Discovery Science 🧬

New Caledonian Raven: The smartest bird. Not even primates are capable of this level of creativity. At first glance, New Caledonian ravens are not particularly different from our ravens. They fly around New Caledonia (this is an island to the right of Australia), eat everything from grain to lizards and are nothing interesting. Therefore, they did not attract the attention of researchers for a very long time. And that was a mistake. After all, New Caledonian crows are real geniuses, even by the standards of damn smart corvids! Despite the complete absence of arms, tentacles and other grippers, New Caledonian crows are surprisingly well versed in tool-making. Assembling, modifying and atypically using all sorts of sticks and twigs is their domain, in which birds surpass even primates! Let's take chimpanzees for example. They are smart and developed enough to take a thin stick, peel it and rub it under the bark to pull out a larva or two. And then use it to pick your nose or ear. And this is very, very cool, because the vast majority of animals never even think of poking themselves with a stick. But for New Caledonian ravens this is the level of a chick barely getting out of the nest. After all, before poking into the unknown with a stick, the raven takes a leaf, tears it into thin strips and pushes one of the long strips into the gap. This way he can check: is there any tasty larva there at all? And only if the search probe hits an obstacle, it will go looking for a suitable branch. And the raven will approach this task as creatively as possible. Instead of breaking off an ordinary boring twig, the smart bird will go looking for a stick with a spike or a cool squiggle at the end. And if there isn’t one, he’ll just make it himself. He will find a curved branch and cut it so that the bend is as pronounced as possible and resembles a fish hook. And all this without using your hands! But even such an advanced tool may not be enough if the larva is hidden too deep, and you really want to eat. Then the raven can assemble a super-stick from several smaller sticks at once. For example, insert hollow stems into one another to lengthen the structure. Moreover, laboratory experiments show that birds are able to do this without any prior training. And this is only a fraction of the power of the little raven’s mind. They not only know how to make tools consisting of 3-4 parts, but are also able to observe each other, copying tool-making skills, and also use materials that cannot be found in the wild - plastic, metal and even micro-brushes given by scientists in experiments. It’s scary to imagine what these unique people would have come up with if they had hands... Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

er primates? The secret is simple: they began to make love instead of making war! For bonobos, sexual intercourse is no longer just a method of reproduction. It has become a universal social currency. Let's simulate a situation: a group of bonobos discovered a box of fruit. What would any other wild animal do? That's right, it will pounce on the food, pushing along the way all those who have their eye on the prey. What will bonobos do? They'll attack each other! The feast will briefly turn into an orgy. This way the monkeys will transfer the tension from competition for resources into a peaceful direction. Primates will begin their meal absolutely calmly, according to their position in the pack. Almost all conflicts and disagreements are resolved in this way. Bonobos can have sexual intercourse up to 20 times per day! This is every 1.5 hours! This is also a way to strengthen social connections. If a young bonobo leaves his native group and comes to a new pack, the first thing he will do is give himself to everyone he meets. And for the females of these primates, regular close contact is a guarantee of power. This is how they strengthen female alliances, thanks to which they achieve dominance over males. Therefore, in bonobo society there are practically no taboos: contacts occur between all possible combinations of partners, regardless of gender and age. Teenagers, adults - everyone, young and old, knows how to make amends to a member of the pack if you want to make peace. Immoral? For people - definitely. How does such promiscuity affect reproduction? In fact, absolutely not! Despite the enormous number of partners, reproductive success among bonobos is extremely unevenly distributed. DNA studies have shown that, despite the apparent “freedom in relationships,” about 62% of the cubs in a group may be the descendants of just one, the highest-ranking male. This is even higher than that of aggressive chimpanzees! Female bonobos, being the main ones in the group, are selective in procreation. During the period when they are ready to have a baby, they prefer to mate with the most “status” males, often the sons of influential mothers. So blind love does not exist even among the most loving monkeys in the world! Author: Elizaveta Isaeva 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Bonobos: How did lust change the chimpanzee? Imagine a society without wars and conflicts. Instead of screams there are kisses, instead of fights there are hugs. For us this is a utopia, but for bonobos it is an ordinary day in the jungle of the Congo. In a world filled with anger and cruelty, these monkeys have forgotten how to quarrel with each other. Do you know the secret of their friendliness? Insatiable lust! Everyone here is engaged in debauchery: from young to old. So much so that the authors of the Kama Sutra would be embarrassed! The history of the species began about 1.5–2 million years ago. Then, when the Congo River changed its course. Primates hate swimming, which is why the water barrier forever separated the ancestors of modern chimpanzees and bonobos. The first remained on the left bank and settled throughout Western and Central Africa. The latter were isolated on a relatively small area of ​​the right bank, in a loop between the Congo and Kasai rivers. Left to their own devices, bonobos set off on an evolutionary voyage that took them to a haven of peace and hedonism. Externally, both types are almost identical to each other. Except that bonobos are a little slimmer and a little less hairy. But the internal content of primates is so different, as if they were never related at all. The society of common chimpanzees is built on the rule of the strong. Clashes, fights, and swearing are the norm for them. Only a male can become the head of the group. He has to constantly defend his status. Sometimes, winning in skirmishes with other males. Sometimes, resolving conflicts among other group members. In any case, physical strength is necessary to maintain the desired position. In bonobo society, males are almost never allowed into leadership positions. The females run the show. They are not stronger physically, but they have learned to form powerful coalitions to repel any presumptuous “cavalier.” Females pass on their high status to their daughters, creating a stable and cohesive structure. This is how a clear and clear hierarchy appears, in which there is simply no point in clarifying the relationships. The attitude towards relatives in the two species of primates is also radically different. Ordinary chimpanzees do not recognize strangers under any pretext. They clearly mark and protect their territory. Decided to cross the border? You're risking your head. Some groups, while patrolling their properties, conduct a special hunt for males from other packs. Sometimes they are not only killed, but also eaten. Not from hunger. And in order to keep everyone around him in fear. Bonobos, instead of fighting with their neighbors, prefer to get to know them and communicate. Two groups, meeting in the jungle, can peacefully feed, travel and rest together, forming strong social bonds that we would call friendship. How do bonobos manage to maintain this “paradise” in conditions where competition and violence reign among oth

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Spider-tailed viper: A snake with a salpug-shaped tail Someone, looking at spiders, will say: ugh, spiders. I hate spiders. Someone, looking at snakes, will say: ugh, snakes. I hate snakes. But I bet that the c-c-combo of a snake with a spider on its tail will cause only one reaction in you - panic. Meet the spider-tailed viper - a nightmare for impressionable individuals and a mystery for scientists. After all, the snake has been leading people by the nose for almost 36 years! In 1970, biologists came across the carcass of a slightly strange false-horned snake. Everything was as usual: 60 centimeters long, sandy camouflage, and soft horns made of scales above the eyes. Only at the very tip of the tail a disgusting tumor was visible - the eerie formation was framed by abnormally long scales. What would a normal person do with the find? That's right, I should have thrown the reptile away! What did the scientists do with it? That's right, they preserved the animal and hid it until better times. They remembered about the snake only in 2006. Researchers traveling through the eastern provinces of Iraq came across a similar sick animal in its natural habitat. But the “disfigured” snake was in no hurry to roll its eyes painfully and give up the ghost; it was actively scratching its tumor over the surface of the body. That’s when it dawned on the people: the reptile is quite healthy, it’s just that with its tail it copies the salpuga (photo 5) - the favorite delicacy of desert birds! Moreover, the animal puts on a whole exhibition: its highly rough body represents a stone, and the tip of its tail represents an arachnid running along it. Insectivorous birds flock to the snake's performance and try to bite the viper's tail. Well, then everything is simple: a jerk, a bite, and a poisonous surprise that quickly spreads through the bird’s veins. However, this method of hunting made the snakes very lazy. During the day, they perform only two actions: crawl into the shade and return to the sun. They don’t even crawl to bodies of water; they restore water balance through the blood of their victims. The reptile begins to actively move only if it is thoroughly scared. Having pumped air into the lungs to make it appear larger, the scaly hose begins to hiss and jerk aggressively. The viper is not capable of more - its poison is too weak to fight back against large animals. Swelling and redness - that’s all that a person will get from our heroine’s bite. Spider-tailed vipers are so secretive and cautious that we don’t really know their range, let alone their lifestyle or reproduction. For 15 years now, herpetologists have been trying to unravel the secrets of our heroine, but she resists with respectable tenacity. - - - - - 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, re

Marsupial Mole: Eats monsters, has claws and swims in the sand as if it were water Just look at this wonderful mole! At his delicate silky golden fur, at his graceful clawed fingers and at the way he eats an extremely poisonous centipede! What a beauty this Australian marsupial mole is! Of course, the marsupial mole has nothing to do with real moles - it’s a marsupial! He reached this lifestyle with his own mind, and therefore is similar to his European colleagues only in appearance. But if you look at it through the lens of scientific research, the differences emerge very quickly. The most noticeable of them is the fact that it can easily hunt on the surface. Yes, the marsupial mole is blind, well... like a mole, and therefore does this infrequently. But his hearing and sense of vibration work perfectly, so the mole can burst right out of the ground and attack its prey. Just like the giant worms from the old movie Tremors! And as you can tell from the first photo, these cute creatures are capable of chewing even scolopendras - one of the most dangerous Australian invertebrates. But first of all, these are still underground predators that feed on earthworms and insect larvae. True, there were some nuances here too. Unlike real moles, Australian moles live in very dry and crumbly soils, the consistency of which is close to sand. Therefore, they cannot create a steep, extensive network of tunnels with storerooms, toilets and secret exits to the surface, which makes their life very difficult. But they learned to move underground simply amazingly. Australians don't dig as much as they swim, pushing themselves with their front paws and pushing the sand with their muzzle, which has a horny shield on its nose. Marsupial moles are the only animals that have mastered the underground breaststroke! But this method of transportation, as well as the complete absence of tunnels, incredibly infuriates researchers. After all, moles can only be discovered by chance, and it is generally impossible to observe them! Therefore, we still have many unanswered questions. We have no idea how they find each other underground, how they reproduce, and why they don’t die of thirst even in the driest regions of Australia. And finding answers to these questions will be oh so difficult. I don't envy Australian zoologists! Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

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