Category Fun Facts

The sound waves come from the animals’ huge vocal cords, and distant elephants “hear” the signals with their highly sensitive feet.

Elephants perceive vibrations through the soles of their feet. Vibrations travel up through their bones to their head. They are then amplified by the skull’s bones and transmitted to the ossicles of the ear. The elephant pounds the earth to alert others of danger. Such messages can be perceived at a distance of up to 18.5 mi. (30 km).

To test the theory that elephants transmit and receive underground messages, O’Connell-Rodwell and her colleagues previously conducted several novel experiments with pachyderms in Africa, India and at a captive elephant facility in Texas.

“We went to Etosha National Park in Namibia and recorded three acoustic calls commonly made by wild African elephants,” she says. “One is a warning call, another is a greeting and the third is the elephant equivalent of ‘Let’s go!'”

The researchers wanted to find out if elephants would respond to recordings played through the ground, so they installed seismic transmitters at a tourist facility in Zimbabwe where eight trained, young elephants were housed.

The idea was to convert audible “Greetings,” “Warning!” and “Let’s go!” calls into underground seismic waves that an elephant could feel but not hear directly through the air.

“We used a mix of elephant calls, synthesized low-frequency tones, rock music and silence for comparison,” says O’Connell-Rodwell.

“When the ‘Warning!’ calls were played, one female got so agitated she bent down and bit the ground,” she notes. “That’s very unusual behavior for an elephant, but it has been observed in the wild under conditions of extreme agitation.”

The young female had the same agitated response each time the experiment was repeated. Researchers also played recorded calls to seven captive males.

“The bulls reacted, too, but their response was much more subtle,” notes O’Connell-Rodwell.

“We think they’re sensing these underground vibrations through their feet,” she adds. “Seismic waves could travel from their toenails to the ear via bone conduction, or through somatosensory receptors in the foot similar to ones found in the trunk. We think it may be a combination of both.”

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1. North Korea is the only country that do not sell Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola cannot be bought or sold in Cuba due to the long-term US trade embargo since 1962. Cuba was actually one of the first 3 countries outside the US to bottle Coke in 1906 but the company moved out as Fidel Castro’s government began seizing private assets in the 1960s & has never returned

2. The entire world’s population could fit inside Los Angeles standing shoulder to shoulder.

3. The world’s hottest pepper could kill you.

4. The Canary Islands are named after Dogs.

5. The longest place name in the world is 85 letters long.

6. Four babies are born every second.

7. The coldest temperature ever recorded was -144°F(-98°C).

8. The current amount of people who are alive represents only 7% of those who have ever lived.

9. California is home to the Artichoke Capital in the world.

10. The world’s largest man-made oyster reef was created in Maryland.

Credit : Quora

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A baby turtle is called a hatchling, while hatchling is most often used for a young bird, tadpoles, newts and new born baby turtles.

Baby turtles are cute little creatures that require totally different care than adult turtles, needing a lot of special care to keep them alive and healthy. They’re prone to many diseases and carry many disease-carrying germs. You have to feed a baby turtle food that is available in the pet store, while supplementing their diets with vegetables, meat and fruit. Land turtles tend to eat more vegetables than those living in water.

The building block of your baby turtle’s diet is the pellet or gel capsule supplement, which is a snap to find in any pet store that sells turtle supplies. There are two caveats, however: you should examine each label to make sure your newborn turtle is getting the best diet possible, and you should select a formula that’s been approved for your particular shelled pet. For example, what a baby box turtle eats is more of a true omnivorous diet than a water turtle eats, which includes more raw meat as a baby but a more omnivorous diet as an adult.

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Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines. They are characterized by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield. “Turtle” may refer to the order as a whole (American English) or to fresh-water and sea-dwelling Testudines (British English). Testudines includes both extant (living) and extinct species. Its earliest known members date from the Middle Jurassic. Turtles are one of the oldest reptile groups, more ancient than snakes or crocodilians. Of the 356 known extant species, some are highly endangered.

A turtle’s diet varies greatly depending on the environment in which it lives. Adult turtles typically eat aquatic plants,[citation needed] invertebrates such as insects, snails, and worms, and have been reported to occasionally eat dead marine animals. Several small freshwater species are carnivorous, eating small fish and a wide range of aquatic life. However, protein is essential to turtle growth and juvenile turtles are purely carnivorous.

Sea turtles typically feed on jellyfish, sponges, and other soft-bodied organisms. Some species with stronger jaws have been observed to eat shellfish, while others, such as the green sea turtle, do not eat meat at all and, instead, have a diet largely made up of algae.

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Yes, sea turtles can feel it when you touch their shell. Sea turtle shells consist of bones, which are covered by a layer of so-called scutes (plates). These scutes are made of keratin, the same material that human fingernails are made of. There are nerve endings enervating even the bones of the shell. These nerve endings are sensitive to pressure, for example from a touch on the back.

A tortoise’s shell obviously isn’t as sensitive as its skin, but the animals are able to feel the tactile sensations that occur when someone pats, rubs, scratches, or taps it. This has to do with how the shell is physically attached to the tortoise’s body.

One thing that tortoises and turtles have in common is their tendency to recede into their shells when they feel threatened. In the proper care, however, most tortoises appear to enjoy being touched by their caretakers. In some cases, they extend their necks out while being touched or massaged – a sign that the animal wants to be rubbed some more.

Picture Credit : Google