My Science School

Porcupines have thousands of quills, covering a large part of their body. The main purpose of the quill is defence. Though these sharp-tipped quills normally lie flat when a porcupine is threatened, they stand erect. When attacked by a predator, the porcupine can lodge a few of them into the predators body. The quills also have another advantage. Since they are hollow, they help porcupines stay buoyant making them good swimmers Porcupines shed their quills But no worries there because the new ones are said to grow pretty rapidly. The length of quills varies by type. New World porcupines have small quills that are around 4 inches (10 cm) long, while Old World porcupines have quills that can grow up to 20 inches (51 cm) long, though there are some exceptions.

All porcupines have a few traits in common. The most obvious trait is the long, sharp quills that cover their bodies. Some quills can get up to a foot (30 centimeters) long, like those on the Africa's crested porcupine.  Porcupines use the quills as a defense. They make shake them, which makes them rattle, as a warning to potential predators. If that doesn't work, they may charge backwards into the predator. The quills are loosely attached but cannot be thrown or projected. Some quills have scales or barbs that make them very hard to remove. Once a quill is lost, it isn't lost forever. They grow back over time. A North American porcupine can have 30,000 or more quills.

Credit : Live Science

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Considering they are our relatives, it's no surprise that chimpanzees and orangutans have fingerprints that are similar to ours. But someone completely unrelated to us also has fingerprints shockingly similar to ours - koalas! Apparently, this is what is called convergent evolution - "different species developing similar traits independently from each other. Well, as one report rightly worried, we can only hope investigators at a crime scene do not mistake a koala fingerprint for a human's and set out on a hunt that can never have an ending!

In 1975 police took fingerprints from six chimpanzees and two orangutans housed at zoos in England. They weren’t just looking for a unique souvenir; they were testing to see if any unsolved crimes could be the fault of these banana-eating miscreants. While these primates ended up being as innocent as they seemed, the police did determine that their fingerprints were indistinguishable from a human’s without careful inspection.

A few years later, in 1996, a different type of mammal came under police suspicions: a koala! While it makes sense that orangutans and chimpanzees would have fingerprints like us, being some of our closest relatives, koalas are evolutionarily distant from humans. It turns out that fingerprints are an excellent example of convergent evolution, or different species developing similar traits independently from each other.

For koalas, it’s not really so different. They are incredibly picky eaters, showing strong preferences for eucalyptus leaves of a certain age. It seems that their fingerprints allow them to thoroughly inspect their food before they chow down. Police aren’t exactly worried about koala bank robbers, but it is possible that koala fingerprints could be found incidentally at a crime scene and be mistaken for a human's, making it pretty difficult to find a match.

Credit : MC Gill

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Leech has 32 brains. Well, not exactly, but sort of Here's the thing. A leech is an annelid. which means it has a segmented body. It has 32 segments in all The creature's brain runs through the length of its body, and exists in each segment as a ganglion (a structure containing nerve cells: plural ganglia). The first few segments together form the head ganglion, the next 21 form the mid-ganglia, and the remaining, the tail ganglion. Why these are seen as separate "brains" is because each ganglion has the ability to control the segment it is located in.

Leeches are brown or black-colored worms having a segmented body (34 segments). They possess a special sucker on both ends. In majority of the species, the mouth encloses three jaws, each equipped with small teeth. Leeches move from one place to another by walking in a looping manner.

The largest leech recorded till date measures about 16 inches in length. On an average, the size of leeches is between 7-80 mm. Like earthworms, leeches are hermaphrodites, meaning that a single leech has both male and female sexual organs. Leech bite is painless, which is due to the anesthetic present in their saliva secretion. Leeches have the ability to feed in large amounts (about 5 times their body weight) and store nutrients for future use. Many species can survive for about one year after having a blood meal. They use the preserve food for survival. Some species (e.g. hirudo) lay their young ones in cocoons, while others (e.g., Amazon leech) keep their babies (as many as 300) in the stomach.

Credit : Animal sake

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With all that regular brushing, rinsing, flossing, the scary decay (not to mention wisdom teeth troubles), and the eventual visit to the dentist, you think having 32 teeth is a bother? But did you know slugs have several hundred thousand teeth? Slugs including snails, have these teeth on their tongue-together called radula that help them scrape at and eat their food. Since their teeth wear down, they are replaced by new teeth. While snails can have even up to 20,000. The Most Number of Teeth" award is won by the umbrella slug that goes through an unbelievable 750,000 of these teeth in a lifetime. A paleoanthropologist was right when he said. "Our teeth are boring.”

Slugs have an important role in the ecosystem and are key composters which help to break down decomposing vegetation. However they are notorious for being able to chomp through garden plants and vegetables in a very short period of time. They do this using their teeth. They need so many teeth  because instead of chewing their food, they have a ribbon-like flexible band of microscopic teeth called a radula. This acts like a circular saw — cutting through vegetation and eating it as they go. When their teeth wear out new rows of teeth move forward and replace them.

Slugs are hermaphrodites and they have both male and female reproductive systems. They are able to reproduce themselves without the need of a partner. In fact, one slug can lay up to 400-500 eggs in a year which can remain in the soil for years and hatch when the conditions are right. Slugs produce slime which enables them to slide along the ground. The slime also enables them to glide over broken glass or razor blades without damaging themselves. They can use the slime as a trail to find their way back to their homes, even being able to tell their own slime apart from other slugs and snails.

Credit :  Perry Ponders

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Kangaroos lack natural sweat glands, but they have a special network of blood vessels in their forearms. When a kangaroo needs to cool down, it licks its forearms until the fur is soaking wet. As the saliva evaporates, it quickly brings down the kangaroo's body temperature. Kangaroos have very thin forearms, with short fur. 

Trying to save water can be hard when you live in hot places. As humans, we are able to sweat to help us cool off using evaporation, but this uses up a lot of our body water. Kangaroos, much like dogs and many other furred mammals, don’t really sweat. But they do have a trick up their  sleeve  to help keep cool. Kangaroos have a cooling behavior. They will use their saliva to cool themselves off, licking their forearms to help lower their body temperature. In this more controlled way, they can still use evaporative cooling when they need to. As grazers, food is usually readily available for kangaroos, but that doesn’t mean that life is easy. They, like all animals, still have to face the different challenges that come with living in any habitat. Even if they seem to hop through life without a worry. As the number of humans in Australia increased, they killed carnivores that had hunted kangaroos in the past. Because of this, numbers of kangaroos have gone way up. High numbers can be problematic for the kangaroos because there might not be enough food to eat for all of them. As in most animal communities, kangaroos do best when in balance with other species that they have naturally evolved to live with, but human presence often alters this balance. Humans aren't the only worry for kangaroos, though.

Credit :  Ask a Biologist

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The pudús are the world's smallest deer. The two species of pudús are the northern pudú from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and the southern pudú from southern Chile and south western Argentina. Pudús range in size from 13-17 inches tall, and upto 33 inches long.

Both species of Pudú – Northern and Southern – are native to South America where they inhabit the dense undergrowth of temperate rain forests. Little is known about their lifestyle because they are so secretive. Pudú are the smallest species of deer in the world, with the Northern Pudú being slightly larger than the Southern Pudú. Fawns typically weigh less than three pounds at birth.

A male Southern Pudú fawn born on December 19 at the Los Angeles Zoo has been named "Haechan" after a musician who, according to his fans, resembles the tiny deer species.  Little Haechan (the Pudú) is thriving under the care of first-time parents Steph and Mario. The tiny fawn prefers to stay close to Steph and can sometimes be difficult for zoo guests to locate. As he grows, Haechan will gain confidence and spend more time away from mom. Destruction of their rain forest habitat has resulted in both Pudú species being under threat of extinction. Breeding programs like those of the Los Angeles Zoo are critical to gaining understanding of these elusive and endangered creatures. The tiny fawn was born to first-time parents, Steph and Mario. The playful newborn may be difficult for visitors to spot in its habitat. According to keepers, he likes to spend a lot of time tucked away, close to mom. 

The Northern Pudú (Pudu mephistophiles) is found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The Southern Pudú (Pudu puda) is native to southern Chile and southwestern Argentina. As of 2009, the Southern Pudu remains classified as “Near Threatened”, while the Northern Pudu is currently classified as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List. As a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the Los Angeles Zoo participates in the Species Survival Plan (SSP) for the Southern Pudu, whose population is declining in the wild.

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Biologists in India recently recorded an Asian elephant in Nagarahole National Park and Tiger Reserve in Karnataka blowing out puffs of what appears to be smoke. The elephant appears to pick up and stuff chunks of charcoal into her mouth before exhaling a plume of 'smoke'. Charcoal is readily available after forest fires, lightning strikes or controlled burns. According to Dr.. Varun R Goswami, a scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India, the elephant may have been eating charcoal as a form of natural medicine, as charcoal is known for its ability to bind with toxins and also works as a laxative. Such animal self medication using natural materials is called 'zoopharmacognosy'. According to WCS, charcoal may benefit animals by providing medicinal values. It can also act as a laxative, thus doubling its utility for animals that consume it. The charcoal in the wild is usually formed after forest fires, lightning strikes or controlled burns. According to a press statement from the WCS, researchers aren’t sure exactly what the elephant is doing, but it’s probably not just fooling around. Charcoal is known for its ability to bind with toxins and works as a laxative. So eating the charcoal may serve as a sort of wildlife medicine for the elephant. Charcoal is readily available in most places after forest fires or lightning strikes.

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Baby elephants suck their trucks just like human babies suck their thumbs. And they do it for the same reason - comfort. Trunk sucking also helps young elephants master the use of their trunks for feeding.

Aside from the comfort it provides, trunk sucking helps an elephant calf learn how to use and control this lengthy appendage. With more than 50,000 individual muscles in the trunk, you can imagine how complicated it is to get it to do what you want it to do at any given time. Sucking on the trunk helps a young elephant learn how to control and manipulate the muscles in the trunk so that it can fine-tune its use.

Elephants also suck their trunks as a means of advanced "smelling." They can taste the pheromones of other elephants by touching their trunks to urine or feces and then popping the trunk in their mouths to get a closer whiff.

While trunk sucking is primarily a mannerism found in young elephants, older elephants—even mature bulls—have been seen sucking their trunks when they are nervous or upset.

Credit :  Tree Hugger

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The Bengal florican, Houbaropsis bengalensis, is a small species of the bustard. Thus, it is also called a Bengal bustard. The Bengal floricans are dimorphic. While males are black and white plumage with buff-brown upperside, the female is larger with a dark brown crown. Also, the legs and feet are yellow while the bill and irides are comparatively darker.  It has two disjunct populations: Houbaropsis bengalensis bengalensis, living in the Terai region of the Indian subcontinent, and Houbaropsis bengalensis blandini, seasonally flooding the Tonle Sap region in Cambodia.

There are less than 1,000 species of Bengal floricans documented around the world. The population of the birds is divided into different fragments – one in the Indian subcontinent and the other in Cambodia. The population is threatened and is tagged as a Critically Endangered species. There are various international conservation management authorities working for protecting and contributing to the threatened birds.

The Bengal florican's native habitat is grasslands. While the females and males species inhabit the breeding grounds, there is a movement speculated on and off the wintering grounds between the breeding and non-breeding season. The adult male birds migrate away from wet grasslands during the non-breeding season, though the migration is not long distance. The adult males and females move to warmer lowlands during the winter or when their native habitats are flooded. Their movement is also recorded by the satellite. Satellite telemetry and remote sensing help access the distribution, movements, and survival range of the Bengal florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis) to ensure its conservation and management around the world.

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The Tasmanian devil is the largest carnivorous marsupial, known for their high-pitched squeal and aggressive temperament. They have held this title for over 80 years. Specifically, these creatures weigh between 9 and 29 pounds. A Tasmanian Devil weighing 29 pounds is as heavy as three one-gallon cans of paint. These mammals range from 20 to 31 inches long. Picture two bowling pins lined up end to end and you have the length of a 31-inch Tasmanian Devil. This mammal’s tail is equal to half of its body length. These animals store fat in their tail to use for energy. So, if you see one of these animals with a thick tail, you know it’s healthy. Thanks to conservation efforts, they are being reintroduced to Australian mainland after a 3,000-year gap. Mother devils can give birth to 50 young ones at one go. However, very few survive.

A Tasmanian Devil is a small animal with short brown or black fur with a stripe of white hair across its chest. Some of these marsupials have patches of white hair near their dark tail. This marsupial’s front legs are longer than its back ones. They have dark eyes and small mouselike ears. These animals have excellent sight and hearing allowing them to track down prey at night.

They are known for their very strong jaws. In fact, this marsupial’s jaws have a bite force of 94 pounds. That strong bite force allows them to easily consume the meat, hair, bones, and organs of the dead animals they find. Some scientists refer to Tasmanian Devils as environmental vacuums because they clean up the carcasses they find in their habitat.

Credit : A-Z-Animals

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One of the coolest caracal facts is that they are known to have a vertical leap of over 10 feet!

The caracal is a medium sized wild cat found in arid regions of Africa, India and the Middle East. They average about 20 inches at the shoulder and range from 20 to 40 pounds, with males being quite a bit larger than females. The caracal is also known as the Persian lynx and the gazelle cat. The most distinctive caracal characteristics are the long tufts of black hair on the tips of the ears. The actual function of these tufts is not known, although some speculate they may keep insects or sunshine out of the eyes, or even be used to communicate with other caracals. Caracals are typically solid colored reddish tan with a lighter underbelly and white "eyeliner" that sets off their beautiful features. Black eyebrow markings complete the picture.

Just as there are solid black leopards and jaguars, caracals can also be found in solid black. Black caracals are very rare, and may occur side by side in the same litter as normally colored caracals. They are powerfully built, with long, sturdy legs that act like springs, allowing them to leap straight up and snatch Birds right out of the air. The hind legs are longer than the fronts, and the topline slopes slightly from the hips to the shoulders.. The tail is bobbed at about a 3/4 length, but is well-muscled and used as a rudder in the air. Along with birds, caracals eat an assortment of small animals, rodents, rabbits, reptiles and occasionally large insects. They have also been known to take down prey much larger than themselves, including small antelope and goats.

Credit : Animal Facts Encyclopedia

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Brookesia micra is the smallest of four new chameleon species found on the African island of Madagascar. With an average adult length of 2.9 cms from snout to tail, it is among the tiniest reptiles in the world. Scientists think the diminutive new chameleon species might represent extreme cases of island dwarfism, whereby organisms shrink in size due to limited resources on islands.

 Brookesia Micra’s scientific name is the same as its common name. Brookesia comes from Joshua Brookes, the British naturalist. Micra is a Latinized form of the Greek word  mikros, which means “tiny.” The pronunciation of Micra is MIKra and not MYkra, by the way.

The Brookesia Micra is also different from other chameleons in that the structures of it     inner ear resemble that of a turtle more than it does a chameleon. This is probably to help with the reptile’s stability and sense of balance. But like other chameleons, the Brookesia Micra feeds by projecting its tongue to catch its prey. As a small chameleon, it can project its tongue twice the length of its body and snap up prey in a fraction of a second.

Brookesia Micra is not poisonous to other animals nor is it venomous, and its tiny size makes it vulnerable to predators such as larger chameleons like the cat-sized Parson’s chameleon, frogs, birds such as the Malagasy coucal, and whatever small mammals share its island home.

Credit : A-Z-Animals

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The Pink Underwing Moth Caterpillar in the Australian rainforest has a natural defence to scare off predators a set of teeth like markings set between spots that look like eyes with large pupils giving it the appearance of a skull-like face on its head.

Nature never ceases to astonish.  This is the larva of the Pink Underwing Moth, an endangered species which lives in the subtropical rainforest below about 600m elevation in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. It has evolved a remarkable set of patterns to ward off potential predators. A giant set of eyes would, you might think, be enough to warn off a bird looking for an easy lunch. Yet this caterpillar goes one step further.  It appears to have a set of teeth which could rip any possible attacker to shreds. Why, then, is it so rare? You might think that with this sort of natural protection the species would be thriving everywhere. That might be true, if it were not for the fact that the caterpillar of the pink is something of a fussy eater. Prospective breeding habitats are restricted to places where the caterpillar's sole food plant, a rainforest vine, Carronia multisepalea, grows in Australia’s eastern subtropical rainforests. The plant is rare, so likewise is the pink underwing. In fact the larva has only been found in six places.

When they hatch the caterpillars are at first a dull brown color.  At this stage in their life cycle they rely on something called crypsis to avoid detection. It does this by having the appearance of a dried up leaf. Yet when it gets larger it relies as much on its markings as it does its ability to blend in. As the caterpillars grow they develop these two large eye spots bordered by thin yellow rings. Then there is that savage looking double row of white teeth on the dorsal side flanked by the eye spots. The most surprising thing, perhaps, is that these remarkable markings are at the larva’s bottom end, as it were.  The real head is curled up, as are its legs. What we see is the anterior body segments raised up: as the skin stretches the markings are revealed. Enough to frighten away anything, one hopes.

Yet the Australian government is not sitting back and doing nothing.  It plans to identify high priority sites and make sure that if these areas are on private land that they must be conserved.  They are also providing people with information about habitat and encouraging the regeneration of the primary rainforest in which the moth lives. Let’s hope that this amazing species gets the support it needs to survive.

Credit : Arkin space

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Cats have five toes on their front paws, but only four on their back paws According to scientists, the four toe back paws help the animals nun faster .

So, why is there such a weird difference in the number of your cat toes? The reason is that cats often make use of their front paws for several functions. In fact, their paws act as the hands of our humans. For instance, cats might use their front paws to grab objects such as their toys or groom themselves, especially their faces.

On the other hand, their back paws and toes work as a way to assist them when jumping, pouncing, or running around. Moreover, the pads of your cat’s feet may sweat a little, which helps to cool themselves during high-temperature days. In addition, their soft pads are super convenient and efficient in jumping around without making any noticeable noise. Not every cat has exactly 18 toes, some might have more than that. In that case, they are called “polydactyl cats”. Yet, you should not be holding too many concerns about your cat having more toes than normal.

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Dragonfly species (Anisoptera) are characterized by long bodies with two narrow pairs of intricately veined, membranous wings that, while generally transparent, may have coloured markings. Unlike damselflies, the front and rear wing pairs are shaped differently. In addition, dragonflies rest with their wings spread horizontally, rather than held vertically against each other (with the exception of one very small family, Epiophlebiidae). Dragonflies have a more powerful build and are generally much stronger fliers than damselflies. The globe skimmer (or wandering glider, Pantala flavescens), a migratory dragonfly, for example, makes an annual multigenerational journey of some 18,000 km (about 11,200 miles); to complete the migration, individual globe skimmers fly more than 6,000 km (3,730 miles)—one of the farthest known migrations of all insect species. Dragonflies also have huge bulging eyes that occupy most of the head, giving some a field of vision approaching 360 degrees.

The winged adults are diversely coloured in a variety of shades ranging from metallic to pastel. Compared with other insects, they are large, with some having wingspans of up to 16 cm (about 6 inches). Even the smallest species are about 20 mm (0.8 inch) across. As well as being extremely agile fliers, they are also among the fastest insects. Dragonfly wing muscles must be warm to function optimally, and so, if cool, the insect often engages in wing-whirring and basking in the sun to generate heat before taking flight. The dragonfly’s speed and agility contribute to its being one of the most effective aerial predators. Small flying insects are the usual fare, but some dragonflies regularly consume prey that is 60 percent of their own weight.

Credit : Britannica

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