People are most often concerned about the strength of other people, and they, as a rule, forget about animals, and in vain, since their capabilities far exceed human ones. Bemorepanda has compiled a list of the 10 most powerful animals on the planet, whose power cannot fail to impress. You can hardly guess who is at the bottom of the list, so get ready to be amazed!
Grizzly bear
Can lift objects over 500 kg, which is ~ 0.8 times their average body weight.
Green anaconda
This snake can squeeze someone to death, equal to its average weight of 250 kg.
Elephant
Elephants are the strongest mammals and the strongest land animals. The African elephant can weigh up to 6.35 tons, while it can carry up to 9 tons, which is the weight of 130 adults.
Musk ox
A musk ox can carry an object of about 900 kg, which is 1.5 times its average weight.
Tiger
A tiger can drag an object weighing about 550 kg onto a 3-meter tree. This is roughly double their average body weight.
Eagle
The eagle is the most powerful bird, capable of lifting something 4 times its own weight during flight. Moreover, they weigh up to 6 kg.
Gorilla
Gorillas can lift about 2 tons (about 30 people can lift the same amount), which is more than 10 times their average weight.
Leaf cutter ant
These ants carry things in their jaws that weigh 50 times their average weight (about 0.5 grams). It's like trying to lift a truck with your teeth.
Rhinoceros beetle
These small beetles can lift things 850 times their own weight. For comparison, if a person had the strength of a rhinoceros beetle, he could lift a 65-ton object. And if an elephant had the same strength, it could carry 850 elephants on its back.
Dung-beetle
The dung beetle is not only the most powerful insect in the world, but also the most powerful animal on the planet compared to its body weight. They can push objects 1,141 times their own weight. In the case of humans, this is how the average person would push six double-decker buses packed with people.
Recently, news from the United States has flooded the information space, but now most of them are devoted to the southern states, and in particular Texas. The fact is that at the moment the state is under the yoke of a blizzard. Residents and the municipality were not ready for the cold, which is a record for the area. 10-20 cm of snow and -10 ℃ does not sound particularly scary for us, but for the inhabitants of Texas it is a disaster, as people’s uninsulated pipes burst, and the dramatically increased demand for electricity forces electric companies to disconnect people from electricity.
But not only people suffer from frost, but also animals that are stuck on farms, in zoos and just on the streets. Some Texans did not abandon the animals to their fate, and literally took them to their homes. Now in Texas, you won't surprise anyone with a calf in the house. Bemorepanda collected some pictures.
Twitter user Susan McKay sent in a photo of a calf basking near the fireplace
And this guy took a wild bunny from the street
“My mom is retired and during the winter she volunteers at a sea turtle rescue center in South Texas. The cold snap caught the local turtles by surprise, and many of them have already been rescued. Today my mom sent me this photo of the back of her Subaru. "
And these farmers set up a tent in the house and placed their chickens in it.
The San Antonio, Texas Zoo has decided to house flamingos and other animals in restaurants and other areas of the zoo
Took this little fighter just in time
1,700 rescued sea turtles at the Padre Island Convention Center, South Texas
“I live in the Tennessee mountains and we were left without heating on Saturday. Animals are walking in the bathroom, and we are all under a few blankets. "
"Sea Turtles Collected in the South of the Padres"
The woman turned her house into a real barn
Message from the same woman: "I turned my cafeteria into a place for animals to wait out a blizzard."
The kid who moved to live in the hallway
“My sister and her husband have a farm for 120 head of cattle. They had to take home (utility room) at least 4 newborn calves and cover them with warm blankets so that they would not die. "
Chickens huddling in the bath
An alligator waits through the cold in the aquariums at the San Antonio Zoo, Texas
Numerous wild animals inhabit forests and steppes, swamps, and deserts. The more you learn about the diversity of fauna in different parts of our planet, the more you are amazed at the wisdom of nature, which created all these creatures and adapted them to other living conditions. And although man has long domesticated many species of wild animals, their free relatives still quietly exist far from our civilization.
Top facts about wild animals
1. Peacocks stage dance battles to win over the female
The peacock is a polygamous bird: the male can "be in a relationship" with several peahens at once. But their attention still needs to be won! During the mating season, peacocks compete with each other for the favor of the ladies, dancing in front of them and shaking their open tails, the feathers of which sway and even seem to ring.
In competition, the owner of the most extended tail usually wins - he is also the "author" of the most active movements.
As soon as the peahen reciprocates the courtship and sits on the egg-laying, the male loses all interest in her. He rushes to conquer a new "love" to collect the most numerous harem.
Although the peacock is famous for its magnificent tail, few people know that all this beauty is the tail feathers. The natural peacock tail, hidden under these colorful feathers, is nothing of interest.
2. Puminas are born spotted like leopards
Even the Latin name of the cougar - Puma color - reflects one of the main features of this wild cat - the uniformity of color. In adults, everything is the same - they are sandy in color. But puma is born with spots on the body, stripes on the paws, and rings on the tails.
Spotted coloration allows babies to camouflage better. With age (closer to a year), when the cub can already fend for itself, the spots begin to fade, and by the age of 2, they disappear entirely. In these animals, the color of the coat changes, and the color of the eyes change: all puma are born blue-eyed. By six months, the iris becomes brown.
3. There are no barriers to animal friendship
Exceptional cases of friendship among animals of different species can be observed in the zoo. A female tapir named Cleopatra (affectionately - Klepa) found a kindred spirit in a duck rejected by relatives. The bird was placed in an aviary with tapirs and capybaras for a while - until a new home is found for the bird, which does not find a common language with other ducks.
The zoo staff noticed that the tapir and the duck became friends: they ate from the same bowl, walked together, and swam in the pool. And even the appearance of Klepa's fiance could not affect their relationship: now, they spend all the time together.
4. Abandoned primate babies sleep with soft toys and heating pads
"Animals don't abandon their children" is a myth. Unfortunately, not everyone wakes up to maternal instinct. Such “refuseniks” would have no chance of survival in the wild, but keepers come to their aid.
The most challenging thing is with the cubs of primates, man's closest relatives. The fact is that females carry offspring on themselves: first on the chest, then on the back. The baby should feel warm and hear the beat of the mother's heart - only then will he feel good.
For “refuseniks,” keepers make fur pillows with heating pads inside, giving them soft toys to create a feeling of warmth and safety. Baby primates need to be carried around frequently, allowing them to listen to their heartbeats. And, of course, feeding by the hour from pipettes, syringes, and bottles (depending on the type of primate) has not been canceled.
5. An animal called "panther" does not exist
Since childhood, we have all known the black panther Bagheera from Kipling's The Jungle Book. Panther is not the name of one animal but the name of a whole genus of prominent representatives of the cat family.
Belonging to the genus of panthers is easily traced by the Latin names of all its four representatives: tiger - Panthera tigris, lion - Panthera leo, leopard - Panthera pardus, jaguar - Panthera onca.
Black panthers are called jaguars or leopards with manifestations of melanism (that is, darker than other individuals in Ida coloring). Kipling's Bagheera, by the way, was a melanistic leopard since jaguars are not found in India.
The star of our zoo is the black jaguar Naomi. In bright light, black spots can be seen on her graphite coat.
6. Foxes adopt cubs of the female they like
Even though the fox is a cunning lone cheat in fairy tales, these animals keep in pairs in life, creating strong families. Males take an active part in the upbringing of offspring: they get food for the whole family, teach the grown young to hunt, and look after the kids.
If trouble happens to the family's father, another single fox takes his place and takes care of other people's offspring as if they were his own. Sometimes single individuals even fight for the right to become a stepfather. Still, people have a lot to learn from animals.
7. Tigers can swim for fun
Representatives of the feline family do not particularly like water. Still, there are exceptions among domestic marks and representatives of their wild relatives. The Amur tiger is one of the few cats that can frolic in the water at will and with great pleasure.
A vivid example of this is the pet of the Limpopo Zoo, Emir, who loves to play water polo with a ball. He sits in the pool with only his head sticking out of the water.
8. When a camel is born, it falls from a height of a meter
Female Bactrian camels give birth standing up. Given that the growth of the average “ship of the desert” at the withers exceeds 2 meters, a newborn camel begins its life in this world with a fall. A slap on the ground makes the baby start breathing.
Already an hour after the birth, the camel gets up on its legs to drink its mother's milk, and after two, it can follow its parents where they go.
By the way, pregnancy in camels lasts 13 months, 1.5 times longer than in humans.
9. Japanese macaques are very smart and resourceful
Firstly, it was a discovery for me that the correct name of the animal is “macaque” and not “macaque,” as we usually say. Secondly, these most northern primates amazed me with their cunning and skill.
Once I watched a keeper clean up the enclosure of a young female macaque. While the worker bent down and swept the floor, the monkey jumped on her back and quickly ransacked her pants pockets. Having found a candy, she climbed into the farthest corner of the enclosure, carefully unwrapped the candy wrapper, and ate the sweetness. The wrapper, however, was not thrown into the urn.
Japanese macaques have an excellent ability to imitate: they can be taught to make snowballs, wash fruit before eating, and some especially enterprising individuals even try to drive a car—fortunately, a toy.
10. Musangs help people make the most expensive coffee in the world
The Malayan palm civet, or musang, is a small animal from Asia well known to all coffee lovers. In Indonesia, musangs are actively involved in producing the most expensive coffee globally, Kopi Luwak, 1 kg of which can cost about $ 1,000.
What is the feature of Kopi Luwak? The civets are fed the ripe fruits of the coffee tree and wait for the beans to come out naturally. After exposure to gastric juice and enzymes, coffee beans remain intact but acquire new taste properties. The grains are washed, dried, roasted, and sold at fabulous prices.
They say that the taste of such coffee is softer, without bitterness. We did not try to repeat the experience of the Indonesians at the zoo. There were no such true connoisseurs of expensive coffee.
11. The giraffe has the longest and thickest eyelashes of any animal
The giraffe is not only the tallest land mammal on our planet but also the owner of the longest and thickest eyelashes in the animal world. And this is not a whim of nature but a necessity.
The fact is that giraffes live in Africa, where there is a lot of dust. Fluffy eyelashes protect their eyes from the smallest particles of sand and are necessary for these giants to survive.
12. Leopard spotting is as unique as human fingerprints
On the golden fur, you can see patterns of 2 types: "rosettes" - black contours with a light center - and dark spots. When hunting, this coloration serves as a camouflage for the predator: it makes the outlines of the animal's body vaguer. It is more difficult for the prey to calculate its location.
The location of the spots on the coat of each leopard is unique, just like the fingerprints of humans are special. This feature allows scientists observing leopards in the wild to identify them from photos or videos.
13. Lynxes are not afraid of people, but they do not attack them either
This wild cat with tassels on its ears treats people quite calmly. Unlike other relatives, who avoid contact with humans in every possible way, lynxes often settle in forests near villages and villages. They even go to settlements for prey in famine years - small domestic animals.
Zoologists claim no single confirmed case of an unauthorized lynx attack on a person. This cat can show aggression towards people only if it is injured or protecting its offspring, which is in danger. If the lynx is not touched, it will not attack.
14. Holidays are arranged for pets to diversify their everyday life
Animals, like people, love holidays because, for them, it means increased attention, gifts, and treats.
Animals enjoy gifts and unusual edible goodies like children. And employees and visitors of the zoo are touched by looking at them.
15. Some animals are released from the zoo into the wild
Don't be afraid: these are not tigers or bears. They were brought to the zoo as fledglings. Fledglings are young birds that have just begun to fly out of the nest. The first flight experiences are challenging. They are seen by people and carried to the zoo.
It is forbidden to remove animals from the wild, so usually, zoos do not accept such foundlings and advise people to return the fledglings to where they found them. We often talk about owls, and these birds do not abandon their babies. But many "saviors" are too lazy to return to the forest, and they leave boxes with chicks at the entrance to the zoo: they say, sort it out yourself.
Every spring, the keepers of our zoo have to feed up to 10 owlets. This is not an easy task: depending on the chick's age, every 3-4 hours, he needs to be given food (they are fed meat with tweezers) and water. They don’t teach fledglings to handle. On the contrary, they try to show them the basics of hunting so that they can survive in the wild on their own.
Bonus: an otter is not a curse, but a complete mimimi
Most visitors come to the zoo to look at large animals (bears, tigers, bison) and leave in love with otters. These animals stand touchingly on their hind legs, swim excellently, demonstrate excellent plasticity, and stay underwater for about 2 minutes.
The beautiful and very dense fur of otters does not allow water to pass through. Therefore, after swimming a lot and shaking off drops, these animals remain dry. This feature of the waterproof undercoat will enable otters to swim even in freezing water and not get cold. Look into those eyes - and you will understand that the otter is not an insult but a compliment.
Environmental organizations, national parks, and wildlife shelters in Africa are gearing up for the worst. The borders are closed, there are no tourists, which means that most of the projects for the conservation of rare and endangered species of animals were left without money, Izvestia reports.
The rhinoceros shelter in the southern African province of Limpopo remained virtually without personnel due to the pandemic.
Mostly foreigners worked here, changing every three months, but because of the coronavirus their visas were canceled. Four full-time employees had to withstand 72-hour shifts, sleeping only 2-3 hours per night.
Caring for little orphaned rhinos is hard work. They demand milk at any time of the day or night and scream loudly, calling on the mother, who was killed before their eyes by poachers.
The founder and shelter manager, 66-year-old retired teacher, Arri van Deventer, had to look for local volunteers through social networks.
Of the several hundred who responded, he chose only two. The location of such shelters is kept secret in order to avoid attacks by poachers. Mokgopong facility has been attacked twice already.
Mapimpi was orphaned when he was seven days old. Poachers killed his mother to cut off the horn, which is used as medicine and for jewelry.
His body was very dehydrated, his skin was dry, he tried to eat sand. The baby was fed milk mixture from a bottle. At the age of five, like other grown rhinos, he will be released into the wild.
Dozens of visitors usually gathered to feed an orphan elephant from a bottle in a David Sheldrick shelter near Kenyan Nairobi.
Now he eats alone: on March 15, the institution was closed, after the country revealed the first case of coronavirus.
The shelter lives on online donations and from ticket sales. Before the pandemic, up to 500 people visited its territory daily, each paying about $ 5 for entry.
Now you can attend the elephant calf feeding procedure or watch how he sleeps, only online. On social media, live broadcasts are at 11:00 and 17:00 local time.
Elephant calves in East Africa very often remain orphaned by poachers. The smallest most often die without breast milk.
The David Sheldrick Foundation has special teams to combat poachers and several mobile veterinary teams that patrol the area from air and land. These events were organized thanks to tourists and donnors.
According to the UN, last year Africa was visited by about 70 million tourists. In order to survive in a pandemic, reserves, shelters, national parks throughout Africa suspend all third-party projects, stop building infrastructure and cut staff salaries
Some people adore puppies - other likes hyenas.
A two-year-old girl from Zimbabwe made friends with a flock of hyenas living in the nature reserve where her father works. The video of the child’s playing with predators was noticed by the Daily Mail.
Passion for predatory animals was passed by two-year-old Kiki Wolhuter (Kiki Wolhuter) from his father. Kim, the father of the girl, creates films about the wild animals.
For many years, he and his family have been living in the Sango Nature Reserve in eastern Zimbabwe and studying the life of hyenas.
Kiki asked Kim many times to show her the predators closer, but he refused for a long time, because he was afraid that they would attack the child. However, after much persistence, the man decided that he would allow his daughter to get to know the hyenas closer.
At first, the predators cautiously approached Kiki, sniffed her, but soon realized that she was not dangerous, and began to play with her. The girl immediately liked the hyenas, as they looked like her favorite plush toy.
Kiki's father said that the girl perceives predators as pets: she loves to run and play with them. “Hyenas are like puppies to her. They became very attached to Kiki and really fell in love with her, ”Kim admitted.
The scientist is upset that in movies and cartoons hyenas are always perceived as angry and aggressive, and he hopes that he will be able to change people's perception of these predators.
“Hyenas are very smart animals. In addition, they are brilliant hunters and caring parents for their pets, ”he said.