Discovery Science 🧬

How does a flock of barn cats work? Hierarchy of animals without hierarchy A cat is an independent, proud and fundamentally solitary creature. So it seems to us. Exactly until the moment you discover a yard where a dozen of these “loners” sleep in the same basement, eat according to a schedule and know perfectly well who belongs here and who is out of place. At this moment, the saying about the cat who walks by itself begins to suspiciously come apart at the seams. In fact, the mustachios have long been living in packs, in which the queen rules - and now we’ll tell you how this happened and why! Cats in the basement of a house are familiar inhabitants. But for them the city is an unnatural ecosystem. Animals did not evolve for concrete and trash cans. In the wild, everything is clear: food is obtained through a difficult but fair hunt, territory is defended in fights, and a hungry predator can jump out from behind every bush. But noisy streets and concrete jungles turn the usual rules of survival upside down. First, getting food. A city is a rare case in nature when resources are concentrated in one point and hardly move. Garbage containers, restaurants and markets, basements and heating mains with hordes of rodents and, of course, compassionate grandmothers with bags of chicken heads create relatively stable food supplies. Getting food in the city is easier, much easier, than in the wild. Secondly, the inability to displace neighbors. Woolen people from all over the area flock to the free grub - and it turns out to be a crowd. In the wild, if population density becomes high, cats expand their territory, drive away competitors, or even change location. It doesn't work that way in the city. Not only is the entire territory limited by walls, roads and people, but going far means losing a guaranteed source of food. What's the point? It is also physically impossible to kick out all uninvited guests. It's like fighting windmills - new cats will still come again and again from neighboring areas. Cats are not fools to constantly sort things out. No strength is enough for this. Instead of endless conflicts, they are forming a very interesting form of coexistence - a tolerant matrilineal community. At the core of any stable group of stray cats is almost always kinship. Such communities are formed around several females connected by blood ties - mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and grandmothers. They occupy one common or several closely located shelters, calmly roam around the same territory and remain nearby for many years. There is no unconditional leader or leader in the group. But there is a soft queen matriarch. This is usually the oldest and most experienced female in the group - the mother or grandmother of all other members of the feline community. Such a madam rarely fights and almost never demonstrates open aggression - she simply does not need to prove anything. Other females themselves give her a place at the feeder and are

Do fish drink water? An unexpected answer to a child's question You probably won't believe me now, but the answer is both yes and no. Some fish gush water down their throats, while others, on the contrary, do their best to avoid getting moisture into their bodies. After all, it all depends on the conditions in which the organism lives. The easiest way to explain aquatic-fish relationships is with squamates that live in the World Ocean. Since their bodies are less salty than the surrounding water, they face a problem: the moisture in their bodies is constantly trying to go AWOL, it is being drawn out by the salt of the ocean. And so they drink, and they drink a lot. After all, they need to constantly pump themselves with water and, at the same time, filter out excess salt with the help of their kidneys almost without interruption. In freshwater fish the situation is completely opposite. Their body is much saltier than the surrounding water, so it itself absorbs water from... water against their will. And, naturally, in such conditions, only a complete suicidal person can drink additional water - after all, you are constantly swelling like a sponge. Therefore, all adequate river fish pass water through their gills, but prefer not to drink it. And at this time their kidneys are plowing like hell, trying to retain salt inside the body and at the same time rid it of excess moisture. And cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, chimeras) fared best, because the salinity of their body is approximately equal to the salinity of the water. Therefore, for them, she is not an aggressive environment, but a loyal friend. If for some reason there is too little water in the body, it will simply be automatically replenished through the integument. There is too much - the excess will be sucked out by the ocean. That’s why their kidneys are noticeably more primitive; they can afford to cheat. What moral can we take away from this story? First: take care of your kidneys, without them you will be nowhere in maintaining the water-salt balance. Second: sharks are still cheaters. Maybe that's why they haven't changed much over the last couple of hundred million years? Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

A selection of cool photos number 5 1. Two Komodo dragons fought due to drunkenness. Every Friday the same thing! 2. Amazonian klepsin. The world's largest leech. A flock of them could drink a cow. So piranhas are the least thing that can scare you in this river. 3. The umbrella bird and its 35 cm dating brush. Girls like it! 4. Lizard-headed fish. A truly creepy creature and the abyss of the ocean. Predator of depths 1-3 km. Grows up to 2 meters. 5. A very beautiful striped hyena walks in the sun. 6. Allegheny cryptobranch. One of the world's largest salamanders after the famous giant salamander. Lives in rivers of the USA, gaining 2-3 kg of weight. 7. These nomadic ants from South America rarely set up camp, but if they do create an anthill, they make it of themselves! 8. A colony of flying foxes wants to sleep, but one fool is screaming. 9. Sea slug. Possibly the deepest sea fish on the planet. Met 8 km down... Thank you for your attention, save what you like, Animal Book loves you AVE HONEY BEATTER! 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

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<b>The Tiger's Secret Weapon: Its roar can paralyze an animal or a person. </b> Anyone who hears a loud tiger roar will break out in a cold sweat. But scientists say that the voice of a predator can not only frighten, but also paralyze. One moment, one sound, and you are a helpless victim, ready for consumption. However, all this smacks of mythology. Did the tiger always have a superpower that we didn't know about? First, let's look at how a tiger hunts. Here he, like a compressed spring, fell to the ground. Ahead, next to a watering hole, several wild boars roam. They are unaware of the predatory cat. Careful steps downwind bring the hunter closer and closer to the target. The moment of truth: right now the tiger must use his superweapon, here’s one more step and... The predator makes several powerful jerks towards the wild boars, jumps, flies several meters, a moment later only the frightened squeal of the caught victim is heard. But there was no trace of any roar... Why? The tiger is an ambush predator. Until the very last second, it is important for him to maintain incognito status: hide in the tall grass, mask his smell and not give himself away by any sound. He will not growl at his prey; after all, it will run into the thicket with its tail raised, losing some of its weight as it goes. Does this mean that paralysis caused by a roar is bullshit? Yes and no. Yes, because tigers are focused and keep their mouths shut when hunting. Otherwise they will be left without dinner. Hunting tactics simply do not tolerate loud statements, but... let's ask ourselves another question. Why do tigers even roar? Big cats are introverts to the core. The territory of one individual reaches from 10 to 100 km². The tabby has not yet invented the telephone, so the only way to communicate with each other is a loud roar that can be heard for several kilometers. And this is the secret. Biologists studying tiger communication have noticed that big cats communicate with each other at low frequencies - at the infrasound level. Such waves travel much further than usual, penetrating into buildings, through dense forests, mountains and... our body. The human ear cannot hear infrasound. Most mammals, including humans, recognize frequencies between 20 and 20,000 hertz. Tigers speak at a frequency of 18 hertz. However, low-frequency vibrations cause internal organs to resonate and vibrate. Our body literally trembles from the tiger's roar. Of course, the power of a big cat’s ligaments is not enough to break a heart. But low frequencies cause anxiety and fear on a physiological level. And then the classic scheme follows: fight or flight, or freeze. And if your response to intense fear is to imitate a deer frozen in headlights, then a tiger's roar can definitely be paralyzing. But no magic, mysticism or superpowers. Only the power of physics and biology! Author: Egor Churakov Editor: Elizaveta Isaeva <b>🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — </b><b>https://t.

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ly and fussily: they bark, jump, spin and run. It’s very interesting to look at from the outside, but it’s not clear where the fur is in this mess, what kind of dog it is. Herding breeds tend to control the movement of their partner: they can cut the trajectory, circle around, grab by the paws or sides, imitating control of the herd. We can continue to describe the features of breed games endlessly. The catch is that for different dogs, the “alien” style of play may look incomprehensible or scary. What is a friendly push for a bulldog may seem like the beginning of a fight to a fragile Spitz. A sharp jerk from a greyhound can frighten a calm heavyweight. Therefore, dogs more often choose partners who play in the same style: there is less misunderstanding, a lower risk of conflict and a higher chance that the game will remain a game and will not develop into a showdown. 4. Size Even a perfectly socialized dog will feel a little awkward with a partner who is significantly larger or smaller than itself. For small breeds, playing with a large dog is always a risk: one unsuccessful move, too sudden a giant leap - and that’s it. A fun romp becomes dangerous. Large dogs, in turn, do not always know how to “dose” force and simply do not read the microsignals of discomfort of small ones. The kids have no choice but to defend themselves with their teeth in order to be understood. Therefore, size matching is another safety factor that is unconsciously taken into account when choosing a company. 5. Predictability Even with simple sniffing, dogs constantly read each other’s signals: who is nervous and embarrassed, who is angry, happy, anxious, who wants to play, and who can get hit in the neck. The better the watchdog understands the logic of his counterpart, the calmer and more confident he feels. The more confident he feels, the calmer his communication with his relative will be. The highest predictability, as a rule, occurs precisely when communicating with dogs of the same breed type - they have similar movements, games, similar reaction speed and familiar signals of reconciliation. So, preferring dogs of their own breed is not racism, but banal safety, because a mistake in interpreting someone else’s behavior can result in a fight. Author: Arina Taran Editor: Elizaveta Isaeva 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Is your dog racist? 5 reasons why pets want to communicate only with representatives of their own breed Dog owners, roll call! Tell me, have you also noticed that your pets are much more willing to play with representatives of their own breed? And it seems like there are a lot of different dogs in the area, choose anyone... What does this mean, dog racism? In reality, everything is much more complicated. Dogs are not racist in the truest sense of the word - they do not hate other breeds. They just love “their own people” more. Scientists have not yet gotten around to conducting full-fledged research on the topic of dog racism, but there are quite a lot of them on related topics. Therefore, today, based on facts and animal psychology, we will dive deeper into understanding why corgis love corgis, but a spitz will be uncomfortable playing with a bulldog. 1. Imprinting, or imprinting At least until 1.5 months, puppies live in the mode of mother and littermates - my whole world. The little ones do everything together: they eat, sleep, play, fight and make peace, learning dog etiquette without a single word. It is during this tender period that they form a basic “matrix of the norm” - what the dog looks like, what its movements are, what the tail means, how facial expressions are read, where the game begins and how it ends. And since the main textbook is the mother and brothers and sisters, it is their type of appearance and style of behavior that is fixed in the minds of someone’s future favorites. 2. First successful experience, or associative learning This is formed on the basis of imprinting, when the watchdog moves to a new home and for the first time goes out into the big world all alone. On walks, the puppy’s brain will look for something understandable and safe - dogs that look like the images of its mother and littermates familiar from childhood. With a high degree of probability they will be the same breed as the puppy itself. And if you manage to get to know them, establish contact and play happily, then the baby will form an association: “when another dog looks like this, you can have a good time with him.” Further, this behavior will become consolidated on its own: the more fun games there are, the more often the woolly dog ​​will notice dogs of its own breed on walks. 3. Features of breed games None of the above would have happened if not for this nuance. The fact is that each dog plays in its own way, as the selection of its breed dictates to them. For example, the bull type loves to push, wrestle and bite. From the outside, their games look more like a fight, but for the participants themselves this is an absolutely normal and understandable format of communication. Greyhounds, on the contrary, prefer non-contact play, and especially catch-up games. Their element is speed, sharp starts, sharp turns and endless pursuit. Not every breed can withstand such a high-speed format of the game. Spitz dogs play noisi