StemCell Therapy

Many of the animals, birds, and insects that are part of the Natural World have unique and useful uses and features related to their heads. This article covers a few of these which might explain such things as why a Dog tilt their heads when they hear a sound, and the Owl and the Praying Mantis are the only predators that have a special bone structure that is quite useful for them.

Now that I have covered Tails in article #1 let's move to the other half of our discussion on some of the unique features found in animals, birds, and insects in the natural world.

Just seeing a Dragonfly must be terrifying if you are a gnat, mosquito, or other small bugs. To us, humans, they are unique insects that are mostly quite nice to see. The eyes of a dragonfly take up 90% of its head. Their eyesight is the key to its hunting, and flying skills allow them to have a 95% success rate when hunting. They use this sight to judge the speed and trajectory of the target prey and adjust their flight to intercept the prey and snag it from the air.

The Common Mole's nose, found at the pointed end of its head, is the only part of its body it is not uncomfortable with. Despite devastating blindness and inadequate tactile sensitivity, the moles excel at finding food sources. Scientists have found that except for a few species of dogs such as the Bloodhound, which can tell the direction a smell comes from and follow it, the common mole may be the only animal with what is known as natural stereo smelling ability.

Look around, and maybe you can turn your head to the left or right and move it up and down with ease. You can also move your eyes around in many different directions, and a few of us can even cross our eyes. In the animal world, there are loads of various kinds of eyes that see the world in distinctive ways. Owls cannot move their eyeballs around in their sockets very well. Yet they do have particularly good night vision. Their eyes are positioned on the front of their heads like many of their fellow predators. They have what is thought of as binocular vision.

While Owls might not be able to move their eyeballs, they more this makeup for this by turning their heads up to 270 degrees to the right or left. That is more than twice what we humans can do. The owls have what is called a pivot joint in their bone structure that allows this broad range of movement. There is only one other predator that can do this. It is the Praying Mantis.

What is magnetite? It is a naturally occurring mineral that reacts to magnetic fields. Scientists believe that many animals may have small amounts of it in their brains, allowing them to sense the magnetic fields produced by the earth. However, Dolphins and some whales have magnetic rocks in their heads. Bats and birds (especially pigeons) can navigate vast distances without any clues as to where they are other than the presence and shape of the magnetic fields, which they sense using the magnetite in their brains. Dolphins and many species of whalecan navigate enormous miles of open ocean by using these same, but larger, rocks of this substance within their brains. They are navigating by the magnetic fields they have used during their entire life. They may even think they are in the open and deep waters but can be dangerously close to the shore.

Have you ever noticed that many species of Birds head-bob when they are walking? The term head-bobbing is used for the apparent back and forth movement of their head as they walk and is a bit of a misnomer. The birds do not bob their heads, ---instead, they move their body forward and leave their head behind. They then thrust their head forward past their body. This crazy behavior is thought to help critical aspects of their vision during their forward movement.

If you happen to see a deer bobbing its head, it is not like a bird. A deer's pupils are not like humans; instead, they are more oval and oriented horizontally to give them a wider field of view. We humans can see about a 120-degree range of vision. Having their eyes on the side of their head plus having the oblong pupils, a deer has close to a 300 degrees range. While this gives them a wider angle of vision, it does impact their vertical sight. That is one reason hunters sometimes use a tree stand. Because of this vertical limit, they bob their head to improve their vertical vision.

When you are out on Presque Isle, I am willing to bet that many of my readers think they see an eagle flying overhead. Well, most times, you have spotted a turkey vulture and not an eagle. While looking somewhat like an eagle, they have a genuine bald head while the eagle has white feathers. At close range, they resemble the wild turkey, hence their name. They are the only scavenger bird that cannot kill their prey. This is because their feet are like chickens and not an eagle's or a hawk's. Instead, they have a powerful beak that can tear through even the most robust cowhide. They also have an extraordinary sense of smell that allows them to locate a dead animal from over a mile away.

Monkeys use faces like name tags. They all boast the most colorful faces in the mammal kingdom, and they are not just for show. Like humans, they distinguish friend or foe by facial features, which have evolved to be uniquely distinctive in their close-knit communities.

Why do dogs tilt their heads when they hear sounds. The human ear is engineered to pick up a sound so efficiently that you do not need to turn toward the sound to capture it. That is not so with a dog. Dogs have flaps that partially or entirely cover the ear canal and serve as a barrier to sound. Luckily, the canine ear flap is moveable so the dog can easily make the necessary adjustment and tilt its head toward the sound.

Rabbit ears have a unique shape. Yes, they are long. However, they also have a curve that turns them into satellite dishes place upon a bunny's head. Their shape helps catch and amplify all sounds. Because rabbits are prey species, they must continuously monitor for small sounds that may show a predator is near. They also need to know where the sound is coming from. The length and their ability to move, turn and tilt their ears give rabbits a directional location of the sound. They also use their ears to signal other rabbits. People who have rabbits often tell that rabbits "waggle" their ears at their humans to get interaction from them.

In ending, I know there are many more different and interesting facts about animals, and I may in the future gather in some others and post here on Goerie.com.

See you on the park!!

Gene Ware is a published author of 9 books and is on the boards of the Presque Isle Light Station and was past Chairman of the Tom Ridge Center Foundation, and the Presque Isle Partnership. He is also a goerie.com contributing writer. Send questions and comments to ware906@gmail.com

Read more:
Heads or Tails - - The choice is up to you - - - Heads - Part #2 - GoErie.com

This entry was posted on August 21, 2020 at 11:58 am and is filed under Eye Sight & Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |