Mammals - Animal Questions.org

Can Cats See In The Dark?

Cats cannot see in complete darkness, but they can see better in the dark than we can. They can also see better in the dark than most other animals. The way a cat’s eye is structured is the reason for this. Cat’s have extremely large eyes for the size of their head. However these large eyes serve an important purpose and are quite unique compared to other animals. The cat’s eyeball is formed by several layers of tissue. The white part is known as the ‘sclera’. The sclera is made up of tough fibrous tissue rich in blood vessels. These blood vessels transport oxygen and nutrients to the contents of the eye. The clear outer part that covers the eye is known as the cornea. Made up of extremely thin layers of cells, the cornea is arranged in a unique way so that that it is transparent and allows light to enter unaffected into the cat’s eyeball.

The colored portion of the eye is known as the iris. A cat can open its iris very wide and its purpose is to let in as much light as possible. The back of the eye is known as the retina. A cat’s retina is composed of two major types of cells called rods and cones. These rods and cones are light sensitive. Rods are responsible for magnifying light impulses. The cat has an increased number of rods compared to humans. In humans, four out of five light sensitive cells in our retinas are rods. In cats twenty five out of twenty six cells are rods.

Cats also have a well developed mirror like layer located in the back of their eye. This is called tapetum lucidum. A number of animals besides cats, such as raccoons and deer have this as well. This is what makes their eyes glow in the dark when you shine headlights on them. When there isn’t a lot of light available, the cat’s tapetum lucidum reflects any light available back towards the front of the eyes. This is pretty cool, because it is almost like its allowing the cat to use the light twice to see better. Bottom line, because they are naturally nocturnal animals meaning they sleep during the day and are awake at night, cats are built to be able to see well even when there isn’t much light provided.

Are Dog’s Noses Supposed To Be Wet?

Many people believe that if a dog’s nose is wet and cold it means that it is healthy and that a dry, warm nose means it is sick. However this isn’t necessarily true. A dog’s nose will be wet and dry at different times, depending on when you touch it, the environment he or she is in, what he or she has been doing (maybe he or she has licked their nose to moisten it or maybe it got wet when they were getting a drink, etc.) Most of the time however a dog’s nose is often colder than other parts of its body since their nose is an extremity.

Of course like most things, there are a few exceptions. If a dog’s nose is warm for a few days in a row it is most likely a sign that they are indeed ill. He or she may be running a temperature. In this case they should be taken to the veterinarian to get checked out. Other symptoms that should be taken seriously include runny nose and/or nasal discharge. Dogs do not get colds, they do however get respiratory infections. Coughing and lethargy are other symptoms in an ill dog. When a dog isn’t feeling well they tend to lick their noses less causing it to be more dry. This is not to say however that a dry nose always means a sick dog.

Are Cats Nocturnal or Diurnal?

Cats are both nocturnal and diurnal. This means that they can be night animals and/or day animals. The way a cat’s eyes are designed allow them to have very good vision in both high and low light which means, they have no problems seeing in either situation. However cats usually lean more towards being nocturnal. They prefer to sleep during the day and stay more active at night. In fact its not uncommon for cats to sleep for hours at a time during the day. The average cat sleeps anywhere from sixteen to twenty something hours a day. Even though they have been bred to be brought up as domestic pets and to live with humans, they are predators by nature so they still have that natural instinct to hunt at night and sleep during the day.

Many cat owners find this to be problematic, as their cat is so active at night it often keeps people in the household wide awake. The good news is there are a number of ways that one can help their cat adapt to your lifestyle and change its sleeping patterns to be diurnal. Keeping it awake during the day is one of the easiest ways to get your cat to sleep more during the night. Playing with kitty and keeping him or her entertained during the day will make kitty exhausted when its finally night time. Using cat nip a few hours before bed can help too, it will get kitty active and then make him pass out later after he’s had his fun running around the house.

For pet owners who are not home much during the day, keeping lots of cat toys around to entertain kitty can also be helpful. Changing the toys every so often will help kitty from becoming bored. If your cat likes to wake you up during the night, try closing the bedroom door so that kitty doesn’t bother you. This doesn’t work for every cat. Some are quite stubborn and will only meow more until you open the door back up. Unfortunately every cat and situation varies. However one of the main reasons cats often wake us up in the morning is because they are hungry. Feeding it its biggest meal right before bed can help prevent this as well as feeding it smaller meals a few times during the day.

Can Dolphins Kill Sharks?

Yes, dolphins can and have been known to kill sharks. As many know, dolphins and sharks inhabit the same regions and depths of the ocean. Sharks have a reputation for being fierce predators, and are armed with rows of sharp nasty teeth that help them bite through flesh and bone with ease. They also have very tough, sandpaper- like skin that is not easily punctured. Whereas dolphins are often viewed as the intelligent, playful, friendly mammals with only a single row of peg-like teeth used mainly for catching smaller fish. Their skin, unlike the sharks is soft and flexible and can be punctured easily. Dolphins surprisingly, have however often been seen protecting an injured or sick member of their group or extended family, often from a shark attack. They have also at times been known to protect humans from sharks in the water and in some cases have even been known to carry a human safely to shore.

At first glance, sharks and dolphins may seem to be similar in size and shape, though sharks obviously appear to be stronger for obvious reasons already mentioned. However, when taking a closer look there are many differences in the two that can be noted and give the dolphin quite an advantage. Sharks are an ancient fish with skeletons of cartilage, where dolphins are descended from mammals that have returned to the sea and sport skeletons with hard, calcified bones. The skeletons of sharks have joints that are not as flexible as the dolphins.

It is for this reason that dolphins sometimes have the upper hand and are much swifter than sharks. They have also been known to maneuver very quickly and are very agile in the water. The tail of a shark is also different from a dolphin. A shark’s tail has a fins located on a vertical plane that move from side to side which limits its ability to quickly dive downward and /or rise upward. A dolphin’s tail however has horizontally mounted flukes that move up and down and enable a dolphin to change direction with ease, allowing it to move upward or downward with no problem.

Since dolphins normally travel together in groups, if one of the group is threatened by a shark, the other dolphins will join in without hesitation to do its best to defend the dolphin that is in danger. The dolphin’s main weapon against a shark attack is its snout, which is made up of very strong and thick bone and has a hard rounded end. The dolphins circle the shark rapidly from different directions thus confusing the shark and rendering it unable to chase any of the other dolphins.

When a dolphin is positioned below a shark at a distance of several yards, the dolphin will often make a sudden rush at the shark’s soft underbelly and ram it with its snout. The effect this has on the shark can be quite effective. It resembles a powerful punch and can seriously injure a shark with just one blow. When dolphins use this as their weapon against sharks, it often renders the shark stunned or knocks them unconscious immediately. Sometimes a dolphin will repeatedly ram a shark that has been aggressive in order to protect itself or its group, and in some cases have even been known to kill large and dangerous sharks. In most cases, even if the shark does not die as a result of the dolphin driving its snout into its underbelly, the force that it has on the shark will often leave some kind of internal damage.

Do Elephants Sleep Standing Up?

This is true, however not a constant occurrence in sleeping elephants. Elephants have been known generally at night to sleep lying down for a couple of hours, however they have also been known to sleep standing up at times. During the day they might be seen standing, taking short naps. Altogether they sleep for about six hours per day.

Because elephants must always be completely alert and aware of their surroundings in the wild, to protect themselves and their young from predators such as lions, they have been known to sleep standing up at times. Sometimes an elephant will lay down for a couple of hours to sleep, although baby elephants are more likely to do this than adult elephants.

Generally most adult elephants that are seen asleep standing up might be just taking a quick nap, or could even be sick. One could say it typically depends on their environment. For instance, If elephants are in kept in an environment such as a zoo where hungry predators are not around, they may be more likely to sleep standing up than say, an elephant who lives in the wild and has lots of predators around.

Are Bears Carnivores or Omnivores?

Although bears are often classified as carnivores most bear species are classical anatomical omnivores. Their individual diets can range from almost exclusively herbivorous to almost exclusively carnivorous, depending on what kind of food sources are available to the animal both locally and seasonally, but primarily 70-80% of a bear’s diet is usually plant based. Bears cannot digest fibrous vegetation well and it is because of this that they are highly selective feeders. Their diet usually consists mainly of lent herbage, tubers and berries. Some scientists are even led to believe that because vegetation is not available in cold northern months, that this is why most bears hibernate during the winter.

Polar bears are considered carnivores but they will sometimes eat plants. However they mainly feed off of seal blubber, interestingly enough they hibernate during the summer months when seals are unavailable. Pandas are herbivores, while giant pandas have been known to eat some meat such as insects. About 90% of the eastern black bear’s diet consists of leaves, plants, grasses, buds, flowers, mushrooms, berries, fruits, nuts, acorns, and insects.

Although bears do mainly eat from plant based food sources, they do have a few anatomical features that are consistent with a carnivorous diet as well. For instance, the jaw joint of bears is in the same plane as their molars. The temporalis muscle is massive, and the angle of the mandible is small corresponding to the limited role the pterygoid and masseter muscles play in operating the bear’s jaw.

Bears also have short, small intestines and also like that of pure carnivorous animals exhibit a colon that is smooth, simple and short. What is interesting is that even though bears have the incisors, large canines, and premolars similar to those of other carnivorous animals, they have adapted molars that have become squared with rounded cusps for crushing and grinding, but yet still have not evolved to possess the blunt nails seen in herbivores. Instead they are still seen sporting the elongated, pointed claws of a carnivore.

Sometimes it can be confusing business when trying to figure out what exactly makes a bear carnivorous and what makes it omnivorous. At the end of the day, they can almost be classified in different ways as both or either/or. Really take your pick. It depends on the bear type, the location, the season, the food sources available, etc.

Can Bears Climb Trees?

In North America, black bears are known to be good at climbing trees. In fact they are equipped with shorter, curved claws that are useful for climbing trees. They are also smaller in size than other bears and extremely fast and agile which helps make climbing a breeze. Whereas other types of bears such as polar bears and grizzly bears are not generally great at climbing trees. However, it should still be noted that all grizzly cubs and adult grizzly bears are still able to climb trees if the spacing of the branches is right and permits them to do so.

Bears usually climb trees for three reasons. They might climb a tree to try and escape danger, to eat nuts or fruit that is located in the tree, or to rest or sleep. When a mother bear brings her cubs out of their den one of the first things she often teaches them is how to climb a tree quickly when she gives them a signal.

Bottom line is, if you are trying to escape from a bear, climbing a tree in most cases is not going to help protect you. All black bears, grizzly cubs and adult grizzlies (though they do not always climb trees very well), are still able to climb trees if they decide it is something that they wish to pursue.

So the next time you encounter a bear, do not try climbing up a tree for safety. Instead it is suggested that you drop to the ground and lie flat and face down with your hands clasped behind your neck. Try your best to lie completely silent and still as resistance or running away will only provoke the bear. Before moving, make sure that the bear is in fact gone.

Are Cats Colorblind?

Many people think that cats are colorblind but this is not the case. It is true that cats do not see in the same way that most humans do, however thinking that they don’t see any colors at all is simply not true. Rather, cats are able to distinguish between blues and greens but lack the ability to distinguish shades of red. This means that they only see in these two different colors, blue and green. So for instance, when a cat sees anything that we would describe as red, orange, yellow or green, to a cat they are all the same color. Furthermore all shades of blue and violet are seen as one color to a cat.

Like humans cats have two primary structures located in the retina of their eye for perceiving light. These two structures are known as rods and cones. Rods help us humans see light and dark areas, and cones, the color sensitive cells in the eye are what detect particular wavelengths of light thanks to the pigments they have. However where humans have three varieties of cones that help us distinguish over one hundred different hues of color, cats only have two kinds of cones that are most sensitive to green and light blue. It has been suggested that the inability in cats to distinguish between colors may have evolved due to the fact that they are night hunters and colors are not discernable in reduced light, nor do they really need to see in color in order to hunt well. A mouse or a bird is still dinner to a cat, no matter what color it is.

The way a cat’s eye is designed is very unique. They have good vision in both high and low levels of light. They may not be able to distinguish colors in the same way many humans do, but that isn’t to say that they can’t see well. In fact, A cat’s iris can open up very wide to let in a lot of light so that even when they are surrounded in darkness and there isn’t much light around, they can let in as much of the light as possible. Cats also have light sensitive structures in the makeup of their eyes and a mirror like layer (tapetum lucidum) located in the back of the eye which helps reflect any light available back towards the front of the cat’s eye when there otherwise wouldn’t be much light in the room. This reflective area is what makes cat’s eyes “glow” at night when headlights shine on them.

Are Dolphins Mammals or Fish?

What makes a mammal, a mammal are the several characteristics that particular animal has. For instance, all mammals have hair, as well as fat glands and sweat glands, female mammals also have mammary glands. All mammals are vertebrates and also have several types of teeth. Therefore, dolphins would not be classified as fish, they would be classified as mammals since they not only breathe air into their lungs, they have hair at some point during their life cycles, are warm blooded creatures, give birth to live young, and also nurse them with their mammary glands.

Are Dogs Lactose Intolerant?

Milk can be given to dogs from time to time as a treat, but it is not a necessity in their diet. Something to keep in mind though is the fact that some pets cannot tolerate milk because they do not produce the enzyme known as lactase which helps with the digestion of lactose (a sugar found in milk.) For pets that can tolerate milk, it is a good source of protein and calcium. However after weaning, the level of lactase activity falls to about ten percent of its peak activity. If more lactose is consumed than what the animal can digest, diarrhea will often occur, this is whats known as lactose intolerance. If a person suspects that their dog is lactose intolerant, limiting or eliminating dairy products from their diet is the smartest thing to do.

There are a few ways to tell if your dog is lactose intolerant. A few symptoms include abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. Sometimes a dog suffering from lactose intolerance will drink excess amounts of water since the diarrhea and vomiting are associated with dehydration.

Under certain circumstances, pets that are lactose intolerant can still consume dairy products. For instance, cheese and unpasteurized yogurt usually have the lactose removed or partially broken down through bacterial action. As a result, it is usually safe for both dogs and cats to eat this dairy product.