Mice, the speedy little rodents with a knack for multiplication, are nature's pranksters in tiny fur suits. Despite their small stature, they're notorious for staging crop sabotage, nibbling on furniture, and unleashing stenches that'd make a skunk blush. It's a small package with big chaos potential!
These pint-sized troublemakers have an affinity for dark, damp hideouts, making them virtual walking Petri dishes of viruses and bacteria. In their repertoire of pestilence, the grand finale is the plague, brought to you by Yersinia pestis bacteria hitching a ride on these miniature harbingers of doom. Their disease-spreading tendencies have earned them a special place in the hearts of many. In fact, a fair number of folks out there are card-carrying members of the "Musophobia" club – a fear of mice that's no joke. There are even rumblings of folks thinking elephants share the same "mouseanoia."
Now, about the whole "elephants are afraid of mice" urban legend – it's a knee-slapper of a tale with roots as ancient as a stone tablet. Some of the heavyweights of ancient wisdom, including Pliny the Elder and Aristotle, got in on the act way back in 77 AD. Pliny was the real trailblazer, declaring, "elephants fear mice more than all other creatures." And let's face it, when a bigwig like Pliny says something, people tend to take it seriously. This belief took flight in ancient Rome and never really checked out.
However, the actual truth is that elephants, creatures of grandeur and grace, have never had the chance to mix it up with mice in their native habitats, as they hail from different corners of the globe. Thus, the entire notion of elephants cowering in the face of mice was simply a fanciful yarn spun by Westerners of yore.
But there was a dude in the 1600s, one Allen Moulin, who really committed to the bit. Armed with some elephant anatomy know-how, he postulated that elephants, lacking an epiglottis (the trachea's bouncer), might just suffocate if a mouse managed to sneak up their trunk. No scientific leg to stand on, mind you, but it made for quite the anecdote!
Fast-forward to "Myth Busters," the beloved American science show where they put these tall tales to the test. Lo and behold, they found a kernel of truth – South African elephants actually hit the brakes when face to face with a mouse. Although the precise "why" remained a mystery, it was a captivating revelation.
According to John Hutchinson, a researcher extraordinaire, even in the wild, elephants turn jittery when anything swift and small zooms around them. So, whether it's a mouse, a cat, or even a sprightly squirrel, they get the jitters. Just another species feeling the zing of surprise!
But here's a kicker: when elephants get the cushy captivity treatment in zoos or circuses, they could care less about sharing the room with mice. It turns out they're pretty chill neighbors. So, it's not so much "fear" as it is "startling surprises." You'd probably jump, too, if a mini roadrunner zipped past you.
Adding a splash of zing to the tale, the Elephant Conservation group in Kenya unveiled another gem: elephants' arch-nemesis – bees. Yes, the buzzing bonanza strikes terror into the hearts of these gentle giants. They've got bee alerts programmed into their elephant alarm systems. At the first hint of that zzzing, the elephant leader gives the order to beat it. Turns out, elephants make an art form out of bee-dodging! Now there's a twist worthy of a comedy sketch.
Lucy King, the mastermind behind the Kenyan research, knows this bee maneuver could be a game-changer. By deploying beehives to protect crops, they're sending the pachyderms packing without harm, saving both elephants and farmers' livelihoods.
So, remember, in the quirky world of animals and their quirks, even the mightiest giants can have a few comical fears up their trunks!
About the Creator
SPACE OF EARTH
Humans are filling up the area round Earth with trash. ARCHIVE: “three, two...” Decades of house exploration that started with a single satellite tv for pc launch in 1957... ARCHIVE: “One of the splendid scientific feats of the age.” Have left discarded rocket bodies, mission-related particles and heaps of satellites – many of them lengthy deserted and no longer useful – crisscrossing at excessive speeds simply above Earth's atmosphere. And with a booming house enterprise launching extra objects into orbit than ever before, this crowding is progressively growing the chance of catastrophic in-orbit collisions. Scientists fear that a runaway chain response of collisions and fragmentation may want to one day fill Earth's orbit with so lots particles that area will end up unusable to humans. It's why the world's main area businesses and some for-profit businesses are working on massive thoughts to restore our house particles problem. From trash accumulating spacecraft armed with harpoons and nets... to a large cloud of steel dust. And there may be one answer it is been proposed for years to halt these unsafe bits of rubbish in their tracks. Lasers. Because if we get innovative and begin addressing this trouble proper now, we can nevertheless repair it earlier than it is too late. The sizeable majority of human-made objects surrounding Earth are right here – in a area referred to as “low Earth orbit.” It's the place we have verbal exchange satellites, plus spacecraft like the International Space Station. And our big quantity of house trash. The extra objects we put in house capacity greater possibilities of these objects smash into every other, smash apart, and multiply. And all it takes is a handful of fragmentation occasions to dramatically make bigger the whole variety of objects orbiting Earth. Like in 2009, when a defunct Russian satellite tv for pc by accident collided with a industrial satellite, exploding into hundreds of trackable fragments. And in 2007, when China deliberately destroyed one of its very own satellites in a weapons test. Which additionally resulted in tens of heaps of fragments of various sizes of debris. A theoretical cascade impact known as the "Kessler syndrome," delivered in the 1970s, warned that if sufficient incidents like these occur, the fragments of particles they create ought to set off an uncontrollable variety of catastrophic collisions. Exponentially growing the subject of particles round Earth. But we can nonetheless repair this earlier than it is too late. And there is a few methods it should happen. The way to get rid of most area particles is to sluggish it down adequate to fall out of orbit and into Earth's atmosphere, the place it burns up and is destroyed. But exceptional sized area junk requires unique methods to do this. The largest bits of house particles measure greater than 10 centimeters in dimension This consists of lifeless satellites, rocket our bodies and huge portions of particles created in the course of house missions. These are massive sufficient to be tracked from Earth. And scientists are creating tiny spacecraft that can attain these objects and sluggish them down, the use of more than a few techniques to both push or pull them. Guiding them down to Earth's environment to be destroyed. Commercial agencies like Europe's ClearSpace and Japan's Astroscale are working with international house businesses on this tech. Hoping to reveal the elimination of massive particles someday in the subsequent decade. The two smaller classifications of house particles typically come from fragmentation activities like explosions and collisions.
By Idongesit Akpan 3 days ago in Earth
The Golden Promise
In the heart of a bustling city, where the streets teemed with merchants and the air was thick with the scent of spices and exotic wares, there lay a tavern unlike any other. It was known simply as The leers from far and wide gathered to share stories and swap tales of adventure over flagons of ale and tankards of mead.
By Michael smith2 days ago in Earth
Red Shelves
Death is a black hole. Think about it. A black hole is the corpse of a star, something once warm and bright, now come to the end of its life cycle. But some will argue that the cycle of life does not end with death. That death is merely another path we must walk once our bodies expire and our souls ascend. In that moment, when the fuel in the star’s chemical tank hits empty and the shiny matte coat explodes into supernova, the mass left behind – the corpse – becomes a black hole. We understand that, around such a vast cadaver, dimensions work a little differently in death to the way we’re used to in life. For example, light cannot escape the pull of a black hole when it hits the point of no return. That’s where it gets its colour. Space itself is contorted by a black hole. That’s where it gets its funny shape. Even time. Time slows right down the closer you get to it. The closer you get to a black hole. The closer you get to death.
By Matthew Curtis5 days ago in Humans
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