Humans have affected the animal kingdom in many ways. Some types of animals have disappeared because humans have killed large numbers of them or robbed them of their natural living places , and others are on the way to disappear , while biologists have selected breeds of animals that did not exist before through cross-breeding.
Prehistoric humans hunted animals of that time, such as mammoths and cave bears , to a degree that led them to extinction.
And then he killed the wild aurochs bull, which was found in abundance in Europe. The North American bison , a rough-haired animal commonly called a buffalo , was nearly exterminated and now lives on private farms and national reserves.
Selective Hybridization of pets
Through selective cross-breeding , selected taits werre selected from breeds of domestic animals. An example of this is that the meat of some chicken breeds tastes better than it used to be.
Some breeds of chickens produce more eggs
Goat and rabbit breeds produce the finest wool and fur. Certain breeds of animals were also elected to perform special purposes and tasks , such as the German short-legged Dachshund dog breed , which specializes in fighting badgers that live in narrow dens (tunnels) they dig in agricultural lands, and the sheep dog breed that is highly efficient in guarding flocks of sheep. her patronage.
There are breeds of cows with high production of dairy, and other breeds with meat. There are also different horse breeds that are used for different purposes , whether for transportation or racing.
Animal senses
Most animals have parts of their body that respond to changes that occur in the environment in which they live.. The source of the stimulus (change) may be smell, sight , sound, taste or touch. Simple-formed animals do not have special parts of their bodies that respond to external stimuli, but rather do so with all the cells of their body.
As for animals of complex structure, especially vertebrates , they have highly structured organs, with which they respond to external stimuli.
- senses
Some simple animals, such as the hydra and the gelatinous comb, interact with external stimuli through special cells scattered between the framework cells of the animal body.
As for the response of most other animal species to external stimuli, it depends to a large extent on one or more of its basic senses , which are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
But some of those senses may be more important to one type of animal than another. Most birds , for example , can’t get food if you can’t see it.
• As for hearing, it is the most important sense for bats. If the bat’s ears are covered , it is unable to fly , and it collides with all the things it encounters.
• And the accurate sense of smell is what enables dogs to find food, follow the trail , and identify the dangers that they may face.
• As for the sense of taste, it is very important for many insects, as the butterfly determined food by tasting the sweetness of flower nectar through its legs.
• The sense of touch is very important for cats, as their barks are touch organs that enable them to feel their way between short weeds, in order to avoid hitting things in their way.
- behavior
Scientists constantly study the interactions of animals to understand their behavior. Behavior includes the animal’s responses to stimuli and how it behaves.
It seems that the general behavior of most animals depends on the patterns of their interaction that God Almighty has provided, which are reflexive instincts and actions.
And it is not related to a rational assessment of the consequences of actions, because God Almighty bestowed this quality only on humans from His creation.
Animals act out of the instincts that the Creator, His Majesty, has placed in them , and not out of a knowledge of these behaviors , or a rational assessment of their consequences. For example , the moth flies , in an instinctive manner , immediately after its exit from its cocoon to find its food from the juices of plants without anyone knowing about it. This is an instinct that God Almighty has placed in it.
The Creator, the Almighty and the greatness of his ability, deposited in the animals a set of instincts that enable them to survive and live.
God Almighty has endowed some types of animals with a kind of intelligence (i.e. some ability to learn from experience and solve some dilemmas):
· – Vertebrates have some intelligence unlike invertebrates. Among the vertebrates , great apes , apes , and dolphins quickly learn to solve certain problems that require some kind of intelligence.
· – As for invertebrates such as insects and lobsters , they show an ability to learn only after being trained very carefully. Even an earthworm can be trained to step right or left , to avoid an electric shock.
Communication between animals
An animal uses its senses to receive communications from other animals of its kind. When a male robin hears another male robin sing, he knows very well that the bird that will be desperate to defend his province against him, as for the female robin, she knows that the singing male will welcome her entry into his province , for the purpose of mating with her.
Some animals may communicate by smell, as the female gypsy moth , or the female silkworm moth , releases a distinctive smell in the air to announce its readiness to mate. The males of these moths then fly from a distance of up to a kilometer, expressing in response to that smell to mate with those females. Animals do not have digital communication.
The tiger males and the common males of the feline family distinguish the borders of their provinces by urinating at those borders. The smell of urine from other male tigers knows that this territory is occupied by a male of his own kind.
Some animals use facial and body expressions for communication. A male wind monkey might threaten another raptor to shove his shoulder forward, opening its mouth baring its huge sharp fangs and teeth.
An angry male gorilla might throw leaves in the air and pound his chest with his fists. Honeybees perform two types of dances. To tell the rest of the cell members about the locations of the flowers with abundant nectar. If a honey bee finds flowers with nectar near its hive , it returns to its hive and dances in circles.
But if those flowers are far from their cells, then they dance in a straight line towards the presence of the flowers , and then the worker bees will fly in that direction to find flowers with nectar.
- Isometric animals
– Many animals may be classified according to the number of their legs , and each legged animal has two , four , six, eight , ten or hundreds of legs.
– Bats and birds are the majority of bipedal animals, while quadrupeds include familiar animals such as cats , cows , dogs, frogs , lions and tigers.
– All types of insects have six legs, and spiders have eight legs, while the number of legs in some animals reaches more than a hundred men.
– And many animals, such as fish and worms , do not have legs at all.