Discovery Science 🧬

Forest Elephant: Did you know that there are 3 types of elephants? It opened only 15 years ago I know this will sound strange, but finding an elephant is harder than it seems. 200 years ago, no one suspected that forest elephants existed. 100 years ago, everyone was sure that this was just a subspecies of savanna elephants. It was only in 2010, due to the advent of advanced genome analysis methods, that we finally found out that this is a full-fledged separate species of elephant, which is very different from its African relatives! First of all, it differs in size. Forest elephants are the smallest living elephants. A large adult forest elephant is slightly more than 2 meters tall and weighs from 2 to 4 tons. Yes, by human standards they are simply huge. But by the standards of African savannah elephants, these are puny teenagers! After all, an adult savannah elephant is one meter taller and weighs 6 tons. And the record holders weigh up to 10 tons! But you and I won’t run around elephants with rulers, right? Therefore, I have a simple life hack for you on how to distinguish a forest elephant from a savanna elephant. If an elephant's tusks are thick and curved, it means the elephant is a savanna elephant. And if they are thinner and almost straight, then you are looking at a forest elephant. There is a logical explanation for this difference in size - it’s hard to be big in the forest. Especially if it is the dense tropical jungle of Central Africa. An animal that is too large will spend a lot of time where smaller elephants can pass without problems. But still, even a relatively small elephant needs to eat up to 100 kilograms of fruits and fresh herbs every day. Even the jungle cannot provide so much food in one place, so the herds are constantly moving from place to place, trying to grab a fresh harvest of fruit before other frugivores do. In a year, a herd of elephants migrates at least 2000 kilometers! In terms of herd structure, forest elephants are no different from herds of other proboscideans. It is always led by an experienced matriarch, followed by adult females and a pack of their children of both sexes. At this time, adult males either wander alone or stay in small bachelor groups. But there are also differences: groups of forest elephants are much larger and can number up to 20 individuals. They are also much more chatty. Their range of vocalizations is greater than that of their savanna relatives, and they talk to each other more often. Apparently, thanks to the incessant chatter, they are able to hang out in such large groups. Such sociability greatly makes life easier for elephants and reduces the risk of offspring dying from the fangs of large predators. However, despite friendly teams and mutual support, even in an ideal year their numbers grow by only 5%. After all, females give birth to one cub once every 5-6 years, and the new generation reaches adulthood by 12 (females) and 15 (males) years. They repro

duce more slowly than any other elephants. And this is a very big problem. Even in the best years, the birth rate does not cover the decline in the elephant population from habitat destruction and poaching. And although there are still a lot of forest elephants, their number is approximately 130-140 thousand individuals, but over the past 20 years it has decreased by 60%. And it continues to fall. Males are especially hard hit, because during mustas - outbursts of aggression in elephants - they often attack people. And, naturally, they die from traps or under rifle fire. However, living in dense forests has its advantages in protection from people. Not every poacher will wander through the impenetrable jungle with a gun. In the end, even researchers seriously studied these beauties only at the beginning of the 21st century, identifying a new species of elephant. Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

f text every day from the field in which they are specialists. Due to VK’s failed policy towards authors, all this, unfortunately, rests only on rare advertising and your support. You can support the stability of our nervous system with a minimum subscription of 100 rubles per month. You can request support directly through the button in this post. Thank you! 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

We have long noticed that for some reason frogs are read worse than all other groups of animals. The reason is not very clear to me, but today is Wednesday, my dudes, especially the guest is special. So, Blackfoot Copepod. People with large feet often experience discomfort. You can’t find shoes, and your friends constantly tease you about your “skis.” But, you know what? There is no need to be ashamed of big feet. Moreover, they can serve as an object of pride and an indispensable tool for survival in the harsh jungles of Indonesia. At least that's how it works for the black-footed copepod. If you look at the amphibian from afar, you cannot distinguish it from numerous tree frogs. Small, up to 10 centimeters long. Green to hide among dense vegetation. As they say, it creeps and crawls, why bother? And only when an enemy looms on the horizon does the amphibian use its legs (spoiler: the copepod’s legs are black). No, she doesn’t kick predators with them and doesn’t even run away. She flies with them! The membranes of the black-footed copepod are so large that they serve as a parachute for the tiny frog. Judge for yourself: the flying amphibian’s toes are half the length of a paw! Having spread them out properly, the jumping frog moves to a new level, he begins to plan! And, you know, this ability of the copepod is more than effective: in this way it flies up to 15 meters! And in order not to break on the earth's surface, the cunning French delicacy had notches and suction cups on its paws. With them he clings to vegetation, deftly moving from tree to tree. But the pads of the fingers are not the only thing that can catch a frog. The sticky tongue of a copepod will glue any bug together. Thus, the jumper is a highly mobile point of anti-insect defense. Having fed enough biomass, the frog goes to the nearest pond. In general, these frogs do not particularly favor the water element - swimming with a parachute on their legs is not very convenient - but for tadpoles, liquid is necessary. Having found each other, lovers do THIS. No, nothing 18+, these are amphibians. The girl simply lays eggs, and the boy immediately fertilizes them - very convenient. Having spent his reserves of genetic material, the boy decides that his job is done and goes home. But the female’s work is just beginning. Using special glands, Mrs. Frog glues the eggs into one large lump and hangs them somewhere above the water. Low hanging branches or coastal plants are best suited for this. She is not interested in the future fate of the children. In a couple of weeks, the tadpoles will leave their homes and fall straight into a pond full of dangers. Only the lucky ones will emerge from the water element to conquer the skies. My rating for the black-footed copepod: 4 legs out of 4! No, seriously, the paws are just wonderful! Oh, and the whole frog is fine too, yes. - - - - - We have a huge group, which is 11 years old and there are many zoologists who write tons o

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Some sources say that the female takes care of the children, because male frogs are traditionally polygamous and did not care about the offspring. In others - that the male, because he is territorial, and in general is larger than the female, which means he has to pull the burden. But when the tadpoles hatch, all this becomes unimportant; then they are on their own. In a pond, they begin to vacuum up all the greenery and local crustaceans until they grow to 4.5 centimeters in length, which takes about 3 months. And then the babies will turn into young goliaths and will gain weight, preparing for the new breeding season! Goliaths live up to 15 years and continue to grow throughout their lives - this is called indeterminate growth. The longer an individual lives, the larger it becomes. But now rare goliaths live to large sizes due to capture. There are still no serious programs to protect frogs. The authorities and animal protection organizations need to somehow convince the locals to abandon goliaths as a source of food... Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Goliath: The largest frog. 4 kg, 80 cm. Catches bats in a jump of 3 meters! The Goliath frog is the largest living tailless amphibian, toad and frog. The body length - from nose to heels - is 80 centimeters, and the weight can reach 4.5 kilos. And for such size the frog pays a high, but very strange price: it is forced to engage in landscape design! Goliaths have a very small range; they can only be found in the dense forests of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, and only close to water - on the banks of rivers, lakes and swamps. In this environment, a large body gives an advantage: powerful paws allow them to stay in a fast current, and their large mass helps them hunt larger prey. For most of the day, frogs lazily cool off in the water and go out in search of food only when the heat of the day subsides. And even then, chosen is too strong a word. Rather, they simply climb onto some pebble and wait until something edible appears nearby. And edibles will appear quickly, because the main principle of constructing an amphibian’s diet is that everything that fits into its mouth is useful. Frogs readily eat worms, aquatic insects, spiders and centipedes, and the largest of them switch to fish, mammals, reptiles and smaller frogs. Scientists even once discovered a goliath swallowing a bat! How did the frog do it? She just jumped. Goliath is capable of jumping 3 meters in height, so all low-flying small things are its lawful prey. But her outstanding hunting skills fade into the background when the amphibians begin breeding season. Since they do not have vocal sacs, males cannot croak. Therefore, the fight for females is not a choral singing, where everyone tries to out-shout their neighbor, but a fight for territory, where frogs fiercely gnaw at every inch of the shore. Perhaps it was precisely this unusual sexual selection for frogs that was the reason for their enormous size. After all, the larger the male’s territory, the more females he will have. Having proven his strength in a fight, the male must show it again, but this time in creation. Now his task is to build a nest where the female will lay eggs. And here the male has some freedom for self-expression. Some frogs approach construction very formally: they clear a section of the bottom, dig a hole in it, and that’s all; the female can lay several thousand eggs. Such a nest is easy to make, but it is very vulnerable to small fish and shrimp, which readily eat the eggs. More sophisticated males dig a nest on land, which is more difficult. Here you need to carry stones and remove branches half the weight of a frog, while the tropical sun burns the soft skin and gravity presses towards the ground. In addition, the frog needs to make sure that water seeps into the hole, which will prevent the baby from drying out. Therefore, in any case, one of the parents guards the nest, patrolling it at night and staying nearby during the day. But which of the couple does this is a mystery.

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country by eliminating 4 main pests in the region. The hit list included rats, mosquitoes, flies and sparrows. The feathered little things got the most from the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire. They were starved to death - they were not allowed to land, they made noise, they destroyed their nests. The children did this with particular enthusiasm (photo 4 - a poster motivating children to exterminate sparrows). In just one year, almost 2 billion sparrows were exterminated. And in the same year, hordes of insect pests descended on the fields of the country; other birds could not cope with controlling their numbers. The harvest residues were not enough for everyone, famine killed from 10 to 30 million people, the Chinese had to urgently import birds from Canada and the USSR. The featured guest for this article is the Western Black Rhinoceros. Excessive hunting has seriously decimated their numbers, and poaching has completely finished them off. Since 2011, the subspecies has been declared extinct (photo 5). Are the days of this obscurantism over? Well, partially passed. We managed to save the Amur tigers; there are already a lot of them. The Chinese restored pandas so much that they were even removed from the Red Book. But in poor countries they shoot and shoot. - - - - - We have a huge group, which is 11 years old and there are many zoologists who write tons of text every day from the field in which they are specialists. Due to VK’s failed policy towards authors, all this, unfortunately, rests only on rare advertising and your support. You can support the stability of our nervous system with a minimum subscription of 100 rubles per month. You can request support directly through the button in this post. Thank you! 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot