STRANGE FACTS ABOUT ANIMALS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 100, 28 February 1947, Page 6

STRANGE FACTS ABOUT ANIMALS

WHY DO DOGS TURN ROUND BEFORE LYING DOWN? Nearly everybody has observed that some dogs often'turn round several times before lying down. Charles Darwin said he had seen a dog turn around twenty times before finally settling down in a comfortable position. Scientists attempt to explain this trait by the theory of evolution. They say our domestic dogs are descended from wild pigs or wolves. These progenitors of the dog lived in the forest or. brush and to find a comfortable place to rest they had to trample down the grass or other vegetation. This ancient bedmaking process still survives as an instinct in the domestic dog that turns around several times before lying down. DO SOME SPECIES OF FISH CATCH BIRDS? A large European catfish scientifically called “Silurus” but more commonly known as Weis or Glanis, catches and eats large birds swimming on the surface. There is authentic record of a case in which one of these voracious fish swallowed a small child whole. The common angler fish, sea devil or fishing frog “Lophinius piscatorious,” which is native to both European and American waters, is popularly called the goosefish because geese, ducks, gulls, loon and other acquantic birds are sometimes found in its stomach. The top of its head -is equipped with three upright filaments surmounted by glittering flesh appendages that the fish employs as bait and line to lure other fish within its reach. In several deep sea species of this family the bait is luminous and can be switched on and off at will. Some authorities are inclined to believe that the common angler fish does not ascend to the surface to catch and drag down live birds, but merely devours those that have died and sunk to the bottom. Perhaps other fish catch and eat birds. A gamekeeper in Norfolkshire, England, reported that a pike was in the habit of seizing moor hens as they swam on a pond. CAN HORSES SLEEP WHILE STANDING? Horses have the power to sleep while standing. In 1943 Professor C. F. Winchester, member of the animal husbandry faculty at the

University of Missouri, said that experiments indicate that horses rest better on their feet than on their sides. Their legs are provided with muscular mechanisms that cause them to ‘lock’ as it were, and permit the animals to rest somewhat as if they were standing on stilts. When a standing horse is unconscious there is no direct brain control over the muscles essential to the maintenance of an erect posture. The muscles in the legs, back and chest are controlled by the reflex actions of the spinal cord.

In a similar manner a bird sleeping on a swaying limb maintains a reflex balance while its consciousness is in abeyance. Horses sleeping while standing rarely fall down. It is astonishing how little lying-down rest they require—they sometimes go for months without lying down. Yet a horse left to itself will sleep, standing up or lying down, eight or ten hours a day. This is true also of the Herbivora, including elephants. An Indian elephant often will feed 18 or 20 hours and then rest and sleep only one or two. It is said that they have been known to remain standing even after they were dead.

When horses lie down to sleep their eyes usually remain open or partly open and they sleep so lightly that they are awakened by the faintest sound.

They seldom lie long in the same position because their great weight cramps their muscles and prevents the under lung from functioning. WHERE IS SNAKE’S HEART LOCATED? The heart of a snake is located well forward in the body. As a general rule, it lies about one-fifth the distance from the head to the end of the tail. The reptile’s stomach is also located in the fore part of the body. It is long, narrow and distensible. Owing to the heavy flow of saliva, digestion begins immediately and takes place rapidly.