Discovery Science 🧬

morrhagic enzymes from snake venom before they cause serious damage to the body. This protein is universal and works against the venom of all vipers, although its effectiveness may vary. 4. Hedgehogs love homemade perfume! To hide from those who are able to overcome the prickly defense, hedgehogs have learned to mask their smell. Moreover, the camouflage process can greatly puzzle a person unfamiliar with the habits of hedgehogs. First, the animal shakes and foams like mad, then coats a nearby cigarette butt (or other source of strong odor) with this foam and rubs it into its back (photo 5). And he moves on as if nothing happened! If there are no objects nearby that attract attention, the insectivore will still blow foam from time to time and rub it on its back. The reasons for this behavior are not entirely clear. Perhaps foamy saliva absorbs odors from the air quite well and even helps mask the animal's natural odors. Or, in this way, animals fight parasites and engage in self-cleaning. - - - - - 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

4 features of a hedgehog Hedgehogs are weird. And not so much because of its appearance, but because of the changes that the prickly skin brings to their way of life. The Book of Animals is with you, and today we will tell you about 4 strange features of hedgehogs that arose thanks to their decision to be covered in spikes from their heads to their hind legs! 1. The hedgehog is the most reliable tick collector for scientists It’s worth starting with the fact that a back covered with needles is very impractical from a hygiene point of view. Hard, long needles interfere not only with predators, but also with their owners. The entire back of the animal is essentially a rough brush that collects dirt, debris and, of course, parasites from the grass. She collects so many of the latter that it’s even scary. In 2017, researchers from the Stavropol Territory calculated that the average long-eared hedgehog carries 23 ticks, and the southern one carries 3 times more. And the record holder actually carried 427 ticks! And this despite the fact that the weight of hedgehogs does not even reach a kilogram. 2. The hedgehog is protected from animals hundreds of times larger than itself Constant problems with ticks cause hedgehogs a lot of inconvenience, but the game is worth the candle. After all, a hedgehog is better protected from predators than any other animal of similar size. Yes, bears or wolves can easily flatten a hedgehog into a cake, but they don’t do it. Who would like to eat meat mixed with needles? But for most smaller predators, the fence of hedgehog needles is an almost insurmountable obstacle - if the animal manages to curl up into a ball, of course. The transition from normal mode to defensive mode takes less than a second for a hedgehog. The skin on its back is very mobile and easily stretches, and along the perimeter of the spiny zone there is a special circular muscle. As soon as the hedgehog gets scared, this muscle automatically contracts, pulling the prickly part of the skin onto its soft, vulnerable belly. All that remains for him is to tuck his paws and press his head to his body. But, unfortunately for hedgehogs, their protection cannot be called absolute. For every hedgehog there is a badger or eagle owl with powerful long claws that can be used to open the hedgehog. Or a cunning fox, kicking a spherical bunch of needles towards a stream, in which it will be forced to turn around. 3. A hedgehog cannot be stopped even with poison In addition, needles are useless against snakes; scaly skin reliably protects them from injections. Poisonous snakes always find a place to bite a hedgehog and inject a portion of poison into it. But even here the hedgehogs were prepared: the poisoned hedgehog does not die in terrible agony, but simply experiences several unpleasant minutes, after which it comes to its senses and continues to run about its business. After all, his blood contains erinacin - a special protein that binds he

ill their babies only at 7-10 years of age. Such sluggishness puts the species in an extremely vulnerable position, because the main predator of the deep sea has found a hunter - a man. At the end of the last century, the white-eyed shark became a commercial species. The most valuable thing in it is the liver, filled with a special substance - squalene. It helps the predator maintain neutral buoyancy. That is, the shark does not expend any energy to swim, it literally floats in the water without putting any effort into it. Squalene also turns out to be useful for people: it is used in dietary supplements, cosmetics, and medicines. We know little about white-eyed sharks, but we do know that their numbers are declining, and since the tenth years of this century, the catch of these fish has been limited. Now a page in the Red Book hangs over the white-eyed spiny shark: not only is the exact population size unknown, but the species does not reproduce so readily as to maintain this number. And if you go too far with the catch a little more, then the deepest shark in the ocean will take all its secrets to the bottom. Author: Anna Belkina Editor: Elizaveta Isaeva 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

White-eyed spiny shark: Climbed into impenetrable darkness. The abyss's top predator Who lives on the VERY bottom of the ocean? Actually, there are a lot of people living there, and they are quite unattractive in appearance. Among all this biodiversity, to come across something similar to a fish in its classical sense is already lucky. But the white-eyed spiny shark is not afraid of the horrors of deep water. On the contrary: the chthonic inhabitants of darkness themselves tremble in fear of her. Our heroine is the main predator of the monsters of the impenetrable darkness of the ocean. The white-eyed spiny shark looks surprisingly “normal” for an inhabitant of the deep. At least she looks like a fish. But it’s also difficult to call her a standard representative of the toothy brethren. Why are sharks on the surface afraid? For powerful jaws and sharp teeth! Our heroine's mouth is not at all scary. There are many teeth - 100 on the lower and upper jaws. But they are all ridiculously tiny. The size of the fish itself is also not very intimidating - it grows up to 100-120 cm. Not too impressive for a super predator. But this is not surprising: the beast lives at a depth of 2-3 kilometers. This species of shark is the deepest in the world! Kilometers from the surface there is no light, good food, or currents. Eternal cold, pressure and stuffiness reign here. So also the fearful neighbors. However, the white-eye spiny shark is the most common species of deep-sea shark today. It is found in waters from Greenland to Australia. How did she manage to establish a tough dictatorship of power, having such meager weapons of intimidation in her arsenal? Eyepieces are her main weapon. In impenetrable darkness, the one who sees wins. Huge eyes sparkle in the light, like a Christmas tree: white, green, yellow, blue. The tapetum, the light-receiving membrane of the retina, is to blame for this. The tapetum helps to snatch out the slightest rays of light from the darkness. It is convenient when most of the inhabitants of the depths communicate with each other using bioluminescence. White-eyed sharks feed on everything that the ocean sends: fish, crustaceans, mollusks, carrion - you don’t have to choose, you grab everything you find. The hunting style of the main predator of the darkness is radically different from its relatives from the surface. The white-eyed shark is not looking for prey. She waits for the food to find her. The fish spends most of its time almost motionless - the average speed of movement is 0.27 km/h. This way she saves precious calories. Life at such depths does not spoil you from birth. The baby sharks have not even decided how they are born. From eggs? Straight from the womb? What about hatching from an egg inside the mother? This is called ovoviviparity. The embryos develop inside the female until they hatch from the eggs. Up to 30 sharks appear at a time. White-eye sharks reproduce slowly. Predators will be able to k

I bring you amazing photos with explanations! Selection of cool photos number 7: 1. Leatherback turtle mouth. It looks scary, but in fact these growths are needed to feed the jellyfish so that they do not slip out. 2. Soldier's lapwing. Bird from Australia. She literally has a pair of sharpening points on her wings for self-defense and protection of the chicks. 3. A baby stingray in an egg capsule. Scientists inserted transparent glass into this hole to watch how it develops there. 4. White elephants from Etosha National Park in Namibia. They live in the desert and regularly smear themselves with local mud, which is why they always walk snow-white. 5. Alien egg. Just kidding, it's probably a sea apple, a type of sea cucumber. 6. Deep Sea Sponge Ping Pong Tree. The predator waits for plankton or some shrimp or small fish to stick to the sticky balls in order to slowly absorb it inside. 7. The dragonfly crawls out of its old shell. Now she's an adult! 8. Did you know that there is a brown subspecies of the giant panda? It's called the Qinling panda. In general, everything is the same, but a little less. 9. Chin's megastick. The longest insect on Earth. Lives in Kalimantan. 56.7 cm!!! Fly to our Telegram: https://t.me/knigajivotnih1 VK doesn’t allow many posts into your feed, so you won’t lose us there. 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

st important thing is that sea unicorns are much cuter than horses with horns on their foreheads. And they are also living and real creatures that can be seen off the coast of our country. And it costs a lot. Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Narwhal: Useless stick or magic staff? The Mystery of the Strange Whale's Horn Are there unicorns in Russia? Of course there are - narwhals! See for yourself: these are mysterious and beautiful animals that are hard to find, easy to lose and impossible to forget. They also have almost supernatural powers, which are directly tied to their mystical horns. Nature, however, looks at them differently. She is sure that narwhals are four-meter-long machines for processing sea reptiles and fish into fat. And the animals cope with their task simply miraculously well. An adult animal can contain up to a ton of fat - a third of its entire body weight! Such reserves are not a luxury, but a necessity; without them, one cannot survive under the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean. Narwhals are inextricably linked to ice fields, so the size of their range varies greatly depending on the season. In summer they live in high latitudes, almost at the North Pole, and in winter they go much further south and can be found even off the coast of Eurasia. Including on the northern coast of Russia. And although it is dark under the ocean ice even on a polar day, this is not a problem for narwhals, because they rely on echolocation more than vision. Like bats, they emit high-frequency clicks and analyze the returning echo using their fine hearing. Thanks to this ability, they can detect schools of fish and schools of squid hundreds of meters away and never go hungry. However, many researchers believe that narwhals have another highly accurate device for finding prey - their legendary horn. Which is not a horn at all, but a spiral fang as thick as a wrist and 2.5 meters long. Despite its impressive appearance, the horn is absolutely useless in battle and hunting, because in its structure it is the most ordinary tooth with pulp and nerves, and, moreover, without enamel. But on its surface there are as many as 10,000,000 nerve endings of unknown purpose. Such a sensitive “nervous” tooth can be useful for the narwhal to subtly sense the movement of water around it, as well as its temperature and salinity. And due to its large size, the horn is incredibly sensitive to the slightest changes in the environment. However, not everyone agrees with the sensory theory. Proponents of the alternative idea believe that it is simply an extremely long tooth with no special pretensions. Its only purpose is to demonstrate the age and physical superiority of the male, and it has no practical use. During ritual fights, narwhals do not use their tusk. They jostle, hit each other with their tails, and the use of a spear would lead to the death of animals, which, obviously, is not necessary for the population. Therefore, the “horn” does not need a large strength - as long as it does not break off under its own weight. However, there are observations that narwhals stun fish with their horns with sharp blows, which makes hunting easier. But for us this is not important at all. The mo

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