Category Science

Why do lions lick their prey a lot before they start eating it?

Like all felines (including the domestic cat), the lion’s tongue is covered in small, hook-shaped growths called papillae, which point towards the back of the mouth, and are used as a brush to separate flesh from fur and bone, particularly when the cat is feeding on a humongous kill (wildebeests, buffaloes, zebras…) – in the case of smaller prey items (rabbits, rodents, birds…), the carcass is devoured whole, with only a few or no bone splinters left.

Moreover, these papillae have the feeling of a hairbrush, resulting in the tongue becoming a rough surface – they’re sort of like hairs because they’re made of keratin, which is the same protein a human’s hairs and fingernails are composed of.

In the process, the feeding lion consumes the skin completely, and ensures itself that it never swallows (even accidentally!) small, pointy bones that could rip the cat’s throat, and that the meat is tenderized, which renders it efficiently digested.

Now, a lot of lions have seen to be licking prey they’ve just hunted, before killing and eating them. This mostly happens when the prey (usually an ungulate youngster) is brought alive by the lionesses to their cubs, so that the latter can hone their hunting skills – in the process, these cubs are too young to understand the art of hunting and the throttling bite that is essential to make a kill, so they instead resort to play with the animal by chasing it around; and when they subdue it, they don’t immediately kill it, but rather lick it, possibly as a means to display youth innocence.

This behavior mainly occurs with lion cubs (the youngsters, naturally), but it’s seen in adult lions too – in this case, it’s not always clear why. In my opinion, it could be psychological, in a way that the hunting lion either resorts to licking the animal in order to calm it – either it’s something done prior to giving the prey a quick death, or because something snapped inside the lion, a friendly, empathetic thought that made it reconsider its ferocious behavior, particularly since the hunted animal frantically panics from being attacked by a predator, emitting gut-wrenching cries for help –, or it’s just playing with its food (like house cats do), perhaps to torment the prey or simply tire it out so as to not risk injury. But I’m just speculating.

In the end, no one knows exactly why lions (the adults, to be precise) resort to licking their prey a lot while it’s still alive, prior to eating it.

 

Credit : Quora

Picture Credit : Google

What is pulsar map?

Your parents would advise you against sharing your location with strangers. But back then, scientists thought it would be a good idea to reach out to aliens by sending out a map to locate our Sun and thereby Earth. What’s this map like? in space, no one can find you using coordinates such as north, south, east or west. That’s why American astronomer Frank Drake came up with the Pulsar Map. And two of these maps are currently aboard Voyager 1 and 2 probes, which are sailing through the interstellar space. The maps are inscribed on the Golden Record that the probes carry. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life for that may find them.

How does it work?

The pulsar maps on the Voyager probes pinpoint the location of the Solar System with respect to 14 pulsars.

Pulsars are the rapidly spinning remains of dying stars – the leftover cores of supernova explosions. They emit narrow beams of light. Each pulsar has its own signature pulse rate, thus easily identifiable, and ideal as reference points on a map.

Frank Drake’s map has each pulsar connected to the Sun by a solid line. The length of the line represents the pulsars approximate relative distance from the Sun. Along those distance markers are inscribed the pulsars’ spin rates in binary code. By decoding the map, extraterrestrial intelligence can calculate the time frame of the spacecraft’s launch and also the position of the Sun.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Is there an ocean inside the Earth?

Earth is not just a solid ball. It’s interior, as much as its exterior, is a subject of great fascination. You must be aware that Earth’s interior has three major layers: the crust, the mantle, and the core. But did you know there is a vast reservoir of water, three times the volume of all the oceans, deep in the Earth’s mantle?

It is hidden inside a blue rock called ringwoodite and lies 700 km underground in an area called the transition zone in the mantle, the layer of hot rock between the crust and core. Ringwoodite is a rare mineral that forms under very high pressure and temperature, such as those present in the mantle’s transition zone.

The reservoir was discovered in 2014 and it threw new light on the origin of Earth’s water. All along, geologists had thought water came from icy comets as they struck the planet during its formation. But the discovery supports an alternative idea that the oceans came from within the interior of early Earth.

The hidden water could also act as a buffer for the oceans on the surface, explaining why they have stayed the same size for millions of years.

 

Picture Credit : Google

What does we are all stardust mean?

The human body is made up of four fundamental elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen (also called the CHON or HONC elements). So are rocks, plants, animals, water and air. Do you know where these elements came from? The STARS. Yes, even the calcium in your bone and iron in your blood came from the distant stars. In fact, every atom in your body was forged in the centre of stars years ago. Read on to know how…

When the universe began 13 or 14 billion years ago, with the Big Bang, the only elements that existed were hydrogen, helium and a small amount of lithium. Over time, gravity increasingly pulled gas molecules towards each other and eventually gave birth to the first generation of stars. These stars were much greater than our Sun in size and temperature. The nuclear fusion within those stars then produced heavier elements, including carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. When the stars exploded in supernova at the end of their life-cycle, the elements were shot into the far-flung reaches of the universe. Those stellar explosions continued, making new stars and planets. As more, massive stars exploded heavier elements continued to be created. Stars and elements are still being born this way, even as you read this.

As far as our galaxy, Milky Way, is concerned, stars had generated most elements now present on Earth about 5 billion years ago. Within the next billion years, the first signs of life on Earth appeared. No one is exactly sure how life formed on the planet. But one thing is clear like Carl Sagan said. “The cosmos is also within us, we’re made of star stuff.

 

Picture Credit : Google

NASA lifts off cargo spacecraft named after Kalpana Chawla to International Space Station

A commercial cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS) has been named after NASA astronaut, Kalpana Chawla, the first India-born woman to enter space. Northrop Grumman, an American aerospace and defence technology company, announced that its next Cygnus capsule will be named the “S.S. Kalpana Chawla”, in memory of the mission specialist who died with her six crewmates aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. “Chawla’s final research conducted onboard Columbia helped us understand astronaut health and safety during spaceflight. Northrop Grumman is proud to celebrate the life of Kalpana Chawla and her dream of flying through the air and in space,” the company said.

Born in Haryana, India, Chawla moved to the United States to earn her master’s and doctorate degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas in 1984 and the University of Colorado in 1988, respectively.

She then began her career at NASA, conducting research in fluid dynamics at the Ames Research Center in California. After becoming a naturalized US citizen, Chawla applied for and became a NASA astronaut as a member of “The Flying Escargot,” NASA`s 15th class of trainees.

 

Picture Credit : Google

What does a mother cat do with a dead kitten? Will she mourn it or just let it go?

Do you really want to know if a mother cat would suffer if she loses one of her kids?

Mama left her kittens inside a box at around 7am but when she returned, just five hours later, she discovered that her two kittens were already dead.

She was found by locals pacing back and forth, meowing incessantly near her lifeless offspring.

Both kittens were stabbed to death by an unknown assailant.

The mother refused to leave, even after locals tried to help her.

So, back to the question…

There are some typical behaviors that a mother cat may exhibit when dealing with the death of a offspring. One of the first things she would to is licking her kitten(s).

You see, licking the kittens is the mother cat’s instinctive behavior after giving birth. It will rigorously lick and groom each kitten. Licking the kittens stimulates breathing, helps to remove any remaining placenta and helps to remove liquid from the kitten’s lungs. The grooming can look quite violent and vigorous but it is normal and necessary.

When a mother cat sees its kitten not moving or breathing, she will lick and cuddle the kitten to try to get it to respond. It may do it for quite some time until she gives up and abandons the kitten to take care of the surviving ones.

Some cats are very trusting to their owners in times of grief or loss. Not all cats do this but some may lay their kitten at your feet for help or empathy. Many cat owners have experienced this and interpret it as their cat’s way of showing that she trusts you to fix her young.

In contrast, some mother cats are overprotective of their young. They will not allow anyone, even their pet parent to come near their kittens, dead or alive.

Sometimes a mother cat will dig the ground where she will bury her dead kitten. She will then cover the body with mud and might lay on the spot for several hours. Some mother cats who have other kittens to attend to, however, will simply remove the dead kitten and abandon it. This is to separate the dead far from the live ones to avoid any health risks.

And sometimes, she would eat her kitten. It may sound gross but some mother cats eat their kittens when they seem to be dead. Eating their dead kittens will provide nutrients that will be dissolved in the mother’s milk and will be beneficial for other kittens. It is very rare but surely it happens and, although this is a distressing sight for humans, this is a normal behavior for animals.

So, answering the question: she surely will suffer. A lot.

 

Credit : Quora

Picture Credit : Google