My Science School

Elephants kill gratuitously.

Yes, the herbivorous elephant.

It’s been observed that some young bull elephants have got into the habit of raping and killing rhinos, buffalo and sometimes even other elephants, for what is clearly just for the hell of it. If you want pictures/videos though, I’ll let you Google them for yourselves.

The reason? Poachers.

It’s not unknown that elephants are prime targets for poachers, as their ivory commands a high price. Because older males have bigger tusks, though, they’ve been the preferred target for this callous bunch ever since the pound signs rocked up in front of them, and as a result, their numbers out of all elephants have taken the biggest hit.

Researchers have observed that the knock-on effect of this is that the younger males lack a role model, a sort of father figure, to instil in them self-control and good behaviour. Without those boundaries set, some go wild and do some crazy and despicable things.

This isn’t mere speculation either.

Young male elephants at national parks in parts of Africa exhibiting aggressive behaviour, particularly killing rhinos in ritualised combat, were shown to be less aggressive when bigger, older males were reintroduced.

So what’s the cause?

It’s believed that musth (pronounced “moost”) is the reason. It’s the name given to periods where a male elephant’s testosterone spikes by 40–60×, or even up to 140× in some cases, causing them to become highly aggressive to the point that controlling them becomes impossible. The studies have found that once the older males were reintroduced, it stopped the younger males from entering musth in the first place.

Of course in the wild, it’s not so simple. Killing the older males has invariably upset the social structure of elephants, and it’s already becoming clear what the results are going to be should this continue.

 

Credit : Quora

Picture Credit : Google

 The cone snail is the scariest animal that no one talks about.

Look at that beautiful shell, covered in pretty patterns! Don’t you just want to pick it up?

If you do, you’re as good as dead. They have a venomous, stinging tongue that stretches far enough to strike you no matter where you hold it from. A few microliters of cone snail toxin is powerful enough to kill 10 people, and the worst part? The stinger is full of painkillers so you won’t even realize you’ve been stung.

Luckily they don’t have a high human kill-count… but the few people they do kill? Never see it coming.

There are over 500 species of cone snail, and most aren’t deadly to humans... only about 10 species could kill you. But a Geography Cone Snail? It has a complex cocktail of over 100 toxins, and there’s no antivenin for it. The best they can do is keep you alive at the hospital (if you make it there in 15 minutes) until the venoms have worked their way through your body… which is PAINFUL. The sting might be painless, but this is a horrible way to die.

 

Credit : Quora

Picture Credit : Google

 There are very odd organisms living 2500 meters deep in lithosphere, under the ocean, that have such a low rate of metabolism that they divide once every hundreds, perhaps a thousand years.

They have only been discovered recently. Their habitat is isolated from the surface biosphere. It doesn’t depend on photosynthesis. In lithosphere, under the ocean, the food chain starts with radioactive decay. These organisms divide so slowly that it’s difficult to even measure their metabolic rate to tell how often they divide. They are not animals though. They are unicellular organisms. Their existence gives hope to our search for extraterrestrial life forms on other planets. If life on Earth can survive and thrive isolated from the surface, then it’s conceivable that it can on other planets, in their deep lithosphere as well. Perhaps life as we know it started in such habitat too.

To answer your question: Because of slow rate of metabolism, lithosphere life forms can divide (are born) so rarely, that it might be a thousand years between each division. They are not animals though. They are much simpler single-celled organisms. There is no known multi cellular life form, animal, that I’m aware of, that is born once every thousand years.

 

Credit : Quora

Picture Credit : Google

Meet the animal whose tongue is hard and rough enough to tear off one’s skin to the bones.

Tigers

The tiger's tongue is covered with numerous small, sharp, rear-facing projections called papillae. These papillae give the tongue its rough, rasping texture and is designed to help strip feathers, fur and meat from prey. The tongue can lick the paint off a wall!.

• A tiger's intimidating roar has the power to “paralyze” the animal that hears it and that even includes experienced human trainers. Their distinguished roar results from their extremely thick and well developed vocal cords.


• Tigers have furs and stripes as designs on their bodies. These stripes are deep into their skin as they can still be seen after the fur is shaved

No two tigers have the same stripes. Like human fingerprints, their stripe patterns are unique to each individual.

 

Credit : Quora

Picture Credit : Google

We all know and have perhaps also seen bats roosting upside down on trees, Bat have neither the kind of wings that birds do nor powerful enough hind legs to help them run before taking off. So hanging upside down puts them in the best position to take off into the air without great effort. But did you know there's a type of bird that rests and sleeps upside down? Welcome to the world of hanging parrots.

An unusual ability

There are more than 10 species of hanging parrots, and they get their name for their ability to roost (rest and sleep) upside down. This ability is seen as being unique to these birds. In fact studies suggest that some of them even bathe in the rain hanging upside down! Across species, the hanging parrots are usually small birds with short tails. It is assumed that since they're tiny birds, hanging among leaves helps them hide from predators.

India hosts one species of the hanging parrot - the vernal hanging parrot (Loriculus vemalis) - belonging to Psittacidae, the family of true parrots. It is found in neighbouring regions such as Myanmar and Thailand too. Also known as the Indian lorikeet it is a green-grass coloured bird - about the size of a sparrow - with a bright red rump. While the male has a bright blue patch on the throat this is minimal or missing in the female.

Did you know?

There's another bird too known for its upside down behaviour. The short-tailed nuthatch has the ability to walk down tree branches as well as hang upside down from branches to gain access to nooks with insects or seeds. But the difference is that the nuthatch does not hang upside down while roosting.

 

Picture Credit : Google