Category Plants & Animals

          Do you know any animal that washes its food before eating it?

          Raccoon is such an interesting animal. Most raccoons wash their food, and there have been instances when not finding water to wash their food, they refused to eat. However, they have also been known to eat food even when they could find water nearby. Some racoons have been observed to eat without ever washing their food.

          Nobody really knows why raccoons wash their food. They do not seem to wash it in an attempt to clean it, since they even wash it in muddy water. Besides they would even wash food caught in the water which certainly does not need washing. So the reason is probably that water makes food tastier for them.

          The name ‘raccoon’ comes from the American Indian word arakhuman. They are furry mammals and belong to the family Procyonidae. They are found in the stretch from Southern Canada to Panama, except in the high Rockies.

          Raccoon is usually gray in colour, sometimes tinged with yellow or brown. It has a bushy, ringed tail which is about 25 cm long, dark brown in colour with four to six yellowish rings. The eyes are covered with black marks. They have pointed snouts and strong, sharp claws. They use their paws to find food.

          Raccoons live in places where there is water and trees for dens. Their food, which they hunt at night, is mainly crayfish, clams, fish and frogs. They find their prey in muddy water. They also feed on nuts, berries, fruits and particularly young corn.

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               There are about 600 marine organisms which produce light from their bodies. The main groups of marine luminescent organisms include protozoans, coelenterates, polychactes, molluscs, crustaceans and fishes. Many sea bacteria are also luminescent. Sponges, jellyfish, beetles, flies and earthworms also produce light. This type of luminescence is called bio-luminescence.

               Careful studies on fishes and other organisms have revealed that this light is the result of a series of chemical reactions taking place in the organisms. In this contest luminescence is basically of two types: Intracellular and Extracellular. Animals which produce luminescence by intracellular mechanism have luminescent glands. The others which produce luminescence by extracellular mechanism have unicellular or multi-cellular organs in some particular regions of their body. There are two substances (Iuciferin and luciferase) whose interaction produces luminescence. Intracellular light flashes range in duration from a fraction of a second to several minutes. Light producing organs in different sea animals are located in the skin on the ventral musculature and within the abdomen. Light is emitted only from the parts where they have these organs.

               Lantern fish and angler fish are two well-known luminescent sea animals. The angler fish has its lighted baits placed in the mouth. Lantern fish produces definite patterns of light.

               Luminescence produced by sea animals is helpful in locating fish shoals because the movement of a large number of fishes produces light which can be detected by light sensors. In the last two decades, significant progress has been made in the detection of fish shoals.

           Man has been using the red corals in the jewellery since ancient times. Romans used to hang pieces of coral around their children’s necks believing that it could prevent and cure diseases. In some parts of Italy, it is still worn to ward off the ‘evil eye’. Indians also use coral pieces as jewels in their rings and other ornaments. But what is a coral?

          Coral is the hard dried skeleton composed mainly of calcium produced by colonies of small animals known as ‘coral polyps’. They are small invertebrate organisms. The polyps of living coral live in tiny cups in the skeleton formed beneath and around their outer body. The polyp first attaches itself to a rock beneath the surface of water. The young ones are born as small buds from its body. When the old polyp dies, the living polyps remain attached to its skeleton and produce more buds. In this way, corals gradually build up into colonies of many millions. As layer upon layer of coral is built up they actually form reefs and islands in the ocean.

          Corals can be found in most seas, but the reef-forming ones prefer warm, shallow water. A coral reef begins as a fringing reef along the shore of a continent or island. Corals are found mainly in the warm tropical waters of the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. We get red and pink corals from polyps found in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Africa and Italy. Corals begin to shine when they are polished. These are mainly used in ornaments. 

          The flying fox is not really a fox, but a large, fruit-eating bat. There are 175 species of flying fox, and unlike most bats they have large eyes and long muzzles. It is their fox-like face that led to the name ‘flying fox’. They fly at dusk in search of fruit, relying mainly on sight and smell to find their way. Flying foxes are found in Asia, Africa, Australia and the islands of the Pacific.

          Most bats are small in size and look like mice. They are insect-eaters. Their wing-span is rarely as much as 30 cm. The biggest of all bats are the fruit eaters or flying foxes. One bat – the Kalong or Malay fruit bat has a wing-span of 1.5 metres. They have long sharp teeth with which they can even break a coconut. They weigh up to 1.5 kg. Unlike other bats, flying-foxes have well developed eyes which enable them to find their way by sight and not by sound waves. Their love for fruit makes them nuisance for orchards. Flying foxes live in thickly populated areas and make their homes in trees, resting close to a suitable source of food.

          Bats fly like birds, yet, in fact, they are mammals. They are the only mammals that can truly be said to fly. Their wings do not have feathers, but are made of a thin sheet of skin stretched between the long ‘finger’ bones. In most bats the wings are also joined to the legs and tail. Other ‘flying’ mammals, such as the flying squirrels can only glide, but the bats actually fly.