The Unexpected Truth about Animals Flashcards
Bat’s infrared sensors are located in their…
noses
How do vampire bats hunt?
approach prey by foot not from the air (suck blood from large mammals)
Which type of bats cannot echolocate?
Fruit bats
What inspired sonar technology used by ships?
Bat’s echolocation
The Us planned to use … with mini-bombs attached to attack Japan
bats
Some species of frogs are able to produce their own…
sunscreen
In the 1950’s the communist Chinese government recommended swallowing (live) … as a form of birth control
tadpoles
Many ancient cultures have associated … with fertility
frogs
The theory of spontaneous generation
claims that animals are not produced by other animals of the same kind but that they arose from non-living matter
-It was believed by preformists that all beings developed from …
a miniature version of themselves (called the homunculus for humans) which could be found in the egg or sperm
Frog fertilize their eggs…
externally
Between the 1940s-1960s African clawed toads were used a live pregnancy tests, urine was injected into their skin and if they produced eggs the women were pregnant
True
Exodus
mass departure of animals/humans
First evidence that storks migrate
One was found in Germany with an African spear through it’s neck
Torpor
state of hibernation
Many of the well known thinkers believed that swallows hibernated at the bottom of …
rivers/lakes like fish do
During migration, birds prefer to fly at high altitudes because of …
faster air currents
Hippos’ sweat turns a crimson color after reacting with air, this led…
Egyptian doctors to believe that they were puncturing themselves to cure their disease, and created the medical procedure of bloodletting which was carried forth (also by western doctors) until the 1800s
The red sweat is actually a natural form of sun protection and insect repellent
What are the closest relatives of the hippopotamus?
whales
Amphibious communicators
(Hippopotamus)
- above water: communicate using bellows through their nostrils
- underwater: sounds transmitted using a blubber blob in their throat and sounds are picked up by the jawbones of the other hippos (who are also submerged)
Cetaceans
whales and dolphins
… made out of hippo teeth were popular during the 1700s
Dentures
George Washington had a pair, which also included slave teeth
Hippos once existed in … but are now extinct there
Egypt
Hippos exist in …
Africa
+ introduced population in Colombia