Wander Lord

Interesting on art, nature, people, history

Category Archive: Animals

Misconceptions about insects

Misconceptions about insects

Misconceptions about insects

Cockroaches are the most indestructible creatures
Cockroaches can survive radiation and hunger, they can live without a head for a couple of weeks and the poison becomes a delicacy for them.
But the real record holder is tardigrada. These microscopic multicellular animals are very small. There are approximately 900 species which live throughout the world. They look a little like woodlice. They feed on other smaller animals or plants. They have the ability to go into hibernation – curl up into a tight little ball and cover themselves with waxy substance. In this state tardigrada performs miracles of survival. You can boil them in water, use poison gases, liquid oxygen, throw out into space and place in a nuclear reactor. At the end of these tests it is enough to get them back into a normal atmosphere and a drop of water – and they come to life again.
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Misconceptions about mammals

Misconceptions about mammals

Misconceptions about mammals

Life forms exist on the Earth for a long time, but the human being has appeared relatively recently. The human being began to study the neighbors on the planet. And it turned out that there are a lot of surprises in wildlife.

Only mammals have fur
The hairy frog lives in Cameroon western Africa. Males of this species have fairly thick black hair that grows on back legs. But actually this is no fur but skin growths in the form of long thin threads. They increase the frog skin area to ensure its sufficient amount of oxygen entering the blood directly through the skin. Females don’t have “fur” because they live mainly on land.
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Misconceptions about snakes

Misconceptions about snakes

Misconceptions about snakes


Snakes do not fly
Born to crawl cannot fly. Snakes, devoid of limbs, really cannot fly in the clouds. But it is quite possible to think about hovering. Why should they be worse than flying squirrels, flying fish and frogs?
There are some snakes, which are able to hover. These “gliders” live in Southwest Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines and are called Chrysopelea. There are several species and they are all very bright and colorful, with beautiful smooth scales, graceful head, big eyes. These snakes live in the crowns of the tropical trees where prey on lizards.
Of all the snakes only they are able to hover from a great height and jump from tree to tree.
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Microbes and the good they do

Microbes and the good they do

Microbes and the good they do


When the word ‘microbes’ is mentioned, people have the tendency to think of damage and disease. But life on Earth would not be possible without microbes. They are everywhere: in the air, on the land, even in the harshest parts of the world. Every inch of every surface of our body is covered with micro-organisms. Billions of them thrive on our skin. Millions are found elsewhere inside us. The total weight of bacteria living in the human body is 2 kilograms.
They make up more than two-thirds of the world’s biomass.
They are micro-organisms, living creatures that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Two types of microbes are bacteria and viruses. Bacteria have the tools to reproduce themselves, by themselves. They are filled with fluid, and may have threadlike structures to move themselves, like a tail. A virus may have a spiny outside layer, called the envelope. Viruses have a core of genetic material. Viruses cannot reproduce on their own. They infect cells and take over their reproductive machinery to reproduce.
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Most dangerous birds

Cassowary

Cassowary


Birds are a symbol of peace and goodness. We could hardly remember birds deadly to humans. But they are.

Cassowary
It looks quite harmless. In fact, the cassowary is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most dangerous bird in the world. If the flightless inhabitant of tropical forests of New Guinea and northeastern Australia sees a person on its territory it immediately attacks.
Cassowary has very strong legs and its claws are like daggers. The bird has a pretty bad temper and can become furious without any reason.
Even American and Australian military men during the Second World War said it was better to avoid meeting with the colorful feathered monster. By the way, cassowaries are rarely kept in zoos – because of the unpredictable character of this creature zoo workers were injured very often.
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Cat – tiger in your house

Cat - tiger in your house

Cat – tiger in your house


The domestic cat has lived among people for thousands of years. People have kept cats as pets, used them as hunters, and even worshipped them as gods.
Cats use their claws for climbing trees, catching food, and protecting themselves against other animals. All cats but the cheetah can move their claws in and out.
They can see at night when it’s very dark. They naturally get their food by hunting. When they play with string and small toys, they’re displaying their ancient family hunting instinct.
The people of Egypt were the first to keep cats as pets. When cats died, they were often buried in special graveyards or even made into mummies! The Egyptian goddess Bast, or Bastet, was represented in pictures and statues as a lioness or as a woman with a cat’s head. The Egyptian cult of the cat was so strong that the punishment for killing a cat was death. In Norse myth its contradictory nature is acknowledged in the demon cats that pulled the chariot of Freyja, the goddess of love and fertility as well as of battle and death.
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Amazing underwater creatures

Amazing underwater creatures

Amazing underwater creatures

Many strange and amazing animals live in the deepest parts of the ocean – vampire squids, sea angels, sea spiders… It is very cold down there and there is no sunlight- only the light produced by some of the creatures. Still, thousands and thousands of known and unknown species live there.
The deep sea is full of mysteries. People know more about the surface of the moon and the planet of Mars than they do about the bottom of the ocean!
One of the strangest creatures found by the scientist is a new species related to the octopus. It’s about 2 meters long, has 8 legs and fins that flap like an elephant’s ears. It’s beautiful and graceful. It lives between 1,000 m to 3,000 m deep. The sea biologists called it Jumbo Dumbo because it looks like the fictional flying elephant.
Many deep-sea creatures look like real monsters. Vampire squid looks like something that swam out of a late-night science fiction film. It has big eyes, eight arms and very big white teeth.
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