My Science School

        The gorilla is the biggest and strongest ape among all primates. They have heavy-built bodies with broad chests and shoulders. They possess large hands, and their forearms are shorter than the upper arms.

        A gorilla is black in colour. It has a hairless black face. Its eyes are small, and are placed close together on the face. It has broad, prominent nostrils. An adult male gorilla weighs up to 200 kg. Females come to only half the size of the male. A gorilla is tall with a height of 1.2 to 1.8 metres when standing on both its feet.

        Gorillas are intelligent animals. Do you know that Man used to hunt down gorillas for sports? They were considered trophies in hunting expeditions. Their number is on the decline due to conflicts with human beings.

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        We may have heard several times that humans came from monkeys. However, have you observed that the little monkeys that you may see on either side of a forest path have little resemblance to us? Our immediate relatives are apes. Apes and monkeys, although related, have many differences between them.

        Apes are the most highly evolved primates. They lack tails, while most monkeys have them, Apes are bigger than monkeys. Their noses are short and broad. A monkey’s nose is more like the snout of a dog. Apes have flattened fingernails, just as humans have. In terms of intelligence, apes are superior too. Apes have larger brains and they possess the ability to use tools. They can even understand languages!

        Monkeys, on the other hand, are less intelligent than the apes. They have tails, and can climb up tall trees with ease. Their food consists primarily of plants during the day. Apes prefer moving about upright, unlike monkeys.

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      Apes are known for their exceptional resemblance to humans. Great apes are those animals that have a close similarity to humans. There are four of them: the orangutan, gorilla, chimpanzee and the pygmy chimpanzee.

      Great apes are the largest of the order of primates. Another category, the lesser apes are one step away from the great apes in their likeness to humans. These apes are gibbons and siamangs. All these animals have fingers and thumbs and can use their hands as humans do. They all belong to the family hominidae.

      There are two categories of gorillas; the western and the eastern gorilla. Orangutan too has species: the Bornean orangutan and the Sumatran orangutan. Among the chimpanzees are the common chimpanzees and the pygmy chimpanzees.

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       Have you heard people using the word ‘donkey’ as a derisive term? The donkey has been a synonym for stupidity, ignorance and stubbornness.

       However, in truth, donkeys are more intelligent than some of the members of their own family. Generally, three main types of donkeys are identified: wild, feral and domesticated.

       Wild donkeys are the biggest among them. They grow about 125 centimetres from hoof to shoulder. They weigh about 250 kilograms too. Domesticated donkeys are those that are used by Man for domestic purpose. They vary in size, depending on how they are bred.

       Oklahoma State University lists eight different types of domesticated asses. Their weight varies from 180 kg to 225 kg. Their height is about 92cm from hoof to shoulder.

       Feral donkeys are those that had been once domesticated, but have now turned wild.

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       There is a popular misconception that donkeys are slow-moving animals. They are portrayed as stupid and sluggish in stories. However, there is barely any truth in it. The fastest donkey can run almost as fast as a horse, and reach speeds between 64km/h to 70km/h!

       Asiatic wild asses are the fastest breed of donkey. They are known as onagers. They can reach the speed of a thoroughbred racing horse when in good shape! A German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas discovered and described onagers in1775. Onagers are closely related to the African wild ass. Both these breeds share a common ancestry. There are other domestic donkeys that can beat a horse in a race. In fact, in Europe, there are contests in which horses and donkeys compete with each other in certain timed events such as pole bending.

       However, donkeys, very often, refrain from running fast. They prefer to go at a slower pace than horses.

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       Mules and ponies are relatives of horses and donkeys. Do you know that a mule is the offspring of a donkey father and a horse mother?

       A mule runs faster than a donkey and is intelligent than a horse. It has a longer life span too. If an offspring is born out of a donkey mother and a horse father, then it is called a hinny. They are not generally as strong as mules.

       Ponies are horses, except that they are a miniature variety of horses. A fully-grown pony will be as short as 1.44 metres at its back, which is known as the withers, the highest part of a horse. Pones are very strong animals. In olden times, children and women used ponies for riding. Children typically learned the tricks of horse riding on a pony. However, all ponies are not necessarily very small. There are bigger varieties too.

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       Have you ever wondered about the similarity between a horse and a donkey? In their appearance and strength, both animals have striking resemblance. However, these two animals are quite different from each other.

       Both the horse and the donkey have been domesticated by Man from ancient times. While donkeys have long ears, horses have shorter, erect ears. Horses tend to have longer faces. A donkey’s hooves are smaller than those of a horse.

       Both these animals live in groups. However, horses are naturally herd animals. They are stronger, and live in a larger society. Donkeys tend to pair off with other donkeys and develop a strong bond with their partners. Horses can be easily scared off and take to flight when they smell danger. However, donkeys stick around and consider the risk factors before deciding to run.

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        The horse is a special animal because of its stamina and speed. You must be familiar with the unit of power of an engine, measured in terms of horsepower. In olden times, there was hardly anything that matched the power of a horse.

       The horse is the largest member of the equidae family. A horse can weigh up to 1000 kilograms. The male horses, known as a stallion, and the female horse, called a mare, do not have much difference in terms of weight. Stallions have a fighting technique that involves trying to bite the legs of the opponent. This needs extreme agility and strength.

       The largest horse in the world was a horse named Mammoth, which was born in 1848. In its health state, it weighed 1524 kilograms. The smallest horse in the world is Thumbelina, a fully mature horse, which is ailing from dwarfism. Do you know how much she weighs? Just 26 kilograms.

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      From time immemorial, Man has been using the horse for various purposes. In battle, the horse used to be an indispensable element. It is not only a powerful animal; it is also the fastest animal Man has ever domesticated. The horse is the fastest in the equidae family too.

      A horse can achieve a speed of about 70 kilometres per hour! Domesticating a horse meant that the prehistoric Man had the advantage over his rivals in terms of speed and efficiency. In fact, it was an important phase in the development of human civilization to have domesticates horses. They helped Man to move to new territories and settle down there, to hunt more efficiently, and to score over foot soldiers during conflicts.

      Zebras are fast too. However, the maximum speed they can reach is 64 kilometres per hour. They are not as strong as horses and can be easily exhausted in a prolonged run. This may be the reason why they were not tamed by Man. Some donkeys, on the other hand, can reach up to 70 kilometres per hour. They have the ability to carry heavy objects on their back too.

      Do you know that donkeys and horses belong to the same family? Yes, the horse family, known as equidae, consists of horses, donkeys and zebras. This family belongs to the order Perissodactyla.

      The rhinoceros, the tapir, which has only five species that exist today, and several extinct families belong to the Perissodactyla order.

      The members of the horse family have an odd number of toes, and a relatively simple system of digestion, which can digest fibrous plant materials. These animals are known as hoofed animals because their toes are hidden under a heavy horny covering called a ‘hoof’. While horses and donkeys have been domesticated by Man, the zebra remains in the wild.

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       Both these bears are special and unique in terms of their habitat. Among the various bears, brown bear is the most widespread species. They are found in various regions from Western Europe to Asia and the western areas of North America.

       The habitat of the giant panda, on the other hand, is heavily dependent on the availability of bamboo, whose shoots are their favourite food. However, they are nowadays found only in China. The giant panda is the least common among all species of bears.

       The American blank bear is restricted to North America; the spectacled bear lives in south-America and the polar bear is confined to the arctic sea. All other bear species are found only in Asia!

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      A polar bear is a huge and majestic animal. Their white fur coat renders them beautiful among the other bears of varied colour. All the bears in the bear family except the polar bear are found in tropical areas or the northern hemisphere. All of them live on land whereas polar bears live on the floating sheets of ice in the Arctic Ocean. It is their habitat that makes polar bears so special and unique.

      Polar bears do not have communities. They are solitary beings. Their body has characteristics that can adapt to the extreme cold conditions. It consists of hollow, clear hairs that can trap heat. These bears have the habit of drifting on ice sheets in search of prey.

      Seals and fish are their usual meal. However, on a given a whale!

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      Suppose the bear family is conducting a race among its members. Who will win the race? The body of a bear is built for strength. Bears have fat and stout legs, short back and huge paws. Their size helps them gather their food with ease. A polar bear can catch a seal in its clawed forefeet, and kill it with a single slap on its head.

      However, in the previously mentioned race, most probably, the winner would be the polar bear. The polar bear is considered the swiftest and fastest bear, irrespective of its bulky body. It can outrun a caribou reindeer over a short distance too. Bears, in general, are good swimmers and climbers of trees.

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      Bears are generally found to be bulky and huge. The northern brown bears and polar bears are huge in size. Their large bodies can conserve heat more efficiently. A large bear such as the polar bear weighs up to 700 kilograms. The animal can grow more than 3.4 metres tall too.

      However, there are small bears too. Sun bears are the smallest bear species in the world. They are only as big as a dog and weigh about 80 kilograms. Although very small, sun bears possess claws, which are very long, sharp and sickle shaped. These claws aid the animal in climbing trees, breaking branches to make temporary insect nests to reach worms and honey with ease.

      Besides the sun bears, the American spectacled bear and sloth bears are smaller too, in comparison with other bear family members.

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