Mammals - Animal Questions.org

Do Bats Eat Humans?

Sounds like you’ve been watching one too many horror movies. Bats do not eat humans. In fact, your chances of even ever being attacked by a bat are practically slim to nothing. These furry winged creatures are often persecuted due to the fact that most people have very little to no understanding of bat ecology or the important roles that they play in controlling night flying insects. Contrary to popular misconceptions, these winged creatures of the night are not blind, do not drink human blood, and will not just suddenly swoop down from the night sky and attack you or get tangled in your hair.

Many people also often assume that bats have rabies, however the truth of the matter is that only 1% of bats actually ever contract the disease, and most bats that do contract the virus will die shortly after. It is also very unlikely for a bat to contact a person, though a sick bat might not fear humans the way a healthy bat or another wild animal would, so it is for this reason that these animals are better off avoided and should never be handled. In fact, most people who have gotten bitten by a bat or contracted rabies from the animal were a result of picking up a sick or injured bat. If you find a bat on the ground, or somewhere else leave it there and contact your local wildlife control operator to have it removed.

Now that we’ve gotten all of the myths out of the way you might still be wondering what bats do eat if they aren’t swooping down and making meals out of us humans. The answer is insects! Lots and lots of insects. Bats can eat up to half of their body weight in night flying insects such as mosquitoes and moths. Other species of bats eat fruits, smaller animals like frogs, fish, and rodents, and vampire bats drink the blood of small mammals.

What Do Armadillos Eat?

Armadillos are often considered pests and are especially unpopular among farmers as they cause a lot of damage to gardens and lawns by digging holes. Of course, these poor creatures were only in search of food, but many find their digging habits to be bothersome. Technically speaking, if it weren’t for the holes these creatures dig they would actually be quite beneficial to your farm since they eat many of the bugs that can destroy one’s garden plants.

An armadillos diet can differ from species to species. Armadillos are omnivores meaning they eat a meat and plant based diet. This diet consists mostly of insects like worms and ants. However ants are their favorite and are often easy for the creature to catch as they mostly dig in soft grounds near rivers or trees in search of the bugs. Something that may come as quite a shock is that armadillos also eat dangerous insects like scorpions and venomous spiders. Other times they might be found resorting to eating berries and roots, however this is more common in times of food scarcity, since 90% of their diet consists of insects and larvae.

Being very good diggers and having claws that are very efficient when searching for food in the ground, these creatures make hunting insects look like a piece of cake. Some armadillos prefer to build their burrows near streams so that they have easier access to their food, while other species just live mainly off of ants and do nothing else. One thing is for sure though, when it comes to all species of armadillos they absolutely adore eating and can be found spending most of their time either eating or searching for food to eat. Surprisingly enough, these animals have poorly developed eyesight, but what they lack in seeing they make up for in their digging skills and strong sense of smell. In fact, they are able to smell their prey from a certain distance (20 cm underground) and can often be seen stopping abruptly and digging aggressively to get to their prey. Armadillos technically hunt purely on their sense of smell. These creatures can also sometimes be found occasionally searching in narrow burrows and dens for a tasty meal.

Another thing that makes armadillos excellent hunters is their special ability to hold their breath for approximately six minutes. This can be very useful when digging up ants and other insects since they do not breathe in the dirt. Another thing that makes insect eating a lot faster and easier for the armadillo are their long, sticky tongues.

Armadillos are unable to survive in a place where the ground is too hard as it renders them unable to dig and eat. If an armadillo is unable to dig to search for food it will eventually starve to death. It is for this reason that these creatures are most often found in sunny warm areas where the ground is soft enough to find food.

Do Bears Eat Humans?

There is a huge misconception when it comes to predator species such as bears that creates a false sense of fear in people. As a result, most individuals confuse being a predator species with being predatory towards humans. While it is true that predatory animals such as the bear do have a greater physical potential to harm, injure or kill a human due to their large body size, sharp carnivorous teeth and claws, the key word here is potential. Just because an animal has a physical potential to harm a human does not mean that it actually will.

Most predators have never used humans as a food source and no predator has ever had humans as their primary food source. In a nut shell, this means that predators such as bears do not see us humans as food. While bear attacks do sometimes happen, they are actually quite rare. In fact, they are so rare that you are actually 12 times more likely to die from a bee sting than you are from a bear attack and 10 times more likely to die from a dog attack than from a bear attack. In addition 1 person out of 16,000 commits murder but only 1 grizzly bear out of 50,000 ever kills a person and only 1 out of 1 million black bear ever does. This means that people are actually more dangerous than bears. It is also more common to die from a spider bite, a snake bite, a tornado or from lightening than from a bear attack.

What Bears Eat

So if bears don’t eat humans you might be wondering, what do they eat? What a bear eats really just depends on the species of bear. Scientifically speaking, although bears are classified as carnivores, they are technically omnivores like us humans and can often be found eating a diet consisting mainly of meats and plants. About 90% of the Eastern Black Bear’s diet consists of plants such as leaves, flowers, grasses, mushrooms, roots, berries, and fruits. They also eat nuts, acorns, honey, grubs and small mammals. Grizzly bears eat a lot of plants, berries, roots, grubs, honey and small mammals such as squirrels and rabbits, salmon and trout. Other types of bears such as the Polar bear feast upon seals, sea lions, walruses, fish, and sometimes dolphins. While pandas (technically marsupials but have the name panda bear) subsist on mostly bamboo in addition to small mammals, grasses, roots, and small fish.

Are Cats Warm Blooded Or Cold Blooded?

Cats are mammals, which means that they are warm blooded. Warm blooded creatures keep their bodies at a constant temperature by generating their own heat when they are in a cooler environment, and by cooling themselves when they are in a hotter environment. Warm blooded creatures like cats generate heat by converting the majority of the food that they eat into energy to maintain a constant body temperature, while only a small amount of the food that they eat is actually needed to convert into body mass.

To stay cool, cats and other warm blooded animals sweat or pant which allows them to lose heat by water evaporation. These creatures are also able to cool off by moving into a shaded area or by getting wet. Only mammals are able to sweat. Primates such as the ape or monkey, or us humans are equipped with sweat glands located all over our bodies. Dogs and cats on the other hand have sweat glands on their feet only. Whales are one of the few mammals that do not have sweat glands, however they do not really require them since they live in water. Mammals also have hair, fur, blubber, or feathers to help keep themselves warm. Much of this fur or hair is shed in the summer to help the animals cool off and maintain their body temperature, and grows thicker in the winter to keep them warm. Warm blooded animals such as the cat are also able to shiver which generates more heat when they get too cold.

Cold blooded creatures on the other hand take on the temperature of their surroundings. In other words, they are hot when their environment is hot and cold when their environment is cold. In hot environments, cold blooded creatures like reptiles and amphibians can have blood that is much warmer than that of warm blooded animals. Cold blooded animals are much more active in warn environments and are very sluggish when in cold environments. This is due to the fact that their muscle activity depends on chemical reactions which run quickly when it is hot and slowly when it is cold. Cold blooded creatures are able to convert much more of their food into body bass, compared to warm blooded animals.

Cold blooded animals can often be found basking in the sun to warm up and increase their metabolisms. When a cold blooded animals gets too hot you may find them lying parallel towards the sun’s rays rather than perpendicular, retreating to a shady area, or burrowing into cool soil.

Are Dogs Or Cats More Popular In The US?

The two most popular pets in the United States are dogs and cats. However, a survey done in 2007 found that there are approximately 86.4 million cats in the United States and only 78.2 million dogs. Dog owning households actually outnumbered those of cats, however the total number of cats per household was greater than that of dogs. The same was true for surveys done in 2009 and 2010. In 2013, the number of pets actually outnumbered children four to one in the United States.

You may be wondering which state has the most cats or dogs? casinotions.com The answer would be Vermont. Apparently people in Vermont sure do love their pets. In fact, almost 1 out of 4 (70.4 percent) of homes in Vermont have a pet, while Rhode Island has the lowest percentage of households with a pet. Surveys also found that more than 6 out of 10 pet owners consider their cats and/or dogs to be members of their family.

Are Cats Native To New Zealand?

Cats are not native to New Zealand. In fact, DNA analysis has confirmed that cat’s first ancestors are the Fertile Crescent which can be found in Egypt, Israel, Mesopotamia, and today in Iraq, Syria and Cyprus. These wildcats lived between 70,000 to 100,000 years ago and produced the genetic lineage that eventually included all domestic cats.

Cats in a way domesticated themselves some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago when settlers were interested in attracting the felines as they aided in killing off the growing rodent population that were infesting farms and eating all of the grains and crops. Cats eventually adapted to humans and were turned into household companions, eventually migrating worldwide with humans.

Are Cats Kosher?

Kosher foods are those that conform to the regulations of kashrut (Jewish dietary law) and are considered fit to eat. These food regulations ultimately derive from various passages in the Torah. According to these passages a land animal is kosher if it has split hooves and chews its cud. Both of these things must be true in order for it to be kosher. Some examples of kosher animals include cows, sheep, goats and deer.

Cats, dogs, pigs, rabbits, bears, camels, horses etc. are not kosher on the other hand. Leviticus 11:3-8 and Deuteronomy 14:4-8 both give the same general set of rules for identifying which land animals are considered ritually clean. According to these rules anything that “chews the cud” and has a cloven hoof is considered ritually clean, however those animals that either only chew the cud, or only have cloven hoods are considered unclean.

Other reasons for food not being kosher include the presence of ingredients derived from non-kosher animals that were not slaughtered in the proper ritual, include a mixture of meat and milk, wine, or grape juice, or their derivatives. In addition, any food that was produced without supervision, the use of produce from Israel that has not been tithed, or the use of non-kosher cooking utensils and machinery are considered un-kosher.

Are Cats Indigenous To North America?

Cats are not native to North America, rather, they are an introduced predatory species. DNA analysis has now confirmed that domestic cat’s maternal ancestors date back to the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, Israel, Mesopotamia, today Iraq, Syria, Cyprus).

These Middle Eastern felines can still be found today wandering through the deserts of the area and it is believed that they may have originated in a population that lived between 70,000 to 100,000 years ago, producing the genetic lineage that eventually included all domestic cats.

Further research suggests that these wildcats may have been captured some 10,000 or 12,000 years ago as sort of an experiment when humans were settling down to farm. At the time, people were interested in attracting wildcats as they helped destroy the rodents that were infesting the farm fields and sneaking into the grain barns. In addition, cats seemed to adapt well to these cities and towns where the farm settlements were. Today there are some 600 million house cats in the world. Domestication turned out to be one heck of a natural experiment.

Once cats were turned into household companions they accompanied prehistoric human tribes in their migration worldwide, which explains the origin of all domestic cats from the same stock. Thus, domestic cats from Europe are actually the same as domestic cats from Israel, or China, etc.

The oldest remains of a domestic cat, being about 9,500 years old, were discovered in Cyprus. Interestingly enough, cats, unlike other domestic animals have changed very little compared to their wild ancestors, which is why it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between feral cats and actual wildcats, also causing interbreeding in many hybrids of the two.

Are Cats Faithful/Loyal To Their Owners?

Cats can indeed be very loyal creatures, however whether or not they are faithful or loyal to their owners does also depend on the cat’s personality, living situation, and the bond that they have with their pet owner, but for the most part cats are known to form strong attachments with their owners. There are even some cases where a cat’s pet owner had to leave, or passed away and the cats showed signs of distress as a result. Cats have even been known to go into hiding, refuse to eat, etc. Some perfectly healthy cats have had such strong attachments to their owners that they basically died of a broken heart after the loss of their owner.

Even more remarkable are the documented incidents of cats traveling hundreds of thousands of miles to places they have never been, and finding their owners. If this doesn’t demonstrate love and loyalty to a pet owner, I don’t know what does. This strange phenomenon is known as Psi-training. Psi-training is a term that was coined by Dr. Joseph Rhine of Duke University to refer to animals such as cats managing to locate their owners after the owner has moved away or left the animal behind. Dr. Rhine has documented a number of cases of this phenomenon. In all cases the animal had to have some distinguishing mark, abnormality, or previous injury by which the owner could positively identify the pet in order to rule out any lookalike situations. One of the most remarkable cases was one where a cat followed its owner, a veterinarian, all the way from New York to California. Upon reaching California, the cat settled down immediately in his old favorite chair. After taking x-rays, it was confirmed that the cat had the same physical abnormalities as “the old cat” meaning it must be the same creature.

One explanation for Psi-training is that there could be some dis-equalibrium when closely bonded creatures are separated, something that could one day be explained with something similar to Bell’s Theorem. Bell’s Theorem proposed that all electrons function in pairs, with each electron spinning in the opposite direction of the other electron. The physicist Bell speculated that if you change the spin of the electron, the other electron would sense it and alter its direction accordingly to the one whose spin was altered. If mammals are made of cells, molecules, and atoms, perhaps the bond between two creatures is not just with the “heart” but also with some sort of rhythm on an actual cellular or atomic level that is disrupted when the physical bond is disrupted. With all of this evidence there is no doubt that cats do in fact show some loyal, faithful and sometimes selfless qualities. Cats have even been known to risk their lives for their owners.

Typically when most people describe a loyal pet they refer to dogs. While dogs are definitely loyal, cats can be as well. The only difference with cats is that they are reciprocal creatures. Felines do not have any innate behaviors that drive them to form relationships. Simply put, if they are offered love, they will respond. If ignored or neglected they will avoid contact, just as any human would.

Therefore, getting loyalty or faithfulness from a cat requires giving it first. When you take the time to create a daily routine for kitty, show a genuine interest in him or her, and give them affection, He or she will seek out to give you attention in return, or ask for your affection as he or she will come to enjoy your time spent together. Whether kitty follows you from room to room or sits nearby to keep a watchful eye on you, you can rest assured that you and your cat have a bond that will last.

Are Bats Good For Gardens?

It is true that bats are good for gardens. These winged creatures can eat up to half of their weight in insects, making them a great organic pest control method for your garden. Their waste also makes great fertilizer. Did you know that just a single bat on its own can eat more than 600 mosquitos per hour? By creating a bat friendly yard you will not only protect your garden from nasty pests, you will also be doing greater good for bats as their populations are declining due to pesticide and habitat loss.

If you are trying to attract bats to help your garden you might want to create a shelter that they will like. Bats can often be found hanging out in old trees and/or large shrubs, so if you have these in your yard it will help. Bats also nest in abandoned buildings, hollow trees, in loose tree bark and in bat houses. Bats are also attracted to water features so you might want to invest in a pond or fountain. Planting night blooming flowers will also help attract these furry little guys to your garden. Just a few flowers that you might want to try include datura, moonflower, yucca, evening primrose, night blooming water lily, night blooming jasamine, cleome, and nicotiana.