Very Interesting facts about Squirrels

Squirrel is one of the cutest animals on this planet. But there are very few facts which we know about them. This article will try to give you some insights about this wonderful animal.

The word “Squirrel” comes from the Greek word Skiouros which means shadow tail. They belong to the order rodentia. Click here to know more about orders of class mammalia.

They are found naturally in every continent except Australia (now introduced by humans) and Antarctica. Usually they live in trees and the holes created by the trunk.

Like all other members of the rodent family they have a large incisor which never stop growing through out their life.

Squirrels have a special liking for nuts. Apart from nuts they also like to eat small insects, leaves, tree bark, roots etc.

There are 200 species of squirrel around the world. Among all African pigmy squirrel is the smallest. The full height of the species is 10 centimeter only and can weight just 10 gm. The largest squirrel is the Alpine Marmot which can reach up to 73 centimeter and can weights 5 to 8 kilos.
Being a mammal they have sweat glands but those are present only in their feet.

They have strong and long muscular hind legs and small front leg. The hind legs help them to jump up to a distance of 20 feet.They have 5 toes in their back feet but only four on their front. Their thumbs have not developed properly and the paws have padding (like cats) inside.

While falling from a height they use their tail both as balance and as a parachute.

They show camaraderie while living in a group. This feature is prominent if a group comes under any type of danger. They produce alarming sound to the group to alert them from possible danger.

The outer coating of a squirrel is filled with soft and silky fur. This is one of the reasons why they appear so cute to us. They also have a very large (compared to their body size) eye. This justifies their excellent vision which is very essential for tree living.

They have a gestation period of 44 days. Baby squirrels are blind at the time of birth.

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Seahorse: A Very Interesting Animal

Seahorse is very popular animal. There are a lot of interesting feature associated with a seahorse. Here in this article we will try to bring out some of those.

The biological name of sea horse is Hippocampus. This means horse caterpillar.

Though it is hard to believe but sea horse is a fish. Like many of the other fishes they breathe through gills and use swim bladders to control buoyancy. Seahorse is classified under class Actinopterygii where most of the bony fishes are present. Unlike any other fishes they have neck, a stout and a long tail. The neck of a sea horse is flexible.

They use their prehensile tail to hold on to grass or other weeds and prevent from being washed away by water currents.

The sea horses have independently movable eyes with excellent eye sight. The meaning is that they can look forward and backward in the same time.

In sea horse the skeleton is outside of the body (Exoskeleton) whereas in other fishes it is inside. They do not have any tail fins; though they possess other fins. They do not have any scales either.

Unlike fishes they like to rest in one area. They are not known for their swimming abilities and use only their dorsal fin for this purpose. Unique feature of their swimming is unlike any other fish which swims horizontally, it swims vertically. The dwarf sea horse is the slowest fish in the world (top speed is about 5 ft per hour).

There are more than 50 species of Seahorse. The size varies from 1 to 15 inch depending on the species.

The food for a sea horse ranges from sea plankton to crustaceans. They use their stout as vacuum cleaners for getting food. Some of the species can blend into the surrounding very easily. This camouflage helps them to defend themselves against predators.

They do not have any stomach.

One of the unique features of a sea horse is that the male becomes pregnant and give birth to the young ones.
During pregnancy they release same type of hormones that pregnant mammal females do. Male sea horse posses a brood pouch and females use a depositor to sent her eggs into the pouch.

It was believed that they are monogamous animal and they pair for life but later studies have proven this wrong. Though, the sea horse will stay with the same mate though out the breeding season. Before breeding they display courtship. Both male and female sea horse changes their colors during this period.

In China, seahorse is consumed and also used in medicine for their conceived medicinal values.
Baby sea horses are known as Fry.


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Poison or Venom: Find is the difference

Biologically speaking poisonous animal and venomous animal is not the same thing. Though both of
them contains dangerous amount of toxins, the basic difference between the two lies is the delivery mode. The venomous animals refer to those who can actively deliver the toxin in to the victim’s body whereas the poisonous animals can not perform this due to lack of delivery mechanism. You will only get the toxin only if you touch, smell or eat them. Poison also tends to spread over a larger area or the body whereas venom is typically produced and stored in a particular place of the body. A venom gland is generally present in venomous animals where the toxins get stored till it needed.

The toxin present in both poisonous and venomous animals consists mainly of protein and other neurotransmitters. Depending on their way of work toxins can be broadly classified in two groups:

1.    Hemotoxin: it affects the blood cells and related organs. It can destroy RBC (RBC delivers oxygen through out the body), disrupt blood clotting and can even result in organ failure. The process of death in this type of venom is generally slower than the neurotoxins. Pit viper is one of the snakes which release this type of toxin.

2.    Neurotoxin: Neurotoxin on the other hand attacks the cells of the nervous system. It causes paralysis, respiratory failure and muscular contraction. The death of the victim occurs very quickly if it is injected with neurotoxin. Cobras are typical example of snakes which posses this type of toxin.

Many animals in the animal kingdom are considered poisonous or venomous.

Snakes (not all of them are venomous. Know more about snake by clicking here) such as cobra, rattlesnake, some octopus, lizards, bees, spiders, frogs etc are few of the examples. 

So remember this, the next time you say a snake is poisonous you actually mean that the snake has toxin spread over its body and touching it can cause poisoning; which may not be the case in most of the time.



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