Birds and dolphins, group portraits of animals with high intelligence
The smartest animals in nature gather together. There are
highly adaptable crows, opportunistic ravens, happy and cheerful bottlenose
dolphins, and the cruel character killer whales in the sea-click in and watch
them exhibit. skill.
▎Birds and dolphins,
groups of animals with
high intelligence
Birds and dolphins, these two animals once spread all over
the world in the form of totems. In many aboriginal and ethnic minority areas,
myths and legends about them have not declined for a long time and have been
passed down to this day.
In all kinds of myths and stories, they are full of images
and changeable personalities. For a while they become friends of mankind and
help us overcome difficulties together; for a while, they become enemies of
mankind, with evil desires trying to destroy us—no matter what For good or bad,
they are all executors of the mysterious power beyond nature.
For a long time, people respect them as "God's
messengers" and "God's servants", and they have been worshipped
and sacrificed by people. However, there are thousands of birds and beasts, why
are they only treated with such high standards?
The reason is very simple and very strong-because they are
smart. However, how smart they are, many people probably don't know much about
them.
So next, please follow my narration and appreciate their
extraordinary ingenuity from the perspective of myths, legends and natural
science.
1. Bird of Wisdom: Crow
-The three-legged golden crow that destroys the world-
In ancient Chinese mythology, there were originally ten suns
in the sky, and a three-legged black crow crouched in the middle of the ten
suns. They were originally the sons of Emperor Jun and Xihe. They are brothers
to each other. They are called "Golden Crow" or "Three-legged
Golden Crow" because they can make the sun shine.
Originally, the ten Golden Crows had a clear and orderly
division of labor. Every day, a brother rode on the suncar of his old mother
Xihe, and then used the brilliance of the sun to illuminate the world. For
them, it is easy to do this.
These ten brothers are all workaholics. They love to go for a ride. They can’t wait every time. Over time, because of dissatisfaction with the order of God, the brothers have fierce disputes.
Finally, the extreme
enthusiasm for work makes them do A very irrational decision was made-ten
brothers brought ten suns and descended on the world on the same day.
The ten suns rose to the sky together, emitting ten times the
brilliance and heat, so the earth burned, the peaks broke, the lakes dried up,
and the sea evaporated. Just as the water was deep and hot, the people were
dying, and the whole world wailed mourning.
Later, we all know that the "Arrow God" Hou Yi
descended on the earth with his wife Chang'e. He stretched his bow and shot
arrows for nine days. From then on, the climate on the ground was suitable and
everything could grow-Hou Yi also became a great hero to protect the people.
In our country and the culture of most Indian tribes, crows are considered to be ominous. It is worth mentioning that in ancient my country, the views of crows in the north and south were completely opposite. The Southern Song philosopher Xue Jixuan’s "Langyu Ji" records "the southerners love magpies and evil crows, and northerners love crows and evil magpies".
The contemporary Hong Mai also stated in his book "Rongzhai
Continued Bi" that "bei people used The sound of black is happy, the
sound of magpie is wrong, and the southerners are opposite."
However, some cultures, such as Japan, regard crows as auspicious birds and are worshipped as "national beasts". Yatagou (three-legged crow) has certainly become the emblem of the Japanese football team, as well as the emblem of the Japan Football Association.
Crow, the nourishing life of urban white-collar workers
Biologically, the crow is the general term for the bird crow.
There are 39 species in this genus, all over Eurasia; there are also a few
species in Africa, Australia, North America and the Pacific. They are the
smartest birds, but also one of the smartest animals, with a very high level of
intelligence.
The big-billed crow that inhabits East Asia and Northeast
Asia is one of the larger species of passerines. Its body length is about
46-59cm in adulthood, which is even longer than many raptors.
Compared with the small-billed crows and bald-nosed crows of
the same genus, the big-billed crows are characterized by a thick beak and a
protruding forehead. They have a strong ability to adapt to the environment,
and they are not afraid of people, and they can be seen everywhere in the
mountainous plains.
As environmental problems such as the heat island effect and
garbage siege in major cities have become more and more significant, big-billed
crows have gradually moved to live in cities and suburbs where humans live.
Once accustomed to the busy traffic and bustling street
people; once accustomed to the noisy, car whistle noise in the city-the
big-mouthed crow fully used his brain, with his own ingenuity, he mastered a
different urban survival skill.
Today, big-billed crows have a very comfortable life: they will choose to build nests on abandoned buildings and large steel bars. The best place for breakfast, lunch and dinner is the garbage treatment plant around the nest, or the garbage in the community. Containment station.
They go back and forth between the habitat and the garbage
treatment plant every day, working nine-to-five, like a white-collar worker in
the city; they can easily open the sealed garbage bag and make the most of
human residues. Young crows can quickly learn this technique.
Even better, some of them can even understand traffic lights.
When the green light is on, they shed nuts and crush the fruit with the rolling
traffic; when the red light is on, they know that the car has stopped, so they
fly to On the road, look for nuts broken into small pieces as snacks.
Raven, the clever robber who snatches and grabs
One of the outstanding fellows in the Crow family is the raven that spreads across the northern hemisphere.
The raven is the heaviest bird in the order of the passerine, and the heaviest individual recorded even reaches 1.63kg.
The mature raven is about 59-69cm in length, which is a circle
larger than the big-billed crow.
Ravens’ ability to adapt to the environment is better than
that of big-billed crows. What’s even more powerful is their amazing ability to
reproduce. In the thousand years of coexistence with humans, they have been
considered a disaster because of their large populations.
Ravens are omnivores, carrion, insects, food residues,
agricultural grains, berries, fruits and small animals, all of which are their
dishes or belly.
In terms of foraging, ravens have two characteristics: they
are good at speculation and grabbing. These two characteristics reflect the
ingenuity of the raven to a certain extent, and we will say the same next.
The characteristic of being good at speculation is mainly manifested in the fact that the raven's diet will change depending on the region and season. They will actively hunt voles or insects, and will hide excess food in places invisible to other ravens in case of emergency.
The
ravens that nest and build burrows on the side of the road will even eat the
carcasses of animals crushed by vehicles.
In winter when food is scarce, they will quietly follow
canids such as wolves and foxes until they reach their caves. When the wolves
went hunting and the defenses in the cave were weak, the ravens sneaked in,
took advantage of their precautions and made a decisive move, and quickly
escaped with carrion and other food.
Another feature, arrogance and arrogance, is inseparable from
the raven's temperament of deceiving softness and fear of hardship-they will
set up a big flag and write a letter: this mountain is mine, this tree is mine,
I have to pass by, hey, stay and buy Lu Cai! One of the unique hobbies of
ravens is to forcibly snatch food from other weak animals, and they enjoy it.
Small canines, mammals and other birds have been bullied more
or less by ravens.
Observation found that some raven flocks even snatch human prey. When human hunters shoot down the birds with a shotgun, the ravens rush like a cloud of lead, and some ravens deliberately yelled and hovered at low altitude to interfere with hunters and hounds.
Some of them flew straight to
the place where the bird lands, grabbing human prey with sharp claws, and then
all the ravens scattered like a command.
Of course, the ravens are not blindly arrogant, they are well versed in the way of cooperation and win-win, and they really understand the meaning of trickery. Therefore, in front of the hard rotten flesh of the bird's beak that cannot be stripped, they will call canines such as wild dogs or wolves, and share the food location with them with kindness.
After these
canines use their sharp teeth to tear apart the carrion, the raven will
naturally share a big cup of soup.
In addition, the wisdom of the ravens is also expressed in their calls. The raven has a wide range of pronunciations, and most of the pronunciations have practical functions, allowing them to socialize with other individuals within the group.
When predators come, they will use their calls to sound an alarm to inform other members of the group of imminent danger; when they compete with other animals for food and are at a disadvantage, they will call out and call friends to help it.
When their partners go out for too long, they
may even feel lonely, and call them to return home as soon as possible by
imitating their partners' calls.
A clever raven can also imitate many different sounds. These sounds are strange and unbelievable, including: the sound of airplane wings roaring, the sound of car alarms, the click of camera shutters, and many people.
The sound of arguing and fighting together. Of course, they can also
imitate human voices. After careful training, ravens can learn faster, speak
more clearly than other birds, and can even circulate and be full of emotion.
Ravens are curious collectors. They are naturally unable to resist objects that are sleek and shiny. They will steal anything that satisfies the above description, round small stones, golf balls, metal rings, or even a single one.
Eggs, they have to find ways to get them in their hands,
watch them carefully, and then pack them into storage, making them a rare
object in their collection room.
Ravens are also one of the favorite birds to play; in winter with ice and snow, they will climb up and slide down on the naturally formed snow slopes.
They will try to drill through branches and branches in various
flight positions and at different speeds the hollow in the middle. Also study
difficult and deep aerobatics skills, such as upside-down somersaults,
side-flying sharp turns, or low-altitude dives.
For the ravens, curiosity and play are like road signs on the
journey, guiding them to the land of wisdom.
2. Water Spirit: Dolphin
God's mount that saves lives
Dolphins are the collective name for many animals under the order of the cetaceans, including about 20 genera and more than 60 species of creatures. All of them are mammals.
In addition to their cute appearance and
friendly personality, they have always been popular in human culture.
The ancient Greeks liked dolphins very much. They believed that seeing the white waves raised by the dolphins around the ship was a symbol of good luck.
In Greek mythology, dolphins also appeared frequently-the most
famous are the minstrels Arion and The story of the dolphin.
Arion is the son of the sea god Poseidon. He was robbed by sailors on a boat and was eventually forced to jump into the sea. As he was about to drown, Arion opened his mouth and sang a song.
A dolphin was moved by
Arion's beautiful singing, so he swung his tail fin, swam to his side, and
rescued him ashore.
Today, in the Temple of Poseidon in Greece, there is a statue
of Arion riding a dolphin; and the sacred beast symbolizing the sea god
Poseidon also happens to be a beautiful dolphin. In addition, in Nossos Palace
in Crete, beautiful dolphins can be seen everywhere in huge murals.
In addition to saving people, the dolphins are also the hip mounts of many deities, and even the incarnations of deities appearing in the world. In Indian mythology, the mount of Varuna, the god of rain and the sky, is a dolphin. Also, the goddess of Ganges who guards the Ganges, her mount Magara often appears in the image of a dolphin.
This shows that there is a
relationship between the dolphin and the gods. There is a close relationship;
and the bridge connecting the two is undoubtedly the extraordinary wisdom of
the dolphins.
Bottlenose dolphin, a little bit dirty guy
Bottlenose dolphins with a streamlined body are the clever
representatives of the dolphins family. They have developed intelligence,
complex cerebral cortex, and a large number of brain circuits and neurons.
Bottlenose dolphins have an average length of 2-4 meters and
a weight of 150-650kg; their whole body is gray and black, their skin is as
smooth as silk, and their texture is like sponge.
Their brain weighs 1.6kg, which is 100g heavier than the
human brain; their brain tissue is even more complex than the brains of many
primates (such as orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees).
They are social animals, and generally live in clusters, each
with a population of up to a dozen; in waters with abnormally abundant food,
they can also form a "super group", with the number even exceeding
1,000.
Individuals of dolphins use sound to communicate with each
other, and they can also send out ultrasonic waves for echolocation. They can
distinguish the environment and hunt down their prey even in the dark seabed.
Dolphins can establish super strong social relationships and are intimate with each other.
If an individual is severely injured and unable
to move forward, other members generally will not leave it behind and flee, but
can't bear to leave around the injured companion.
Building on this warmth is the selfless altruism of the
dolphins-when injured or sick dolphins appear in the group, healthy and strong
individuals are obliged to take care of them, and even lift them to the surface
with their bodies to help. They breathe. (Because dolphins are not fish, they
do not have gills, and after diving for a period of time, they need to surface
to breathe.)
When the mother dolphin gives birth, other female dolphins in
the group will also become midwives. They will spread out, surround the new
mother and newborn in the middle, be alert to changes in the surrounding
environment, drive away natural enemies such as sharks, and prevent other large
The fish came to invade.
The reason why the altruism of dolphins is selfless is because this altruism is not limited to their own species. In New Zealand, people once observed a dolphin named "Moko" frequently harassing a female sperm whale and its cubs.
Under the harassment of the dolphins, the group of sperm whales was troubled, and finally turned around and left their established channel.
In fact, if the group of sperm whales continue to move
straight forward, they will enter the shallow water area and eventually
stranded.
Consistent with myths and legends, there are also several examples of dolphins saving humans in history. In dangerous sea areas where sharks are infested, dolphins will keep circling around humans to protect humans from sharks.
In addition, bottlenose dolphins are friendly, lively and
curious at the same time. They like to follow the advancing ship and play in
the waves drawn from the stern; they also try to approach the diver.
When shooting an undersea documentary, you can often see
groups of dolphins teasing divers carrying photographic equipment on their
shoulders, making the divers in a hurry and wondering what to do.
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