Category Animal World

Luckily for us, we don’t even have to imagine: we have examples of this happening in the real world, and right here, in the Americas, very close to us.

Can you imagine entire civilizations developing without the help of horses?

Pre-Columbian civilizations not only did not know horses, but had no other means of riding. The reason is quite obvious, in fact: whether in the Amazon rainforest or in the Andes, the terrain was anything but friendly to riding animals.

Even so, our indigenous ancestors managed to domesticate llamas. More precisely, the Inca people. The animal was, without a doubt, one of the most important elements for the development of this people. In addition to pack animals, they served as a source of food, wool and leather. The curious thing is that, unlike their relatives, camels, neither llamas, nor their close cousins, alpacas, are useful as mounts.

They are also not very useful for combat.

Well, except, of course, as pack animals. Although with a much smaller capacity than that of the old world horses and cattle, llamas and alpacas do very well in the steep and rocky terrains of the Andes.

But okay. The question is animals truly used in combat. In this case, the best, biggest and most incredible alternative to horses, you already guessed it…

In India, elephants have been used extensively in combat for ages. At some point, it was said that Indian ruler, Porus, had over 100,000 war elephants in his army.

They’ve been used in Europe, too. One of the greatest achievements of Hannibal, general of Carthage, was to lead an army of 80,000 soldiers along with his troop of elephants, on a march through the Alps. Although many men and animals perished on the crossing, the conclusion of this journey is still considered to be one of the greatest military achievements in history. Hannibal’s attack with his elephants was, to some extent, a great success.

Over the next 15 years, Hannibal won significant battles and occupied the south of Italy, once with reinforcements shipped directly from Africa, although no elephants were included. In the 209 B.C. battle of Canusium with the Roman consul Marcellus, Hannibal’s war elephants created havoc until the Romans managed to wound one, touching off a cascade of panic among the pachyderms.

You see, war elephants were a growing problem at some point in history. Because of this, to counter them, another animal, other than the horse, was used with great success…

During the siege of Megara, among the Macedonian troops, were the feared war elephants. To break the siege, it was necessary to eliminate the imposing animals. For this, Mégara’s generals devised a plan that was both creative and extremely cruel: oiling pigs and set the poor animals on fire.

When the burning pigs were released, grunting in pain and despair, towards the Macedonian elephants, the pachyderms, seeing the mass of fire coming their way, with their shrill and deafening screeches, panicked. The elephants fled in terror, trampling (and killing) many Macedonian soldiers in the rout.

Probably man has tried and tested every animal he could for war and cargo transportation. I think the best alternative would undoubtedly be the elephants, already tested and approved in the field.

 

Credit : Quora

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The most common myth concerning ostriches is that these birds bury their heads under the sand whenever danger is on the prowl. In reality, this isn’t true, because ostriches do not bury their heads underground when threatened; instead, they will readily defend themselves and protect their chicks.

Sure enough, the world’s biggest and fastest bird can become aggressive if threatened. For that matter, it has long, dagger-like claws at the end of its long feet – as such, one kick can inflict a serious amount of damage. This is why it’s always advisable never to try provoking an ostrich.

However, the myth does come from a true fact: when nesting, a female ostrich will dig shallow holes in the ground, so as to use them as nests for her eggs. In the process, she uses her beak to turn her eggs several times each day.

In fact, from a distance, an ostrich leaning into a hole could easily look like it’s burying its head in the sand! And that is what probably led to the common myth.

But still, despite their comical appearance, ostriches are not cowards; they are dangerous birds that will never relent towards anything that threatens their lives or that of their young. It’s always wise never to mess with ostriches.

 

Credit : Quora

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Elephants kill gratuitously.

Yes, the herbivorous elephant.

It’s been observed that some young bull elephants have got into the habit of raping and killing rhinos, buffalo and sometimes even other elephants, for what is clearly just for the hell of it. If you want pictures/videos though, I’ll let you Google them for yourselves.

The reason? Poachers.

It’s not unknown that elephants are prime targets for poachers, as their ivory commands a high price. Because older males have bigger tusks, though, they’ve been the preferred target for this callous bunch ever since the pound signs rocked up in front of them, and as a result, their numbers out of all elephants have taken the biggest hit.

Researchers have observed that the knock-on effect of this is that the younger males lack a role model, a sort of father figure, to instil in them self-control and good behaviour. Without those boundaries set, some go wild and do some crazy and despicable things.

This isn’t mere speculation either.

Young male elephants at national parks in parts of Africa exhibiting aggressive behaviour, particularly killing rhinos in ritualised combat, were shown to be less aggressive when bigger, older males were reintroduced.

So what’s the cause?

It’s believed that musth (pronounced “moost”) is the reason. It’s the name given to periods where a male elephant’s testosterone spikes by 40–60×, or even up to 140× in some cases, causing them to become highly aggressive to the point that controlling them becomes impossible. The studies have found that once the older males were reintroduced, it stopped the younger males from entering musth in the first place.

Of course in the wild, it’s not so simple. Killing the older males has invariably upset the social structure of elephants, and it’s already becoming clear what the results are going to be should this continue.

 

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 The cone snail is the scariest animal that no one talks about.

Look at that beautiful shell, covered in pretty patterns! Don’t you just want to pick it up?

If you do, you’re as good as dead. They have a venomous, stinging tongue that stretches far enough to strike you no matter where you hold it from. A few microliters of cone snail toxin is powerful enough to kill 10 people, and the worst part? The stinger is full of painkillers so you won’t even realize you’ve been stung.

Luckily they don’t have a high human kill-count… but the few people they do kill? Never see it coming.

There are over 500 species of cone snail, and most aren’t deadly to humans… only about 10 species could kill you. But a Geography Cone Snail? It has a complex cocktail of over 100 toxins, and there’s no antivenin for it. The best they can do is keep you alive at the hospital (if you make it there in 15 minutes) until the venoms have worked their way through your body… which is PAINFUL. The sting might be painless, but this is a horrible way to die.

 

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 There are very odd organisms living 2500 meters deep in lithosphere, under the ocean, that have such a low rate of metabolism that they divide once every hundreds, perhaps a thousand years.

They have only been discovered recently. Their habitat is isolated from the surface biosphere. It doesn’t depend on photosynthesis. In lithosphere, under the ocean, the food chain starts with radioactive decay. These organisms divide so slowly that it’s difficult to even measure their metabolic rate to tell how often they divide. They are not animals though. They are unicellular organisms. Their existence gives hope to our search for extraterrestrial life forms on other planets. If life on Earth can survive and thrive isolated from the surface, then it’s conceivable that it can on other planets, in their deep lithosphere as well. Perhaps life as we know it started in such habitat too.

To answer your question: Because of slow rate of metabolism, lithosphere life forms can divide (are born) so rarely, that it might be a thousand years between each division. They are not animals though. They are much simpler single-celled organisms. There is no known multi cellular life form, animal, that I’m aware of, that is born once every thousand years.

 

Credit : Quora

Picture Credit : Google