. The question was whether animal's parents reject their young ones if touched by humans.

The answer is - in general, no. It is common in rodents but rarely a case occurs in large animals. Yes, they will reject only if too much human handling is done.

I recently read about this incident that happened in Yellowstone national park of US. A young bison calf was rejected by the entire herd after some silly tourists picked it up and stored at the back of their vehicle thinking to protect it from cold. But, when the park rangers were reuniting the animal back with the herd, very sadly the herd rejected it. Later, park rangers euthanized the poor animal as it would have had come in contact with vehicles on the road. How sad!!

In all national parks and sanctuaries people are prohibited to not only hunt wildlife, but to touch and feed also. However, licensed (controlled hunting) is allowed in specific countries.

But, being touched by humans cannot be the only reason why female animals reject their young ones. Other reasons could be undernourished young ones or lazy to be a mother etc.

The female leaders

There is talk of स्‍त्री शक्‍ति all around. As such it is Devi's Navaratri too. Even, USA is  gearing up to have their first female president.  So, why not talk about how females fare in animal world! To begin with, the saying goes by- " The female of the species is more deadlier than the male".

A hyena's group is called as clan.  The leader of clan of spotted hyenas is always a female hyena. Interestingly, a female hyena is larger than the male. What is even more amazing is that they can lock (proverbial) horns with the top predator in their habitat- the lion. Truly, they aren't scared of lions as they are even famed for stealing prey from a pride of lion. When the female hyena arrives with her entire clan, the pride will usually give up.


There are several other critters where the females outweigh the males. The Great horned owl (inset) is a famous example where the females are larger than males and have a deeper hooting call than males. Also, great horned owls aren't named because they have horns. They are called so as they boast tufts of feathers on the top of their head.

The female green anacondas, also outweigh their male counterparts. These bulky ophidians inhabit near swamps of rainforests and wetlands lurking for prey like capybara (world's largest rodent),deer, tapirs, caiman alligators and even surprisingly jaguars. But, aren't much aggressive towards humans.

The oldest cow elephant is the leader of the herd. However a herd of elephants does not have older male elephants (bulls) as they tend to lead solitary lives after the age of 13 years.  

So that's my tribute to the female fraternity, er... sorority!