Category Animal Intelligence

Which is the largest land carnivore?

Adult male polar bears stand tall at an average length of 3 metres! They also pack quite a punch at 700 kgs! These features make them the largest land carnivore in the world. The only other close competitor is the Kodiak bear, a sub-species of brown bear found in Alaska.

Did you know that unlike other bears, polar bears are considered marine mammals! This is because they spend most of their time in the freezing cold waters of the Arctic Ocean hunting, swimming and playing. For this reason, they are also called sea bears or ice bears. They are only found naturally in 5 countries – the United States, Canada, Greenland, Russia and Norway.

Polar bears are excellent swimmers. They can swim for hundreds of kilometres at a stretch. They have huge paws, which helps them to swim effortlessly. Their high body fat count also helps to keep them afloat and stay warm in the freezing Arctic!

If you thought polar bear fur was white, you would be mistaken. Polar bear fur is actually colourless and translucent. It allows light to pass through it and appears to be white due to the reflected white light around it. This is a great adaptation as this bear does most of its hunting by night.

Picture Credit : Google 

How do quills protect porcupines?

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

Picture Credit : Google 

What do kangaroos do to cool their body temperature?

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

Picture Credit : Google