Why are stonefish so poisonous?

Stonefish is perhaps one of the world's best camouflaged fish. But it is also the most venomous. Found in shallow waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific, stonefish stay in the muddy or rocky bottoms of marine environments, living among rocks or coral. It may look like a stone on the ocean floor and deceptively stays blended with the ocean floor while hunting. The skin covered by wart-like lumps helps it in camouflage. It has venomous spines and when stepped on accidentally or there is a contact, it can sting. The sting is painful and can be fatal. Did you know that the fish is a delicacy in certain parts of Asia after its venomous spines are removed.

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What is a venomous lizard native to parts of the US and Mexico?

Native to the USA and Mexico, the Gila monster is a small, venomous lizard that is known to spend more than 90% of its life below the ground. As such you may not encounter the Gila monsters in the wild but bites are known to occur at times. The venomous lizard is known to use its venom only for defensive purposes. A mild neurotoxin, the venom of the creature is produced in the lizards' salivary glands. The saliva is toxic and is found to contain the hormone exendin-4 which could be used to treat type 2 diabetes. Although its venom is deadly, it also has potential medicinal use. While the lizard is strictly nocturnal, above-ground sightings of it are also seen during the day.

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What are the characteristics of a slow loris?

SLOW LORIS

With its big eyes and cute face, slow Loris is perhaps one of the most adorable creatures in the wild. But it is also the world's only venomous primate. Native to the rainforests of South and Southeast Asia, the slow loris lives in trees. These lethal furballs are known for their bites that are loaded with venom. The animal's venom gets activated when its saliva mixes with an oil that is secreted by the gland on its upper arm. When threatened, the slow loris raises its arm. It then licks the gland and the saliva and oil mix produces the venom, which then goes to the animal's canines and is delivered to the victim through a bite. Its venom is said to cause anaphylactic shock and even death in humans...

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What are the advantages and disadvantages of wildfires?

Wildfires are a natural phenomenon that have both advantages and disadvantages. Globally, they have played a crucial part in our ecosystems they wipe out creatures unfit for survival and help in the growth of resilient ones, they allow for the clearing of dead plants and ensure new plants grow instead, help a species move into a new territory and establish a population there, and so on. On the other hand, they can help invasive species flourish, push threatened species to the brink of extinction, cause irreversible damage to ecosystems, etc. And, over the last few years, it appears that across the world, the perils of wildfires have far outweighed the benefits they offer.

The Australian wildfire of 2019-2020 was in the news for the unprecendented destruction it left in its wake. It killed or displaced nearly three billion animals, making it one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history. And now Canadian wildfires too are a cause for alarm. This wildfire season - the worst in Canada's recorded history-has destroyed millions of acres in the region, turning the focus on the nearly 700 species at risk. Some of these are even more at risk. How so? The habitats of a few species are already small. For instance, the half-moon hairstreak butterfly. Found in just a few small patches in Canada, these butterflies lost a part of their population and habitat to a lightning strike in 2017. Scientists are worried that such species could be lost completely if their habitats are destroyed in wildfires. Another species of concern is the burrowing owl that nests in prairie grasslands - affected by wildfires. Captive breeding programmes are being considered for both these species in peril. Further, the fire season has "overlapped with the breeding season for many species, presenting a clear danger to newborns". While adults and healthy individuals can move fast and find ways to escape, the same cannot be said of young ones. In addition, smoke from the wildfires travel far, with potential to harm many species, including migrating birds.

As mentioned earlier, wildfires have occurred naturally. But today, human-induced climate change and global warming have given way to changed rainfall cycles and drier conditions. This has pushed up the intensity and instances of wildfires. As a result, forests that once withstood wildfires are no longer able to do so, and this could eliminate or negatively alter ecosystems.

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What’s intraspecific competition?

 

Competition occurs everywhere, be it among peers or siblings. Even in the wild. Competition in the ecology is considered a negative interaction and happens when resources are limited. An ecological interaction in which competition occurs between members of the same species, as they compete for limited resources (for survival and reproduction), is called intraspecific competition.

This occurs when the niches overlap, that is, when the members use the same resources and the resources become limited. In the case of animals, the resources induce  food. water, territory and mates. For plants, the resources they compete for include light, water, root space and minerals.

Competition can be categorised into two-intraspecific and interspecific. The former occurs between individuals of different species. The latter, as explained, occurs between individuals of the same species. And as such, this competition is more intense as they are competing for the same niche! Here the animals are using the same resource which is in limited supply. And the better the competitor, the better are the chances of survival.

This form of competition can further be classified into scramble and contest. Scramble competition is when individuals depend on declining available resources even as the number of competitors increases. This is an indirect form of competition. The contest or interference competition is rather a direct form of competition and here the competitors defend the resources from others.

What happens to a species when there is intraspecific completion?

Intraspecific completion directly impacts the species and suppresses its growth. For instance, the young ones of certain species can take longer to mature in crowded conditions. When there is a high population density, the number of young ones the members of the species can produce decreases. Further, it is often seen that when there is a high population density, many juvenile animals will move away from the regions in which they were born.

This is because they could find territories with more resources and less competition. This dispersal phase can also be detrimental as there is no surety that they will find sufficient resources. They also risk predation as they traverse unfamiliar territories.

It also affects the population size. This is because when there is a high population density, growth is affected, fecundity (the biologic capacity to reproduce) is suppressed and survival is impacted. As such the population starts declining. Once the population has lowered, fecundity starts getting better and survival chances increase. The population then starts growing.

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Which animal is covered with scales?

In the animal kingdom, you will see that there are animals and insects with scales or shells. These help the animals protect themselves from predators. Animals both on land as well as in sea can have scales or shells. Let us take a look at some such animals.

GILA MONSTER

The Gila monster is a tough, heavily bodied lizard whose body is covered with beadlike scales called osteoderms. The scales cover all of its body except the belly. The lizard is known for its strong and venomous bite. When it bites its prey, the lizard doesn't loosen its grip for several seconds and this allows the venom to flow into its prey. These lizards live in desert and semi-desert areas and are large-bodied, with short, fat tails.

PANGOLIN

Solitary, nocturnal creatures, pangolins are known for their body covered in an armour of scales. These scales help in protection. When threatened, the pangolin will use its front legs to cover its head and expose its scales. It can roll itself into a ball when it is touched. Pangolins are called scaly anteaters because of their diet which includes ants, termites, and larvae. They have no teeth and use their tongues to gather food. They live on the ground while some can climb trees. As many as eight species are found, with a distribution of four species each in Asia and Africa.

SEA URCHINS

 Sea urchins are spiny marine invertebrate animals. These sea animals live in tidal areas and the deep ocean and are seen on the seafloor. They are noted for their round-shaped spiked shell called "test". They move across the ocean floor using their tube feet, which are small anatomical features seen on their undersides. The spines stretch out of the test and are used to move when they come across obstacles such as rocks. The largest urchin is the Sperostoma giganteum and is seen in Japan. As many as 950 species of sea urchins exist.

ARMADILLO

Armadillo is Spanish for "little armoured one". The name refers to the bony, armour-like plates that the animal has. The set of plates covering the animal's body is called the carapace. An animal found in the tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America, the armadillo lives in open areas such as grasslands while some live in forests. In all, over 20 species of armadillo exist. Did you know that two species of armadillo are able to roll up completely into a ball? The animal uses this technique to protect itself.

DIABOLICAL IRONCLAD BEETLES

With an extremely tough outer shell that justifies their name, the diabolical ironclad beetles are considered to withstand a lot of pressure and are almost unbreakable. The outer wing case of these beetles are called elytra. They inhabit the woodlands of western North America. They live under tree bark and cannot fly. Their elytra is fused together tightly and from a shield. When compression tests were carried out by scientists to test how much force the shield could withstand without cracking, it was found that force up to 149 newtons could be withstood by their shields.

LONGHORN COWFISH

The Longhorn cowfish is known for its uniquely shaped body. Its cubical body is encased in a protective hard shell called carapace and is made up of hard, bony plates. It is a solitary species and is found among seagrasses, reefs, harbours, estuaries, and so on. Its tiny fins and tail jut out from its shell. It received its name from the pair of horns that project from its eyes.

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Invasive species

Invasive species are those that get introduced to a new ecosystem, where they end up replacing or affecting the native fauna or flora. These are mostly introduced by humans. Let's read up on a few of the invasive species.

WILD PIGS

The wild pigs are native to Eurasia and parts of North Africa. Also called wild boar or feral hogs, the wild pigs arrived in the 1500s in the U.S. and are one of the most invasive species in North America. They were shipped in by Spanish colonisers as a mobile meat source. Over time, they populated the forests of the southeastern U.S., where their genes got mixed with escaped domestic pigs. They are such a threat as they can live anywhere, eat anything, and have a very high reproductive rate. They destroy crops, landscapes and spread diseases.

MOUNTAIN PINE BEETLE     

A small bark insect, the mountain pine beetle depends on a host tree to feed and lay its eggs. They may seem inconspicuous, with just about one-fourth of an inch in length but they are one of the worst invasive species. They have had a massive impact on the pine forests, boring holes in the tree's bark. They lay eggs in these holes under the bark and deposit a fungus that eventually kills the tree. In fact, in 1995, an outbreak of this pest in the western United States and Canada led to the destruction of millions of acres pine forest.

BURMESE PYTHON

The Burmese python is one of the most concerning invasive species in South Florida where they have established a breeding population. They have even replaced alligators as the apex predator in Florida and have led to the decline of many native species, with the population of small animals dropping at alarming rates. Populations of raccoons, opossums, bobcats, marsh rabbits, cottontail rabbits, and foxes have all been on an alarming decline. These pythons got introduced as a result of the exotic pet trade after they escaped from their owners or got intentionally released into the wild by their owners.

BROWN TREE SNAKE

The brown tree snake was introduced to the Pacific island of Guam in the 1950s. And ever since its introduction, it led to the decimation of the native bird and animal populations on the island. It is believed to have been introduced via cargo ships or aircraft. The snakes which easily spread across the island also cause power outages when they climb electrical wires! Among the 11 native bird species in Guam, nine species went extinct after the snake's introduction.

EUROPEAN STARLING

European starlings are an invasive species in the United States. Interestingly enough, its arrival was the result of a plan to introduce all the species referred to in the works of English playwright William Shakespeare. These birds are native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa but easily took to the landscape of the U.S. and spread quickly across the country, affecting the population of native bird species.

LANTANA CAMARA

One of the worst invasive species in the world, Lantana camara was introduced in India by the British in the 1800s. It came in as an ornamental plant but ended up taking over several ecosystems as an invasive plant. Its ability to spread on the forest floor, climb over trees as a creeper or entangle with other native plants aided it in establishing itself. It continues to spread in India even as methodologies are being adopted to weed it out.

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When humans retreat, do animals surge ahead?

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit us way back in 2020, several regions across the world went into lockdown. Around the same time, several stories of wildlife sightings at unusual places surfaced. A group of animal movement researchers tells us more about what could have caused this.

At some point in 2020, more than half the world's population was said to have been under lockdown. With hardly any human movement, many bustling places became quiet. That was when "cougars were seen prowling through the suburbs of Santiago, Chile, golden jackals became more active during the day in Tel Aviv, Israel, and dolphins appeared in the normally busy harbour of Trieste, Italy". This made animal movement researchers wonder if human movement impacted animal movement or if humans were simply noticing animal presence better during the pandemic. And so, they commenced the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative. Many of the researchers were already studying animals and recording their movements through GPS tags, etc. The devices continued their work during the lockdown too, helping them compare animal movement during and before the pandemic.

Their data showed movements for thousands of animals, "from 43 species including elephants, giraffes, bears, deer and cougars". The researchers could "look at how their behaviour and movement patterns changed during the lockdowns in 2020 compared to the same period one year earlier”. Both humans and the structures (including buildings and vehicles) they build can impact animal mobility, and the study showed this- "mammals were 36 per cent closer to roads during lockdown, and that their movement distances over ten days were 73 per cent longer during strict lockdowns compared to the same period one year earlier”. The researchers feel that less traffic could have helped mammals get closer to roads while absence of humans could have prompted them to explore new areas.

But not all species demonstrated this change, indicating difference in lockdown policies among countries and "differences between species in their ability to change behavior”. It is likely that "some species are more flexible in how they respond to changes in human activities".

The findings of the study point to how humans impact animal behaviour. "With this knowledge we can start to think of new ways to change our behaviour that will positively impact wildlife."

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What are the species in the wild that change their appearance to escape predators?

There are many species in the wild that change their appearance to escape predators. This is camouflage. But did you know that some species can even change their gender? Let's read up on them.

CLOWNFISH

Clownfishes live in social groups and consist of a dominant female (the largest in size) surrounded by a male and other immature juveniles. Their social hierarchy is based on size and determines the breeding. In a group, the fishes age and grow larger together, without any change in the hierarchy. But this changes when a dominant female dies. When this happens, others will try to use the opportunity to climb up in rank. The male will rapidly change sex to fill in the vacated position. And another fish will turn into a mature male and complete the breeding pair.

HAWKFISH

The hawkfish which is found on coral reefs from Australia to Japan lives in harems (one male with several females). These reef dwellers basically start life as females. Things change when there is a shift in the number of females in the harem. If a male takes on more females into the harem, then, one of the females changes its sex and becomes a male. It then breaks away from the harem and in the process takes half of the harem along with it. It has also been observed by researchers that when a new male gets challenged by another male, it reverses its sex back to a female. This bi-directional sex change is seen in certain reef fishes.

BLACK SEA BASS

Black sea bass is a commercially important species. These are capable of switching their gender from female to male. They are born as females in the wild. They turn into males when they are two to five years old. Research on sea bass reveals that sex change occurs when there is a dip in the male population. If the female sea bass senses a decrease in the male population, they switch their sex.

BANANA SLUG

Banana slugs are wormlike mollusks and they grow up to 10 inches. These animals are hermaphrodites, that is they have both male and female organs. So they don't change their sex back and forth but are unique as they can use both their male and female reproductive organs at the same time. This they do to self-fertilise when necessary. Even when they are capable of self-fertilisation, the majority of banana slugs will take a partner.

GREEN FROG

Researchers have found that frogs spontaneously change sex in the lab and the same has been seen in the wild. In fact, among the green frog population, this sex change is quite common. Earlier research established that sex reversal in frogs may be related to pollution introduced by humans. When exposed to some pollutants (synthetic estrogens and herbicides) in the lab, it has led to genetically male frogs developing outwardly as females. Further studies have proved that this change could be a natural occurrence in amphibians, even in pollution-free settings.

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How many species of swans are there?

How many species of swans are there? On which continents can they be found? When does a swan sing? Read on to find out fascinating details about these graceful birds

Six species

Swans are the among the largest aquatic birds known for their striking beauty, elegance and graceful movements. There are six swan species and they are native to five continents (except Africa and Antarctica). Asia has no native species, but migrants can be seen in its eastern and northern parts. Except for the black swan and the black-necked swan, all swans the mute swan, the tundra swan and its Eurasian sub-species the Bewick's swan, and the trumpeter and whooper swans are white.

The mute swan is from Eurasia. It is a large, beautiful bird with snow-white plumage, an orange beak with a black knob at the base, and a graceful, curving neck. It holds its wings slightly raised above its back while swimming. It is the mute swan that figures in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, ‘The Ugly Duckling’.

In legend, the mute swan is said to burst into song only when dying. The expression 'swan song', the last work of a great person, derives from this. In reality, it makes a variety of sounds ranging from hissing and growling to bugling, snorting and whistling! The sounds are not as loud as that of other swan species, hence the name. It is a huge eater, gobbling up more than 3 kg of aquatic vegetation a day.

Largest waterfowl

The trumpeter swan of North America is the largest waterfowl in the world. It looks similar to the mute, but has a completely black beak. It is 1.8m long and weighs over 13 kg. Its weight, size and wingspan of 3m mean that it requires a long stretch of open water for the take-off, which sounds like a horse galloping!

Trumpeter swans were widely hunted and by the late 1800s, they were on the brink of extinction. Women used the skin as powder puffs and hats were adorned with the feathers. The long flight feathers were coveted for writing quills. It was only an intensive conservation campaign and a ban on hunting in the 2000s that saved the bird.

Their deep honking calls give them their name. Trumpeters are unusual in that they incubate their eggs by covering them with their webbed feet.

Fact file

*Swans usually mate for life. They engage in a graceful courtship, bobbing their heads and bowing to each other with much ruffling of feathers and lifting of wings.

*All swans are aggressive in defending their nests and the larger species may attack people venturing too close.

*A male swan is a cob, a female swan is a pen and a baby is called a cygnet.

*The existence of black swans was once considered impossible till they were discovered in Australia. The black-necked swan lives in South America.

*The wind rushes through the wings of American tundra swans in flight giving them the moniker 'whistling swans’.

*Male black swans spend more time incubating the eggs than females.

*The whooper swan of northern Europe, named for its loud call, is the national bird of Finland.

* 'Swan upping' is an annual ceremony in England in which mute swans on the River Thames are rounded up, caught, ringed and then released.

Human swan

In December 2016, Sacha Dench, a 41-year-old British conservationist, became the first woman to cross the English Channel in a motorised paraglider. She was following migrating Bewick's swans from Russia to Britain.

Dench made the 10-week, 7200-km journey to study the reasons for their steadily declining numbers. She discovered that the migrating swans were shot down and that many of the wetlands where they usually rest and feed en route had disappeared.

Picture Credit : Google 

How many species of swans are there?

How many species of swans are there? On which continents can they be found? When does a swan sing? Read on to find out fascinating details about these graceful birds

Six species

Swans are the among the largest aquatic birds known for their striking beauty, elegance and graceful movements. There are six swan species and they are native to five continents (except Africa and Antarctica). Asia has no native species, but migrants can be seen in its eastern and northern parts. Except for the black swan and the black-necked swan, all swans the mute swan, the tundra swan and its Eurasian sub-species the Bewick's swan, and the trumpeter and whooper swans are white.

The mute swan is from Eurasia. It is a large, beautiful bird with snow-white plumage, an orange beak with a black knob at the base, and a graceful, curving neck. It holds its wings slightly raised above its back while swimming. It is the mute swan that figures in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, ‘The Ugly Duckling’.

In legend, the mute swan is said to burst into song only when dying. The expression 'swan song', the last work of a great person, derives from this. In reality, it makes a variety of sounds ranging from hissing and growling to bugling, snorting and whistling! The sounds are not as loud as that of other swan species, hence the name. It is a huge eater, gobbling up more than 3 kg of aquatic vegetation a day.

Largest waterfowl

The trumpeter swan of North America is the largest waterfowl in the world. It looks similar to the mute, but has a completely black beak. It is 1.8m long and weighs over 13 kg. Its weight, size and wingspan of 3m mean that it requires a long stretch of open water for the take-off, which sounds like a horse galloping!

Trumpeter swans were widely hunted and by the late 1800s, they were on the brink of extinction. Women used the skin as powder puffs and hats were adorned with the feathers. The long flight feathers were coveted for writing quills. It was only an intensive conservation campaign and a ban on hunting in the 2000s that saved the bird.

Their deep honking calls give them their name. Trumpeters are unusual in that they incubate their eggs by covering them with their webbed feet.

Fact file

*Swans usually mate for life. They engage in a graceful courtship, bobbing their heads and bowing to each other with much ruffling of feathers and lifting of wings.

*All swans are aggressive in defending their nests and the larger species may attack people venturing too close.

*A male swan is a cob, a female swan is a pen and a baby is called a cygnet.

*The existence of black swans was once considered impossible till they were discovered in Australia. The black-necked swan lives in South America.

*The wind rushes through the wings of American tundra swans in flight giving them the moniker 'whistling swans’.

*Male black swans spend more time incubating the eggs than females.

*The whooper swan of northern Europe, named for its loud call, is the national bird of Finland.

* 'Swan upping' is an annual ceremony in England in which mute swans on the River Thames are rounded up, caught, ringed and then released.

Human swan

In December 2016, Sacha Dench, a 41-year-old British conservationist, became the first woman to cross the English Channel in a motorised paraglider. She was following migrating Bewick's swans from Russia to Britain.

Dench made the 10-week, 7200-km journey to study the reasons for their steadily declining numbers. She discovered that the migrating swans were shot down and that many of the wetlands where they usually rest and feed en route had disappeared.

Picture Credit : Google 

Glass frogs have a secret!

Glass frogs live on trees, are active at night, and many of them are difficult to spot because of their green skin that merges well with their environment. "But these amphibians become true masters of camouflage during the day when they're asleep." How? Come, let's find out.

When glass frogs rest or sleep, their muscles and skin turn transparent. So, whats visible are their eyes, bones, and internal organs. It is hard to spot them because they sleep on the bottoms of huge leaves and also blend well with the environment due to their transparency. But, how do they turn transparent, and what about the visibility of blood? Red blood cells absorb green light (the colour of light usually reflected by plants and other vegetation), and reflect red light. This makes blood highly visible, especially against a bright green leaf. In the case of glass frogs, though, something extraordinary happens.

A research team recently "observed that red blood cells seemed to be disappearing from the circulating blood" when the frogs rest. They conducted additional imaging tests on the animals, proving via optical models that the animals were able to achieve transparency because they were pushing red blood cells out of their vessels. It was suspected that the cells were being stored in one of the frog's inner organs. which are packaged in a reflective membrane.

To find out where exactly the blood was going, scientists used a non-invasive imaging technology called photoacoustic microscopy (PAM). And the result was startling. The primary result is that whenever glass frogs want to be transparent, which is typically when they're at rest and vulnerable to predation. they filter nearly all the red blood cells out of their blood and hide them in a mirror-coated liver - somehow avoiding creating a huge blood clot in the process." When the frogs "are awake, stressed or under anaesthesia their circulatory system is full of red blood cells and they are opaque". This unique capacity would explain why there are hardly any other land-based vertebrates that can achieve such transparency.

Also, in "most animals, pooling blood together leads to clotting which can be life-threatening, for example = leading to heart attacks in humans". So, studying these amphibians can even help us understand blood clotting better.

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Unique defence mechanisms in animals

Our planet is indeed a wonderland with zillions of creatures inhabiting it, each having its own unique way of adapting to its habitat. Among these, there are some creatures that have developed some bizarre defence mechanisms. Let's read up on some of these animal species.

IBERIAN RIBBED NEWT

Imagine ribs that you can use as poisonous spikes. The iberian ribbed newt is capable of pushing its ribs outside its skin when attacked. These form spikes which the newt uses to defend itself. The animal does this by moving its ribs away from the spine and increasing their angle by 50 degrees. The tips of the ribs then stick outside the animal's body, like a set of spines. At the same time, the newt is capable of producing a poisonous milky substance on its body surface. This coupled with its protruding ribs acts as its stinging tool.

GOLDEN POISON FROG

The golden poison frog is one of the most toxic animals on Earth. It is known for its vibrant colours and the potent poison produced by its skin. While its bright colour is itself a warning sign to predators, the frog takes its defence one notch higher by producing toxins such as steroidal alkaloids batrachotoxin, homobatrachotoxin, and batrachotoxin A. These compounds can cause arrhythmias, fibrillation, and cardiac failure in humans.

TEXAS HORNED LIZARD

Here is a lizard that shoots blood from its eyes. When under threat, the Texas horned lizard sprays out pressurised blood from the corners of its eyes at its attacker. In biology, this is called autohaemorrhaging or reflex bleeding. The animal resorts to this when all its other defences such as camouflage fail. This is carried out by the lizard by rupturing its own sinus membranes.

MOTYXIA MILLIPEDE

While the most common defence mechanism is to display vibrant colours to ward off predators, there are some animals that use their bioluminescence as a warning. A genus of millipedes that is endemic to California called the Motyxia uses its bioluminescence to warn off predators. But the most unusual ability this creature possesses is that it can produce and ooze cyanide from the pores on its body. The cyanide is toxic for the predators of this species such as rodents, centipedes, and beetles.

MALAYSIAN ANT

Imagine a defence strategy that kills your predator but you end up getting the raw deal as well. These are the ants that will destroy themselves to defend their colony when under attack. These exploding ants are called the Malaysian ants. Whenever their nest is invaded, they will "blow" up (rupture) their abdomens. The ants have poison glands that get burst when they flex their body, releasing the poisonous substance onto their predator. This can either kill the enemy or incapacitate it.

HAIRY FROG

Meet the "Wolverine" in the wild. When threatened, this frog can crack its own finger bones and pierce them through its skin. These are then used as claws. On one end of the bone, there is a muscle that the frog can use to contract and thereby break a fragment of bone and push it outwards.

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Our connection to other mammals

What makes us humans different from our ape cousins? Well, our brain power. And, that came about through tweaks in the genes, according to an ambitious project, whose results were published recently. Come, let's find out more about this, and also how we are similar to and different from other mammals.

The Zoonomia Project compared the genomes (the genetic material that makes up a living organism) of 240 mammal species, including humans, to trace evolutionary changes over 100 million years. It studied a wide variety of mammals-from the huge North Pacific right whale (59 feet long) to the tiny bumblebee bat, just 3 cm long. It also included our closest evolutionary relatives - chimpanzees and bonobos. Do you know what startling result the study threw up? "The researchers identified genomic elements- 4,552 in all - that were pretty much the same across all mammals and were identical in at least 235 of the 240 species, including people." It means that certain parts of genomes have remained unchanged across all mammal species, humans included, over millions of years of evolution.

As for how humans are different from other mammals, the study points to areas "associated with developmental and neurological genes". It suggests that when Homo sapiens evolved, it involved changes in how the nervous system genes were "regulated". And these were just tweaks rather than any dramatic and major changes to the genes themselves. This explains why we still share a large part of our genetic makeup with our ape cousins.

And, genes are also responsible for traits unique to some mammals. For instance, hibernation and the sense of smell. While some mammals have a keen sense of smell, others have almost none. Humans are "somewhat average". The study also saw changes in genetic sequences in some species "in relatively short periods of time", indicating how they are adapting to their environments.

While the findings are fascinating by themselves. scientists believe they "could inform human therapeutics, critical care and long-distance space flight", and "also can help identify genetic mutations that lead to disease".

In a study, researchers identified genomic elements - 4,552 in all-that were pretty much the same across all mammals and were identical in at least 235 of the 240 species, including people. It means that certain parts of genomes have remained unchanged across all mammal species, humans included, over millions of years of evolution.

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The curious case of the cheetah

When the Indian government brought the big cat to India last September, there was palpable excitement. However, in a matter of months, at least three adults - and a few cubs born in India - have died, turning the focus once again on the viability of such an ambitious project. In five points, here's a quick look at all that's been happening

  1. Cheetah goes extinct

India has been a proud host to several big cat species, including the Asiatic lion, the Bengal tiger, and the snow leopard. More than seven decades earlier, it was also home to the Asiatic cheetah, found in the wild today only in Iran. Plagued by hunting habitat loss, and reduction in prey base, their numbers plunged dramatically over the years; the last of this carnivore died way back in 1947. Five years later it was declared officially extinct in our country - "the only large mammal to become extinct since independence".

  1. Bringing the big cat home

For decades, India had considered bringing the Asiatic cheetah from Iran. However, since Iran itself was host to only a small number of this animal, India could not move ahead with that plan. (Today, the number of Asiatic cheetahs in Iran stands at a paltry 12: the country recently lost a 10-month-old cub born in captivity.) Meanwhile, the idea of 'African Cheetah Introduction Project in India' shaped up in 2009, but it failed to take off for over a decade. When it appeared as if it could come to fruition after 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic set in, delaying it further. The wait finally ended in 2022, when the world's fastest land animal came to our country.

  1. The reintroduction begins

With great fanfare, as many as eight cheetahs arrived from Namibia last September. A few months later, 12 more arrived from South Africa. (It is said that the plan is to bring a total of 50 in the next five to 10 years.) They reached an enclosure at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Since they arrived from a different country (and even a continent), they need time for acclimatisation (getting used to their new surroundings). So, gradually over a period of time they are to be released into the wild from their enclosures. But, it seems, not all 20 will survive the relocation.

  1. Births and deaths

In March, a female cheetah brought in from Namibia died, possibly due to kidney ailment. That would be the first of a few more deaths to follow. In April, a male, belonging to the batch from South Africa, died, due to cardiac failure. In May, a female cheetah from South Africa died, believed to be from injuries during mating. Meanwhile, just a couple of days after the death of the first cheetah, a female from Namibia gave birth to four cubs. But that joy was to be short-lived - in May, at least three of them died due to reasons such as weakness and dehydration.

  1. Hope and reality

The government and the supporters of the project have hoped the reintroduction is a chance to restore the biodiversity link that was broken due to the animal's extinction. Viewing it as a step towards wildlife education and conservation awareness, they also believe that the species can revive the grasslands it once roamed. However, many conservationists and critics have all along said that the project is unviable due to several reasons. One of them is that Kuno has neither enough space nor prey for the big cat. In fact, following the deaths of the cheetahs, the Supreme Court itself has come down heavily on the government, urging it to home some of these carnivores in other States, including Rajasthan. While stating that such deaths are not unusual, the government has said it would explore other places for the animal's release into the wild.

Picture Credit : Google