Fauna, https://www. facebook. com/profile. php?id=100086862823778 (2024)

27/10/2022

You're no stranger to Patrick Star. Learn more about his original form in these Starfish Facts you definitely can't miss!

27/10/2022

Interesting facts about starfish

Fact 1. In total, there are about 1600 species of starfish in the world, of which about 160 are found in the seas of Russia. These echinoderms for the most part prefer warm tropical seas, and are found mainly in shallow water, where sunlight reaches the bottom through the water column. They are very different - harmless and poisonous, small and large, edible and not. Their largest species can reach a mass of 4-5 kg with a diameter of 80-100 cm.

Fact 2. Some types of starfish are found at a depth of 8000-8500 meters, under monstrous pressure, where there is practically no life. They feed mainly on "co**se rain" - the remains of plants and animals that fall down to the bottom. Also, their victims are mollusks and small crustaceans that live there.

Fact 3. The regenerative abilities of starfish are amazing. They can not only grow new rays to replace the lost ones, in some of them the body can completely recover from any sufficiently large piece of the central disk. And starfish from the genus Linckia, numbering 9 species, are completely unique: a ray discarded or simply torn off from their body can develop into a full-fledged animal, having grown everything necessary.

Fact 4. A starfish called the crown of thorns feeds on corals, destroying them, and in recent years their population has been growing at an alarming rate. Even methods have been developed to deal with them in order to save the Great Barrier Reef and other corals. Crowns of thorns are also dangerous because they are covered with poisonous thorns, and their poison is dangerous even for humans.

Fact 5. Some types of starfish have evolved a unique hunting mechanism. They literally throw their stomach out, covering their prey with it or running it inside the shell of some other mollusk. The stomach envelops the victim and digests it, turning it into a nutritious broth.

Fact 6. Almost all starfish are predators, and they are not picky about food at all. They are not picky to such an extent that cannibalism among them is the most common phenomenon. Most of these echinoderms will not hesitate to eat their own relative, if there is no more attractive prey nearby.

Fact 7. Starfish have no circulatory system at all, like blood itself. But their bodies are still pierced by numerous vessels, it’s just that it’s not blood that flows through them, but water saturated with the substances they need, including oxygen. This system is called the water-vascular system and is present in most echinoderms.

Fact 8. The number of rays in these creatures depends on the species. Many of them really have five rays, and most often starfish are depicted in this form. But among them there are also species in which the number of rays is measured in tens! There are at most fifty of them.

Fact 9. Many of them do not even need relatives for reproduction. Some starfish even know how to reproduce by fission, like some protozoa! Others are hermaphrodites, while still others can change s*x as needed.

Fact 10. The tissues of some starfish contain tetrodotoxin, a powerful poison that is deadly even to humans, to protect against predators. It is this poison, by the way, that makes puffer fish so dangerous, which, when cooked incorrectly, instantly turns into the last delicacy in the life of a gourmet.

27/10/2022

Interesting facts about insects

Fact 1. No one still knows how many species of insects there are on Earth. Scientists have described about 1,000,000 species, but they claim that there are many, many more. They are the most numerous class of living beings on our planet.

Fact 2. The first insects appeared about 400 million years ago, long before the first dinosaurs. Moreover, in that distant era, they, apparently, were much larger due to the fact that the Earth's atmosphere was more saturated with oxygen than it is now. Later, the percentage of oxygen dropped and the insects were crushed.

Fact 3. Insects feed on each other, birds and people eat them - they are very rich in protein and other useful substances. There are even special farms where they are grown! At the same time, every year people and birds still eat an order of magnitude fewer insects than those that go to dinner for their own relatives. Although still, about 70% of all species of these creatures known to science eat strictly plant foods.

Fact 4. Among insects there are many poisonous ones, for example, various spiders and scorpions. However, ordinary bees annually cause more deaths than their deadly relatives. The thing is that in large quantities their poison is also deadly, in addition, some people are allergic to it.

Fact 5. The fastest insect in the world is a dragonfly. She is an ideal predator, perfectly adapted by nature for only one purpose - to hunt. With over 20,000 segmented eyes, it sees everything around it, and in level flight it can reach speeds of over 50 km/h.

Fact 6. The most powerful insect in the world is an ant. He is able to lift a weight many times greater than his own. And this applies to almost all types of ants, which in the world there are almost as many as bird species. And they never sleep! Generally.

Fact 7. One of the largest land insects in the world is the giant ueta living in New Zealand. This harmless creature looks very much like an overgrown cricket. Growing up to 6-8 centimeters in length, an adult can weigh up to 60-70 grams, which is several times the weight of an adult mouse.

Fact 8. According to statistics, the most dangerous insects in the world are ordinary mosquitoes. Despite the fact that they are not poisonous, they serve as the main carriers of a number of dangerous diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

Fact 9. The Lonomia caterpillar is recognized as the most poisonous insect in the world. Growing up, she turns into a beautiful butterfly, but during the period that she is a caterpillar, she is deadly. Her whole body is covered with the thinnest spikes, and if you touch them, a deadly poison will immediately enter the bloodstream.

Fact 10. The most ancient insect on Earth is an ordinary ant. Studies of their genome and fossils discovered by paleontologists have shown that these creatures have not changed much over at least the last 100,000,000 years.

25/10/2022

Interesting Anaconda Facts

Fact 1. The largest snakes in the world, anacondas, are actually far from the sizes that legends give them. In South America, rural residents claim that these reptiles can reach 9-10 meters in length, but there is no evidence of the existence of individuals over 6 meters long.

Fact 2. Anaconda lives in rivers, and if necessary, she can hibernate in the same way as some other animals hibernate for the winter. A huge snake resorts to this method of survival in the event of a long drought - it burrows into the silt and slows down vital processes to the maximum possible minimum. After the first rains, she returns to normal and comes to life, emaciated and terribly hungry.

Fact 3. In terms of length, anacondas occupy only the second place among all snakes in the world, yielding in this parameter to reticulated pythons. But in terms of mass, they firmly hold the palm, and the largest anaconda ever caught weighed as much as 97.5 kg, that is, more than the average person. At the same time, the females of these snakes usually far exceed the males both in length and in weight.

Fact 4. Anacondas are promiscuous in food, and on occasion they do not disdain even cannibalism, willingly eating their own relatives. They also attack people, and an adult snake can easily swallow at least an adult person. But this hunt is not purposeful, just for this reptile predator, we humans are the same prey as the various inhabitants of the jungle.

Fact 5. Zoologists still cannot calculate at least the approximate number of the world population of anacondas because these snakes live in remote areas of the South American mainland. Their maximum life expectancy is also still being debated, since it has not yet been possible to test it in practice. In captivity, anacondas quickly begin to wither, and rarely live more than 5-6 years, and in the wild it is problematic to track the life expectancy of different individuals.

Fact 6. These reptiles are ovoviviparous, and they can both lay eggs and give birth to live babies. The female anaconda bears offspring for about 6-7 months, after which up to a hundred cubs with a length of 20 to 80 centimeters are born. The snake itself during this time loses weight by 40-50%, and newborn kites often begin their independent life in an attempt to devour each other.

Fact 7. While hunting, the anaconda, contrary to popular belief, never breaks the ribs of its prey. Tightly wrapping around it, she simply squeezes the prey, preventing it from breathing, and waits for it to suffocate, after which it swallows. The jaws of the anaconda are not connected to each other, and the ribs are connected only to the spine, and they can move apart, so that the snake can swallow huge prey. Having done this, she climbs into a secluded place and digests food there, and this process can take up to a month.

Fact 8: Anacondas eat anything they can catch and overpower, including other predators like caimans. However, young (and therefore not too large) individuals often become the prey of jaguars, caimans and giant otters themselves.

Fact 9. Some representatives of the indigenous population of South America, leading a lifestyle close to the traditional one, purposefully hunt anacondas. The meat of these snakes is eaten, and some collectors are always ready to buy their skins. True, sometimes the hunter and prey change places.

Fact 10. Among the locals, there are legends about poisonous breath and the hypnotizing look of the anaconda, but they have nothing to do with reality. Only one statement is true - these reptiles really emit a strong unpleasant odor.

25/10/2022

Interesting Perch Facts

Fact 1. Of all the orders of fish on earth, it is the perches, more precisely, the perch-like ones, that are the most diverse and extensive. It includes 11,255 species, many of which are important for fisheries. These ray-finned fish are found both in fresh water and in salt water, and are found in all seas and oceans, as well as in rivers on all continents, except for Antarctica, on which there are no permanent rivers at all.

Fact 2. Despite this diversity, only 3% of all perch species have a length exceeding 1 meter, and most of them are very small in size. The largest representative of the perch order is the Indian Ocean small-eyed grouper, which can grow up to 3 meters in length and weigh over 400 kg.

Fact 3. Ordinary river perches, widespread throughout Russia, can grow up to 50 cm in length and weigh more than 2 kg. Interestingly, the maximum sizes of individuals depend on the water bodies in which they live, and they can be very different even in neighboring ponds with similar conditions. One of the conducted studies showed that perches ranging in size from 6 to 31 cm account for up to 97% of their total biomass, that is, really large specimens are vanishingly rare. They grow all their lives, and their officially registered maximum life expectancy is 23 years.

Fact 4. Initially, river perches were found only in Europe and Asia, but later they were brought to North America, Africa, New Zealand and Australia. These fish perfectly adapt to a variety of habitat conditions, so they took root well in new places and quickly bred.

Fact 5. Perch are incredibly gambling hunters. They lead a predatory lifestyle, and spend most of their time in continuous search for prey. However, sometimes in the process of hunting, they are so carried away that when they try to catch some small fish or insect in the coastal zone, they can jump out of the water ashore in a big way.

Fact 6. In shallow waters like lakes and ponds, perch can die in winter due to lack of oxygen after the surface of the water is covered with ice. The thing is that they are more sensitive to the concentration of oxygen in the water than most other fish. To avoid mass deaths, fish farms regularly break open the ice to provide water with access to air.

Fact 7. Different types of perch live in a variety of conditions, meeting from shallow water to a depth of 3000 meters. They live from 5-10 years to 50-100, although the Sebastes aleutianus perch is one of the longest living animals on earth. The longevity record for this fish is 205 years!

Fact 8. Common sea bass are very poisonous. True, their poison is not contained in their teeth and not in meat, but in special glands located on their fins. Because of this, an injection with the fins of this fish in humans causes a rather painful inflammation, albeit not dangerous if the wound is treated in a timely manner.

Fact 9. River perches are not only voracious, but also illegible in food. They eat everything in general - small fish, insects, caviar, worms, even crayfish! In addition, they sometimes gather in large flocks, which cause great harm to all other fish living in the same reservoir. Perch simply eat themselves and their offspring, leaving them no chance of survival.

Fact 10. Deep-sea groupers have luminous organs, which consist of bacteria coexisting with them in symbiosis. These "flashlights" glowing in the eternally dark sea depths help them to lure the prey they hunt.

23/10/2022

Interesting Buffalo Facts

Fact 1. Asian buffaloes are among the largest bulls in the world. Their males are larger than females, and adults can weigh up to 1200 kg, growing up to 3 meters in length and 2 meters in height at the withers! These animals are sometimes also called water buffaloes, as they spend most of their lives near water bodies, and willingly feed on aquatic vegetation.

Fact 2. As with bulls and cows, in buffaloes, only males usually have horns. In some breeds, females also have them, but still, most horns either do not exist at all, or they are very small. In males, they can grow up to 120-130 in length each! But since the horns are hollow inside, they weigh relatively little, and therefore do not cause inconvenience to these animals. The distance between the tips of their horns can exceed 120 cm.

Fact 3. The constant companions of these ungulates are some birds, such as buffalo starlings and weavers. These birds never stray far from the herd, as they feed mainly on insects, which are picked out from the folds of the buffalo skin. Mighty herbivores get along well with these birds, realizing that their partnership is beneficial to both parties.

Fact 4. In India, where for most of the population the cow is a sacred animal, on sale, however, you can often find beef. This mystery is explained simply - beef is simply called buffalo meat, although it differs in taste from real beef, and besides, it is tougher. Therefore, in fact, in Southeast Asia, buffaloes are usually kept for milk, and not for meat.

Fact 5. In all of Africa, it is buffaloes that are the only type of bulls that are found in the wild on this continent. There used to be another one, but it died out a long time ago, about 9 thousand years ago. Ordinary bulls with cows do not take root very well here due to the unsuitable climate, although they are still bred on farms in South Africa.

Fact 6. People domesticated Asian buffalo so long ago that no one knows exactly when it happened. But no one has yet succeeded in domesticating Africans, since they are distinguished by a very violent disposition and high aggressiveness.

Fact 7. A person can never run away from an angry buffalo. These animals, if necessary, are able to run much faster than we humans, while developing speeds of up to 50 km / h! They will not be able to run for long in this mode, but they can hold out long enough to catch up and trample the offender.

Fact 8. African buffaloes are ranked 3rd in the list of wild animals that kill the most people in Africa. In the first place are crocodiles, in the second - hippos. However, according to other sources, hippos are even more dangerous than crocodiles.

Fact 9. Asian buffaloes in the wild may soon disappear altogether as a species. More precisely, physical extinction does not threaten them, but wild animals live next to people, and therefore often interbreed with domestic buffaloes, from which they have differences. This affects the purity of the breed of wild animals.

Fact 10. Buffalo milk is similar to cow's milk, but it is much more fatty, while they produce several times less milk than cows of the corresponding breeds. But it is widely used, and even traditional Italian mozzarella cheese, according to the correct recipe, should be prepared from buffalo milk, and not from cow's.

21/10/2022

Did you know, that your dog can smell about 10,000 times better than you? Surprising fact about “man’s best friend”

21/10/2022

Did you know some of the incredible things about our dogs?

21/10/2022

Interesting Magpie Facts

Fact 1. Despite the fact that magpies are considered frivolous birds, they are actually very smart, and their brain occupies the same volume relative to their body as that of great apes. The ingenuity of these feathered lovers of stealing shiny objects is at least indicated by the fact that they always equip their nests with an exit to the south in order to get an extra drop of heat. And the area of the brain responsible for the knowledge of the surrounding world, in the brain of a magpie, occupies approximately the same part as a similar area in the human brain.

Fact 2. These birds use their voice to communicate with relatives, but their singing cannot be called melodic, so for most people it seems like annoying screams. These cries begin in early spring, when the mating season begins for magpies. It occurs earlier than in other birds, often as early as April.

Fact 3. Magpie's nest has a spherical shape, and in size it is comparable to a soccer ball. Moreover, these relatives of crows usually build 5-6 nests, just in case, so as not to attract the attention of predators to a particular place. As a result, they occupy only one of these buildings, and carefully guard it. That does not prevent them from destroying the nests of other birds on occasion, and even eating other people's chicks and eggs.

Fact 4. Ornithologists have long tried to establish the reason for such a love of forty to shiny objects, but have not been able to come to any unambiguous conclusion. The only assumption is that they just like them, well, purely aesthetically. Because they do not use the stolen glitters in building nests, and in general they do nothing with them, just throwing them at the bottom of the nest.

Fact 5. Magpies are wintering birds, so they do not make seasonal migrations. But there are exceptions - populations living in the harsh northern regions, in the event of a particularly cold winter, can move south for a while. These birds are found on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica.

Fact 6. They can not be called either monogamous or polygamous creatures. Most often, magpies form permanent pairs, but they can break up for various reasons - just like in humans. Moreover, they choose a partner for themselves even before reaching the age of one, when they are not able to reproduce. After another year or so, having matured, the partners begin to produce offspring.

Fact 7. Magpies often store food, but not in their nest, like most birds, but on the ground, more precisely, usually under the soil surface. They can have a lot of such stash, and they always remember where everything is. Squirrels could envy them with desperate envy - these rodents also make a lot of caches with supplies, but often forget their location.

Fact 8. As observations show, magpies settle with great pleasure near human habitation, probably because in such conditions it is easier for them to get food. And they, unlike the vast majority of wild animals and birds, remember and recognize people not by smells, but by faces.

Fact 9. On the ground, magpies usually behave rather clumsily. They can walk like crows, but their paws are not very well adapted for walking, so they prefer to move in short jumps. This clumsiness of theirs instantly evaporates, as soon as they rise into the air - magpies fly quickly, and can easily write complex somersaults in the sky.

Fact 10. Despite the fact that these birds lead a territorial way of life and protect their territory from competitors, during flights they keep in flocks, more or less large. This helps them protect themselves from predators, and they always come to the aid of their relatives in trouble.

21/10/2022

Interesting facts about gastropods

Fact 1. Of all types of mollusks, gastropods are the most numerous class. About 110,000 species have already been studied and described by science, but scientists believe that there are many more of them in the world. In our country, 1620 species of them live, but new ones are discovered every year. All gastropods are united by a similar way of moving, thanks to which they got their name, as well as the fact that most of them have a shell.

Fact 2. Scientists have found that the ancestors of modern gastropods appeared in the seas and oceans, but in the course of evolutionary processes, many of them moved to land or to freshwater reservoirs. And some have become parasites at all - representatives of the Eulimidae order, for example, parasitize on other animals, on echinoderms. There are several hundred types of them.

Fact 3. The nervous system of these mollusks is very interesting. In most of them, the nervous tissue is very unevenly distributed throughout the body, and is concentrated mainly in the front of it.

Fact 4. The world's largest gastropod is the giant Australian trumpeter, which, as its name implies, lives mainly off the northern coast of Australia, although it is also found in the nearby waters of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. These creatures grow up to 15-18 kg in weight and have a shell up to 91 cm long! Although only very old individuals reach such sizes, and most of them are three times smaller.

Fact 5. Some species of these mollusks are actively eaten in different countries, mainly in Europe and Asia. Grape snails, the largest of all gastropods in Europe, have long been bred for culinary purposes. Both the snails themselves and their caviar are eaten, which is salted and acquires a taste similar to the taste of porcini mushrooms.

Fact 6. Many types of gastropod mollusks can, if necessary, clog themselves inside their own shells using a special cap. This allows them to survive adverse conditions, such as drought, and return to a full life when these conditions change.

Fact 7. Some gastropods can pose a certain danger to humans, as they are intermediate carriers of flatworms, which, in turn, can cause a number of diseases. But these types of them are still not usually eaten, so the risk is small.

Fact 8. Different slugs also belong to gastropods. In many ways, they are similar to ordinary snails, but in the course of evolutionary processes, slugs have lost the shell that protected them. Some scientists believe that the disappearance of their shells is due to a calcium deficiency that has arisen at some point.

Fact 9. For the surrounding wildlife, some aquatic gastropod mollusks are extremely useful. They play the role of filter feeders and orderlies, absorbing dead organic matter, such as decaying plants, and thereby purify water bodies.

Fact 10. Land gastropods live all over the Earth, and their different species adapt perfectly to different conditions. They are everywhere - in the poor life of the tundra and hot tropics, in swampy lowlands and in the cold belt high in the mountains.

18/10/2022

Interesting facts about cows

Fact 1. Cows are ruminants for a reason - they chew constantly, methodically chewing partially digested food. Moreover, their jaws are able to tirelessly work hour after hour, making about a hundred movements per minute. Some rodents chew at the same rate, rabbits in particular, but they don't do it all day long.

Fact 2. Some scientists believe that cows cause great harm to the ecology of our planet. Everything was fine until man started to breed them in huge quantities, but now, among all mammals, cows are second only to humans in number of all mammals, and their intestinal gases, as well as the gas emitted by manure, contribute to global warming due to the increased greenhouse effect. . According to some estimates, up to 15-20% of the increase in the greenhouse effect in the Earth's atmosphere is due to cows, of which there are about 1,300,000,000 individuals on our planet.

Fact 3. Cows, like other cattle, have served as the equivalent of currency among many peoples for thousands of years. For example, in Africa, in the country of Eswatini, the law still provides for a fine of one, two or more cows for some violations. But violators, according to the same law, can pay a fine in monetary terms. And in Cuba, for a long time, since Fidel Castro came to power, a very severe punishment is due for the murder of this animal, up to many years in prison.

Fact 4. Cows in private farms, which often see their owners, often become attached to them. Unless, of course, they treat them well ... They are one of the few animals that can remember human faces and recognize them from them. At the same time, contrary to a common myth, the red color does not anger the bulls - cows do not distinguish colors at all, and at the bullfight bulls are irritated by the behavior of the bullfighter, and not by the red flag. It is made in red in order to be better visible to the public.

Fact 5. It should not be surprising that milk from different cows tastes different. This directly depends on the diet of the animal - it is one thing if it grazes on fertile meadows, and quite another if it feeds on mixed fodder. On average, one dairy cow can produce up to 30-50 thousand liters of milk during a lifetime, which is 150-200 thousand average glasses.

Fact 6. Most cows in the world are found in Argentina. Many local landowners have so many of these animals that they do not even know their numbers themselves - in herds, the number goes to millions of heads. This is partly why in Argentina, beef is the main ingredient for most national dishes, and pork, chicken and other meats are considered “second-rate” compared to beef.

Fact 7. Cows have to be milked strictly on schedule, otherwise the animals begin to experience discomfort, which quickly turns into severe pain. Under natural conditions, cows feed their calves with milk for about three years, but those used in the dairy industry give milk throughout their lives, every day, and if they do not express it, they begin to suffer. And a herd of hundreds of cows can produce up to 2 tons of milk per day!

Fact 8. In many cultures, cows occupy an important place, but in India and Nepal they are generally considered sacred animals. At least among the majority of the population of these states. But not all Hindus and Nepalese profess Hinduism - for example, in the Indian state of Goa, famous for its resorts, they eat beef quite well, since here the majority of the inhabitants are Christians, not Hindus.

Fact 9. Cows have several interesting features. Like humans, they can cry, and they also feel the earth's magnetic field, and during rest, the herd usually settles along its lines. And the prints of cow noses are as unique as the pattern on the skin of a tiger or the fingerprints of a person.

Fact 10. The most expensive cows in the world are wagyu. Wagyu includes four breeds originating from Japan, and their meat is valued for its propensity for "marbled" meat. Bred by the Japanese about 200 years ago, these cows are raised in special conditions - they are fed with selected grain, beer and sake are added to the diet, and in cases where, due to lack of pastures, animals cannot walk normally, they are given massages. All this, however, is dictated by concern not for the quality of life of animals, but for the fact that the final product is better.

18/10/2022

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