My Science School

Elephants use their trunks much like people use their hands, and the ends of their trunks are more sensitive than human fingertips. Trunks have as many as 100,000 different muscles and play a central role in the animals' communication with each other. Elephants stroke or caress each others' heads and backs with their trunks to console or comfort loved ones. Calves place the tips of their trunks in their mothers' mouths for reassurance -- a gesture repeated by lower-ranking elephants in interactions with the herd's matriarch. When engaging in courtship behavior, elephant couples engage in friendly trunk wrestling and entwine their trunks together.

Elephants rely on touch and visual cues frequently to express emotions. Whether grazing or gathering around a water hole, family members are in near-constant contact, flapping ears and rubbing bodies together to show care and compassion for one another. When a herd member dies, elephants press together and console each other, grieving for the loss and touching the dead with their trunks and feet. They also have a number of playful, friendly gestures such as flapping ears or flicking tails that express their feelings of camaraderie with their family members.

The bond between mothers and their calves is closer than any other in the herd. Mothers consistently touch their calves, whether taking their tails to guide them or running their trunks lovingly over their heads. Mothers and other herd members are quick to assist a baby or juvenile who's fallen down or gotten stuck. These protective behaviors and empathetic impulses extend beyond the mother-calf relationship to include other members of the herd as well. For example, if a herd member is injured, the rest of the herd may travel more slowly in solidarity so the injured animal isn't left behind.

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If the food is nearby, the bee performs a round dance by traveling in loops in alternating directions. The round dance doesn't convey much information about exactly where the food is. However, it's generally close enough that the worker bees can smell it fairly quickly.

When the food is far away, the scout performs a waggle dance. During the waggle dance, the scout runs in a straight line while waggling her abdomen, and then returns to the starting point by running in a curve to the left or right of the line. The straight line indicates the direction of the food in relation to the sun. If the bee runs straight up the hive wall, then the foragers can find the food by flying toward the sun. If she runs straight down the wall, then the foragers can find the food by flying away from the sun. As the dance progresses, the dancing bee adjusts the angle of the waggle run to match the movement of the sun.

The speed of the returning loops lets the other bees know about the quality of the food source, but the bees learn where to go by following the waggle run. By vibrating her wings and waggling her abdomen, the dancing bee moves a lot of air. The bees around her can feel this air movement. The ones directly behind her, where the air movement is greatest, get a clear idea of where to fly and how far to travel. Once they reach the described position, they begin flying in a search pattern until they find the food source. After that, they make up to a dozen trips back and forth between the hive and the food, remembering the food's position each time. During each trip, each bee can carry half her weight in pollen or nectar. If necessary, they perform a tremble dance, in which they run in many directions while trembling, to encourage the other bees to begin unloading nectar.

Credit : How Stuff Works

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Flamingos are an iconic breed of bird, recognised by most people the world over, but actually seen in the flesh by far fewer, due to the locations of their habitats. There are in fact six species of flamingo, all of which are extremely gregarious and social birds, often gathering closely together in vast numbers. There are a number of self explanatory collective nouns frequently used to identify groups of flamingos.

Probably the most common and descriptive collective nouns for a group of flamingos are a ‘flamboyance’, ‘colony’ or ‘stand’, with flamboyance tending to be the most popular. Originating from the adjective flamboyant, an old French word originally meaning flame, it is frequently used in English to mean, stylish, colourful, bright, dazzling and flashy; words that epitomise our view of the magnificent flamingo. Interestingly the word flamingo comes from the Latin word ‘flamma’ which also means flame or fire.

The collective noun ‘colony of flamingos’ is often used to describe a group of flamingos as the chosen habitats of these birds are frequently rejected by other species and animals as being hostile environments due to extremely high concentrations of salt. The flamingos therefore move in to the region and colonise the area for themselves thus, by definition, forming a colony.

A ‘stand of flamingos’ almost certainly originated from observing their habit of standing motionless and resting for long periods, often on one leg, an extraordinary sight when viewed in large groups.

Credit : Bird Fact

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A “kat” is not a “cat” when it’s a meerkat, a vital, clever, and amazing weasel-like animal that is a member of the mongoose family. Most people know meerkats from the character Timon in The Lion King animated movie. However, instead of spending all their time with a warthog, most meerkats live in underground burrows in large groups of up to 40 individuals called a gang or a mob. For meerkats, there isn’t just safety in numbers—there’s also companionship. The mob is made up of several family groups, with one dominant pair that produces most of the offspring, but they don’t have to be related to belong to the same group. Meerkat mobs spend a lot of their time grooming and playing together to keep the family as a tight unit. This community existence helps the meerkats survive.

Meerkats have scent pouches below their tails and rub these pouches on rocks and plants to mark their territory. The territories of different groups often overlap, resulting in constant disputes. When the two groups meet for a face-off, the results can be tragic. Meerkats are vicious fighters that often kill each other in these skirmishes. Knowing the high cost of an all-out war, they try to avoid serious conflict if possible. Usually, a lot of aggressive posturing and bluffing precedes any physical contact. These wars can look a bit like the human battles of yesteryear: both sides line up across a field and, at the right moment, charge forward with leaps and bounds, holding their tail rigid and straight up in the air. Every third or fourth leap, they arch their back and thrust their rear legs backward like a bucking bronco. Whichever side has the most threatening display in their charge may “psych out” the opponents. Yet meerkats groups have been known to accept outside individuals into their mob, and they sometimes share their burrows with yellow mongooses.

Credit : San Diego Zoo

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While a herd broadly describes a large group of animals that lives together, it refers more specifically to animals with hooves. These animals include zebra, springbok, Cape buffalo, impala, and many more.

Rhinos are in fact odd-toed hoofed mammals with three toes on each foot. This refers to animals with one or three toes on each foot. Similarly, there are even-toed hoofed mammals who have two or four toes on each foot.

The hooves on a mammal’s feet allow it to run faster. Also, most hoofed animals are plant-eaters found in open habitats such as grasslands.

Along with crash, another unique collective noun for a rhino is a stubbornness. While the term crash certainly is the most fitting, the adjective stubborn is not far off the mark either.

Rhinos are often described as being stubborn creatures as they are not always willing to cooperate. The same goes for elephants, but the rhinoceros still takes the cake.

Often they do not agree that elephants are the top mammal in the pecking order at the waterhole. As such, rhinos and elephants often get into fights as one will not make room for the other.

Rhinos are not the most social creatures. They aren’t too fond of hanging out with other animals, however, they have a few bird friends like the yellow-billed oxpecker. Also known as “tick birds”, oxpeckers eat away all the ticks that bother the rhino and are often seen riding on the large animal’s back.

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They congregate in large numbers, with groups of walrus called “herds”. Herds are usually segregated by gender, with females and males, each having their own herd. The walrus' other characteristic features are equally useful. As their favorite meals, particularly shellfish, are found near the dark ocean floor, walruses use their extremely sensitive whiskers, called mustacial vibrissae, as detection devices. Their blubbery bodies allow them to live comfortably in the Arctic region—walruses are capable of slowing their heartbeats in order to withstand the polar temperatures of the surrounding waters.

The two subspecies of walrus are divided geographically. Atlantic walruses inhabit coastal areas from northeastern Canada to Greenland, while Pacific walruses inhabit the northern seas off Russia and Alaska, migrating seasonally from their southern range in the Bering Sea—where they are found on the pack ice in winter—to the Chukchi Sea. Female Pacific walruses give birth to calves during the spring migration north. Only Native Americans are currently allowed to hunt walruses, as the species' survival was threatened by past overhunting. Their tusks, oil, skin, and meat were so sought after in the 18th and 19th centuries that the walrus was hunted to extinction in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Credit : National Geographic

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A group of crows is called a “murder.” There are several different explanations for the origin of this term, mostly based on old folk tales and superstitions.

For instance, there is a folktale that crows will gather and decide the capital fate of another crow.

Many view the appearance of crows as an omen of death because ravens and crows are scavengers and are generally associated with dead bodies, battlefields, and cemeteries, and they’re thought to circle in large numbers above sites where animals or people are expected to soon die.

But the term “murder of crows” mostly reflects a time when groupings of many animals had colorful and poetic names. Other fun examples of “group” names include: an ostentation of peacocks, a parliament of owls, a knot frogs, and a skulk of foxes.

Crows are very social and have a tight-knit family. They roost in huge numbers (in the thousands) to protect themselves from enemies like red-tailed hawks, horned-owls, and raccoons. Crows also use at least 250 different calls. The distress call brings other crows to their aid, as crows will defend unrelated crows. Crows mate for life.

Credit : Nature 

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Leopard geckos are nocturnal, terrestrial geckos, native to Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and western India. Capable but small, these 8-inch-long predators will stalk, capture and consume virtually any creature they can overpower. While insect and other invertebrates form the bulk of their diet, they will readily prey on nestling rodents or lizards -- including hatchling leopard geckos.

Unlike some other geckos that thrive on prepared diets, pet leopard geckos require live insects. Leopard geckos will not eat fruits or vegetables of any kind. In captivity, leopard geckos thrive on a varied diet of commercially available insects: crickets, mealworms, superworms and roaches are excellent dietary staples. Whatever feeder insects you choose, feed them a high-quality diet of fruits, vegetables and grains for at least 24 hours before offering them to your lizard. Refrain from offering your leopard gecko pinky mice, which may cause nutritional problems, or lizards that may transmit parasites or disease to your pet.

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Like other reptiles, the leopard gecko’s life cycle starts in an egg. Geckos may be born in captivity, often providing companionship for reptile lovers for up to 20 years when properly housed and cared for.

Adult leopard geckos breed as early as 1 year old for males and 2 years old for females. The female should be older since the eggs may be large and harm her growth cycle. Late winter and early spring are the most common seasons for gecko mating. The male bites the back of the female’s neck and holds her still while breeding.

The female gecko has pairs of eggs that develop on the inside of the female until she is ready to lay them. At this point, she digs a hole and buries the eggs. While maturing outside of her body, the eggs continue to grow. Therefore, the outer shells of gecko eggs are soft. Most breeders remove the gecko eggs and incubate them between 78 and 92 degrees. The temperature helps determine the sex of the gecko. The higher the temperature during incubation, the more likely a male is produced, while lower temperatures produce females, according to the Leopard Gecko Guide. Between 6 and 12 weeks after the female lays the eggs, they become wrinkled and get smaller. Next, baby leopard geckos hatch by using their egg tooth to create a slit in the egg and push their way out. When they first emerge, the geckos are between 3 and 4 inches long. Within the first few days of hatching, the baby sheds and eats his skin, which provides him with nourishment.

During the first few weeks of life the baby leopard gecko does not require much maintenance. A small place to live, a paper towel, water and food meets all of his needs. Geckos prefer live food, so small crickets and mealworms provide nourishment for baby geckos. Avoiding stress is important for the proper growth and development of the baby gecko. Therefore, if she shows signs of aggression, such as an arched back or screeching, try to remove the stress and keep the baby happy.

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Leopard geckos can make a variety of sounds, but the most common include chirps, squeaks, barks, and screams. Every leopard gecko will sound slightly different, though the sounds will generally be the same for each pet.

That being said, leopard geckos aren’t particularly vocal. If your leopard gecko is making no sound at all, it is likely relaxed and at peace. Leopard geckos aren’t like parrots or other animals that have to be vocal to feel happy. That’s just something to keep in mind.

Chirping and squeaking are the most common sounds to look for in your leopard gecko. If you notice your leopard gecko making a bit of a chirping sound, you’re in luck. These sounds are typically connected with happiness, enjoyment, and overall pleasure.

Some geckos make this sound as they roam around their tank, whereas others get a bit more vocal during feeding time. Either way, chirping and squeaking is a great sign since it tells you that your leopard gecko is happy and at ease.

Clicking is another common sound in leopard geckos, but it isn’t quite as positive. Leopard geckos often click whenever they feel uncomfortable, annoyed, or stressed. You will often hear younger geckos clicking more than older ones simply because they have not yet grown accustomed to humans.

Most likely, your leopard gecko will click whenever you are handling them, after they have eaten, or before they shed. Remember, this is a stressed noise. Once you hear this noise, stop whatever you are doing to let the gecko relax.

Barking isn’t quite as common as clicking, but it is a sign that your gecko is stressed as well. In many ways, barking will sound like clicking, but it has a slightly hoarser sound. Barking is less common than clicking because it is a more serious response. Geckos often bark when they feel they are in direct danger, not just when they are uncomfortable or annoyed. The least common sound you can hear from your leopard gecko is screaming. Screaming is a key sign that your leopard gecko is scared and feels that it is in danger. Adult geckos rarely scream, though juvenile leopard geckos scream a lot.

If you get a juvenile leopard gecko, expect to hear it screaming quite a bit at first. Be extremely patient and as gentle as possible during this stage. As the leopard gecko grows, it will become accustomed to you and most likely grow out of the screaming phase.

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You might be surprised by a tail drop if you try to grab your gecko by the tail or hold it too tightly when it's trying to escape. The detached tail will wiggle and twitch on the ground as though it were still connected to the gecko's body. While this can be shocking, it's important not to panic.

Losing a particular body part is a defense mechanism called autotomy that many animals use. Gecko tails are specifically designed to drop: Inside the tail is special connective tissue that creates a location where it can readily break off when needed. When this happens, the blood vessels to the tail constrict and very little blood loss occurs. This is helpful to remember if you're trying to determine whether your gecko dropped its tail or lost it due to trauma; very little blood is lost when the tail is dropped.

Eventually, a gecko regrows its tail but it may not look exactly the same. The new tail is often shorter, colored differently, and blunter at the end than the original tail.

In the wild, a gecko's tail loss serves a very good purpose. The tail's movement distracts potential predators and allows the gecko to get away, leaving the predator with nothing but the wiggling tail.

In comparison, geckos are relatively safe in captivity. It's possible, however, for geckos in a group to bully one individual, which could trigger the defense mechanism. If you have more than one gecko in an enclosure, it's a good idea to separate the potential victim from the others before it loses its tail.

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Most, but not all, lizards have the ability to "drop" their tails. According to Margaret Wissman, DVM, avian and exotic veterinary consultant, reptiles such as green iguanas and bearded dragons will drop and regrow their tails, while others, such as crested geckos, can lose their tails but will not regrow them.

This defense mechanism, termed “caudal autonomy,” happens when a lizard is grabbed by the tail or feels threatened, says Lisa Abbo, DVM, MS, at Woods Hole Science Aquarium and the Capron Park Zoo in Massachusetts. When this occurs, the tail separates from the body along a natural fracture line and continues to move independently from the body, likely to distract the predator and to allow the lizard to escape. This defense is often a last resort, after the lizard has used other less-costly attempts at escape.

“A lizard’s tail won’t drop if, say, your dog is barking at it,” said Wissman. However, it might drop if a person accidentally steps on it, grabs it, or a heavy object falls on it, she added.

Tail regrowth is a fascinating research topic among scientists, said Abbo. Tail regrowth can take weeks to months and depends upon environment, diet and a host of other factors. The new tail may be shorter and different in color or texture from the original tail, and research has shown that regenerated tails are often made up of long tubes of cartilage (rather than vertebrae) and contain longer muscles that span the length of the new tail. At first, the new tail may look like a stub on your lizard until it is able to grow back to a decent length, said Wissman. Also, the regrown tail may be a more muted brown color than the original, brighter colored tail.

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 They will do this almost every time they shed.

They eat their shed skin for a number of reasons. The main reason is that when geckos shed, they are losing lots of nutrients and minerals, through the lost skin and the fluid they had to produce to shed it. They eat the skin to gain some of these nutrients back. This will help them to generate a new, tough protective layer in the future.

Another reason is that eating their shed skin is actually a survival instinct in the wild. Leaving the shed skin may attract predators. Since it would usually be kept near the gecko’s den, it can lead the predators to the geckos themselves. Geckos eat their shed skin to avoid detection, even though they have no predators to worry about in your home.

Your gecko may also exhibit shedding problems if he becomes ill or stressed. Always be sure that your gecko has adequate hiding spaces and visual barriers to keep him feeling secure, and visit your veterinarian periodically to ensure he is in good health. External parasites – especially mites – can lead to poor sheds as well as other health problems, so monitor your pet for their presence.

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Geckos are also able to shed their tails if a predator grabs them.

Most geckos are nocturnal, which means they are active at night, but day geckos are active during the day and nibble on insects, fruits, and flower nectar. Most geckos make noises such as chirping, barking, and clicking when they are defending their territory or attracting a mate.

Nocturnal species have excellent night vision; their color vision in low light is 350 times more sensitive than human color vision. The nocturnal geckos evolved from diurnal species, which had lost the eye rods. The gecko eye, therefore, modified its cones that increased in size into different types, both single and double. Three different photopigments have been retained and are sensitive to UV, blue, and green. They also use a multifocal optical system that allows them to generate a sharp image for at least two different depths. While most gecko species are nocturnal, some species are diurnal and active during the day, which has evolved multiple times independently.

Like most lizards, geckos can lose their tails in defense, a process called autotomy. Many species are well known for their specialised toe pads that enable them to climb smooth and vertical surfaces, and even cross indoor ceilings with ease. Geckos are well known to people who live in warm regions of the world, where several species make their home inside human habitations. These (for example the house gecko) become part of the indoor menagerie and are often welcomed, as they feed on insects, including moths and mosquitoes. Unlike most lizards, geckos are usually nocturnal.

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Geckos are famous for their ability to scale vertical walls and even hang upside down, and now scientists understand more about how the expert climbers can pull off these gravity-defying feats: Geckos can quickly turn the stickiness of their feet on and off, a new study finds.

Gecko toes are well-studied and their sticky properties have inspired some incredible technology, such as stitch-free ways to seal wounds and sticky handheld paddles that may help soldiers scale walls someday. For the past decade, researchers have been developing synthetic adhesives with nanoscale fibers designed to mimic bristly gecko toes.

But new research on the subtleties of gecko adhesion shows that nature is still outpacing scientists in the lab.

Geckos can stick to surfaces because their bulbous toes are covered in hundreds of tiny microscopic hairs called setae. Each seta splits off into hundreds of even smaller bristles called spatulae. Scientists already knew that the tufts of tiny hairs get so close to the contours in walls and ceilings that the van der Waals force kicks in. This type of physical bond happens when electrons from the gecko hair molecules and electrons from the wall molecules interact with each other and create an electromagnetic attraction.

Credit : Live Science

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