Since ancient times, dogs have always been human friends and right-hand men. From border patrol, drug control, solving crimes, saving lives to guiding the blind and accompanying their owners, it can be seen everywhere. Because of this, dogs are loved and protected almost all over the world. All kinds of dog associations are spread all over the world, and there are also many service organizations specially set up for dogs in western developed countries. In the past, in order to control the threat of rabies to people, China once implemented the policy of killing dogs. With the development of economy and the progress of medicine, rabies has been well controlled by vaccination. Therefore, in recent years, major cities have gradually changed the inhumane practice of blindly killing dogs in the past, and formulated a series of more objective and reasonable dog-raising rules and regulations, which has gradually made China's dog-raising cause scientific and legal.
Dogs belong to Carnivora in animal taxonomy. The ancestors of dogs mainly preyed on small animals and occasionally used tubers to satisfy their hunger. After dogs are trained by human beings, their eating habits change, and they become omnivorous animals mainly eating meat, but vegetarianism can also maintain their lives. Even so, they still maintain the digestive characteristics dominated by meat. For example, a dog has a pair of sharp canine teeth above and below its teeth, indicating that carnivores are good at biting prey. Dogs' molars are also sharp and strong, which can cut off food. When chewing bones, the pressure between the upper and lower teeth can reach 165 kg, but they are not good at chewing. Therefore, when dogs eat, they really "gobble" and rarely chew. There are abundant striated muscles on the esophageal wall of dogs, which are developed in vomiting center. When ingesting poison, it can cause a strong vomiting reflex and expel the poison swallowed in the stomach, which is a unique defense skill. Dogs have well-developed salivary glands, which can secrete a lot of saliva, moisten the mouth and eat, which is beneficial to chewing and swallowing. Saliva also contains lysozyme, which has bactericidal effect. In the hot season, rely on the evaporation of water in saliva to dissipate heat, thus regulating body temperature. So in summer, we can often see dogs open their mouths and stick out their long tongues instead of sweating. The stomach of dogs is pear-shaped, and the hydrochloric acid content in gastric juice is 0.4~0.6%, ranking first among domestic animals. Hydrochloric acid can make protein swell and denature, which is convenient for decomposition and digestion. So dogs have a strong ability to digest protein, which is the basis of their meat-eating habits. Dogs can empty their stomachs within 5 to 7 hours after eating, which is much faster than other herbivores or omnivores. The intestines of dogs are short, generally only 3~4 times of their body length, while those of horses and rabbits with the same single stomach are 12 times of their body length. Dogs have a thick intestinal wall and strong absorption capacity, which is a typical carnivorous feature. Dog's liver is relatively large, equivalent to about 3% of body weight, and the bile secreted is beneficial to the absorption of fat. Dogs' excretory center is underdeveloped, so they can't defecate under exercise like other domestic animals.
Dogs have good digestion and absorption ability for protein and fat, but poor digestion ability for crude fiber, because of insufficient chewing, short intestine and no fermentation ability. Therefore, when feeding vegetables to dogs, they should be chopped and cooked, and it is not advisable to feed them whole.
There are many kinds of dogs, and the body size difference can reach more than 20 times. The tallest dog can exceed 1 m, and the shortest dog is only 20 cm; The heaviest dog 130 kg, and the lightest dog 1.5 kg. Although dogs differ greatly in physique, their anatomical structures are basically the same. Dogs have 225~230 bones, which not only constitute a solid support system for dogs, but also protect internal organs, and are the basis for fast running. Dogs are muscular and strong, which makes them not only run fast, but also have good endurance. It is reported that the dog 100 meter record is 5.925 seconds, which was set by a Dutch greyhound at 197 1. This speed is much faster than that of humans, very close to the speed of horse racing 100 meters, which is 5. 17 seconds. It is a common domestic medium-sized dog, and the speed of 100 meters does not exceed 10 second, which is very flexible. Dogs are famous for their endurance and can run for dozens of kilometers in a row. For example, during World War I, the messenger dog ran 2 1.7km in just 50 minutes. The most famous is the sled rally held near the North Pole. More than a dozen dogs pull hundreds of kilograms of goods and run in the frozen snow at MINUS 40 degrees Celsius, with only a few hours of rest every day. According to records, a dog can pull items weighing 100 kg on the snow.
The dog's hind legs are strong and muscular, so the dog is also an expert in high jump, and can jump over obstacles of 5 meters at the highest.
(A) a keen sense of smell
Dogs have the highest olfactory sensitivity among all animals, and their olfactory sensitivity to acidic substances is tens of thousands of times higher than that of people.
The olfactory organ of dogs is called olfactory mucosa, which is located in the upper part of the nasal cavity and has many wrinkles on its surface, which is about four times as large as that of humans. Olfactory cells in olfactory mucosa are real olfactory receptors. There are about 200 million olfactory cells in olfactory mucosa, which is 40 times that of human beings. There are many thick villi on the surface of olfactory cells, which enlarge the surface area of cells and increase the contact area with odorous substances. Odor substances reach the olfactory mucosa with the inhaled air, which excites olfactory cells and diffuses to the olfactory nerve center-olfactory brain along the densely distributed olfactory nerves in the mucosa, thus producing sense of smell.
Dogs' acute sense of smell is mainly manifested in two aspects: first, they are sensitive to smells; The second is the ability to distinguish smells. Dogs can perceive smells at the molecular level. For example, when 1 cubic centimeter contains 9000 butyric acid molecules, dogs can smell it, while in general, there are about 268× 10.e+ 16 molecules in the air per cubic centimeter. So the concentration of butyric acid felt by dogs is 3.36× 10.e- 17. Dogs can still smell sulfuric acid when it is diluted by one tenth of a million.
Dogs have a strong sense of smell, and they can smell a specific smell among many smells. Dogs specially trained to recognize the odor of valeric acid can distinguish the presence of valeric acid in very similar mixed odors such as propionic acid, acetic acid and octanoic acid. Police dogs can distinguish more than 65438+ million different smells.
Dogs' sense of smell plays a very important role in their lives. Dogs mainly identify their owners according to their sense of smell, identify the sex, estrus, mother and offspring of the same kind, and distinguish the way, direction, prey and food. When dogs recognize and distinguish things, they first show the behavior of smell. For example, when we throw a certain food to the dog, the dog always has to smell it several times before deciding whether to eat it. When meeting strangers, dogs always sniff around strangers, which sometimes makes people feel creepy. Dogs can know when, who will come and where to go according to the smell information left on the street corner. Some people say that a dog's life depends on its nose. Although some of them are absolute, we can't emphasize the importance of sense of smell to dogs too much.
Dogs' keen sense of smell has been fully utilized by human beings in many fields. Police dogs can identify and track according to the items, blood and footprints left by criminals at the scene. Even if these smells stay at the scene all night, police dogs can recognize them if the crime scene is well protected. Although people have been wearing rain boots for three months, police dogs can also smell people wearing rain boots. Drug dogs can sniff out packages containing marijuana, cocaine and other drugs from numerous postal parcels and luggage. Explosive dogs can accurately find explosives hidden in buildings, vehicles, ships, planes and other objects. Search and rescue dogs can help people find victims buried deep in snow, desert and collapsed buildings.
(b) Very sensitive hearing.
Dogs can not only distinguish tiny high-frequency sounds, but also distinguish sound sources. According to some tests, its hearing is 16 times that of human.
It can be distinguished that the metronome vibrates 96 times per minute and 100 times, 133 times and 144 times. This is unimaginable. At night, you can stay alert even when you sleep, and you can clearly distinguish various sounds within the radius of 1 km. Vertical ear dogs are more sensitive than vertical ear dogs. When a dog hears a sound, it has the habit of staring at the sound source because of the sympathetic action between its ears and eyes. This feature enables hounds and police dogs to accurately hear the sound and point out the target for the owner in order to track and besiege the prey.
For human password or simple language, dogs can establish conditioned reflex according to the change of tone and syllable to complete the task assigned by their owners. The dog can hear the password softly, so there is no need to shout. Excessive sound or audio is a kind of adversity stimulus for dogs, which makes dogs feel pain and fear, thus avoiding. Of course, when a dog makes a wrong behavior, a stricter password can be used in order to prohibit or correct it.
(3) Poor eyesight
The adjustment ability of dog eye is only 1/5~ 1/3 of human. A dog's perception of an object depends on its state. For a fixed target, you can see clearly within 50 meters, but you can't see clearly beyond this distance, but for a moving target, you can feel the distance of 825 meters. Dogs have a wide field of vision. The monocular left and right visual field is 100 ~ 125 degrees, the upper visual field is 50 ~70 degrees, and the lower visual field is 30 ~60 degrees. It can see the objects in front of it most clearly, but because the dog's head rotates very flexibly, it can "see all directions with its eyes".
Dogs are color blind. In the eyes of dogs, the world is like a picture on black and white TV. It's just that the brightness of black and white is different, and the color change can't be distinguished. Guide dogs can distinguish between red and green signal lights because the brightness of these two lights is different. The dog's discrimination of gray shadows is very subtle. With this ability, it can distinguish the changes of light and shade on objects and produce stereoscopic visual images. Another feature of dog's vision is that it is sensitive to dark vision, and it can see objects clearly in weak light, which shows that dogs still maintain the characteristics of Nocturnal Animals.
(4) bland taste
The dog's taste organ is located on the tongue, but it is very slow. When eating, I seldom chew, almost swallow. Therefore, dogs taste food not by chewing slowly, but mainly by the dual role of smell and taste. Therefore, when preparing dog food, we should pay special attention to the conditioning of food smell.
Dogs have strong intelligence, can understand people's language, expressions and gestures, and sometimes do amazing things. For example, through training, I can count, read and so on.
Dogs have a strong sense of time and memory. In the concept of time, every dog owner has this experience. Every time it's feeding time, the dog will automatically come to the feeding place, showing abnormal excitement. If the host is a little slow, it will remind you with a low groan or door sound.
In terms of memory, dogs have a strong memory for their owners and residences, and even for their owners' voices. For example, in Britain, after hearing the voice of its owner who has been away for nearly 10 years on the radio, a dog immediately stood up and went to the radio to listen attentively. It was not until the end of a long talk that he left the radio silently with a sad look.
Like human beings, every dog has a certain personality. Some dogs are lively and clever; Some dogs are quiet and obey orders; Some dogs are violent and like to fight; Some dogs are timid and slow to respond. It is of great significance for the selection, training and breeding of dogs to accurately grasp the personality characteristics of each dog. The formation of dog's personality is related to heredity and the influence of surrounding living environment, among which heredity is the main reason. All life activities of animals are dominated by cranial nerves, and the basic activity process of cranial nerves is manifested in two ways: excitement and inhibition. The strength of these two ways, whether they are balanced or not, and the flexibility of mutual transformation determine the different "personalities" of dogs.
The dog's expression changes are very rich, and its joys and sorrows can be expressed unabashedly through the changes in various parts of the body. It is very important to master the emotional changes of dogs for breeding and training. However, the expression changes of dogs are simple and common compared with human beings, and some of them are similar, so we must observe them carefully. For example, when a dog is happy, his ears droop and when he is angry; The tail is the same. It swings when it is happy and swings when it is angry. Happiness and anger are almost two completely opposite emotional changes. At this time, we must use the barking of dogs, eyes and other parts of the body to make a comprehensive judgment. Only in this way can we correctly grasp the emotional changes of dogs. Here are some common expression changes:
Happy words
Dogs wag their tails and jump high, which is the most common expression. Sometimes dogs also "laugh", showing wrinkles on their noses, their upper lips pulled open, their teeth exposed, their eyes closed slightly, their eyes gentle, their ears extended backward, their mouths slightly opened, their noses snorted, their bodies twisted slightly, their fur was smooth and erect, and their tails swayed slightly, approaching people.
An angry expression.
When a dog is angry, its facial expression is almost the same as when it laughs. His nose turned up, his upper lip was pulled open and his teeth were exposed. The difference is that his eyes are round, his eyes are sharp and his ears are straight and oblique. Generally, the mouth does not open, making a threatening sound, stamping your feet hard, your body is stiff, your coat is erect, your tail is steep or straight, and you keep a certain distance from people. If your forelimbs are down and your body leans back, it means you are going to attack.
A look of fear
Tail drooping or sandwiched between legs, ears sticking back, whole body covered with hair, eyes wide open, whole body trembling, standing still or limbs moving uneasily, or shrinking.
A sad expression
Head down, eyes glazed, close to the master, looking at the master with begging eyes, sometimes lying in the corner, becoming extremely quiet.
If the dog wags its tail and stands quietly, it means waiting and looking straight at its owner. If your head is drooping, your ears are close together and your body is low, it shows your obedience and awe. For example, the tail swings high, the ears stand up, the head swings, the body arches, and sometimes the front paws stick out, indicating intimacy with people and asking for play.
As the saying goes, "cats look for 800 miles, dogs look for 1000 miles." In other words, cats and dogs have amazing homecoming skills and can return to their owners' homes from thousands of miles away.
There are many stories about dogs seeking their Lord thousands of miles away. It is reported that an American couple came to the east with their Scottish shepherd from Silbarton in the western United States. When they arrived in Oluket, Indiana, the dog got lost and found nothing. But about half a year later, after 3300 kilometers of trekking, the mixed scars of dogs appeared in front of their owners.
There are different opinions on the physiological basis for dogs to go home. Some people think it has something to do with the dog's sense of smell, while others think it depends on its sensitive sense of direction.
sound
Dogs have keen hearing. This feature is very important for watching domestic dogs and hunting dogs, but some dogs will show fear of sudden loud noises, such as lightning and thunder, the roar of planes, the sound of guns and firecrackers. If you flee to a safe place with your tail between your legs, get into the house or shrink your neck into a narrow place; Even if you are not interested in food or even refuse to eat it, even if you blame it, it is useless. And as long as the sound exists, the dog's mood will not be stable, and the comfort of the owner will not have any effect. A series of changes will also take place in the dog's body, such as faster breathing, trembling all over, faster pulse and higher body temperature. A bitch who is about to give birth may also have the tragedy of eating her cubs. Fear of sound is extremely harmful to the army, police dogs and hunting dogs, and it is necessary to overcome and adapt to the stimulation of sound through training.
Light and fire
Many dogs are afraid of flash and fire. For example, fireworks, searchlights, and even the moment when a match is lit while smoking will scare dogs, just like the fear of sound, which is an instinctive warning for dogs to natural phenomena. But unlike sound, when light and fire appear in the dog's territory, it will bark around carefully, so there are many stories of dogs responding to fire. Some dogs also hate fireworks very much, and they will stamp out the discarded cigarette butts with their feet. Strengthening the training of these movements can make the watchdog guarding the warehouse acquire very useful skills.
other
Dogs have a strong fear of death. This mainly refers to the same kind of death. The smell of a dead dog has a strong terror to a living dog. Even the closest dog partner and its offspring dare not approach, showing a fear expression of being tall, retreating step by step and trembling all over. Some dogs are also afraid of the smell of leather, even shoes made of leather, which may be due to the smell of other animals left on leather.
Sometimes the dog's fear is caused by its incomprehensible phenomenon. For example, specimens without life forms, toys that can make birds and animals sound and move, doors that are blown by the wind when no one is around, and open umbrellas. All of them make dogs feel creepy and incomprehensible.
Morphological characteristics: wide body, short body, long hind limbs and self-contained tarsal bones, suitable for jumping or swimming. Generally, the skin is smooth and moist, some skin has horny thorns, or the skin on the top of the head is ossified without small scales, and there are some large lymphatic sacs between the skin and subcutaneous muscles. The mouth is big and the back end of the tongue is free, so it can be turned out to feed. The lower eyelid is connected with a transparent instantaneous membrane. The eyes are large and located on the side of the head, which can expand the field of vision when protruding. The lower jaw has no teeth, and the upper jaw generally has fine teeth. Most of the middle ear is intact, and the tympanic membrane is obvious or hidden under the skin or missing. Male frogs generally have vocal organs (vocal sacs), which is the second sexual characteristic. The frontal bone and parietal bone healed into frontal parietal bone, with square yoke and accessory sphenoid bone. The vertebral body is biconcave, retroconcave, concave, concave or uneven. Generally, there are 10 vertebrae, and there is a slender "U"-shaped caudal bone band behind the sacrum, and the ilium is long and straight, which is related to the transverse process of the sacrum. The spine is short and few, and the curvature and flexibility are not strong; The first three pairs of limbs may have short ribs, which are primitive characters and are found in lower groups. Through the muscles and tendons in ilium, hind limbs and coccyx to strengthen the connection between spine and hind limbs, you can make powerful climbing, jumping or symmetrical breaststroke. Strong forelimbs can mainly reduce the impact force when landing. The coracoid bones on the left and right sides of the shoulder strap are either connected (fixed chest type) or overlapped (arc chest type) or arc shaped. Radius and ulna, tibia and fibula healed into radius and ulna and tibia and fibula respectively; The proximal tarsal bones are longer, forming 1 joint, which enhances the jumping and swimming ability. Its body shape reflects the structure that adapts to sports behavior. Most species "crouch in shallow mud pits dug backward by their hind legs, which can prevent water loss and sit for prey." When hunting, the hind legs are still attached to the ground.
Reproductive development: no adapter, in vitro fertilization. Laying eggs, there are only a few kinds of viviparous or viviparous. Larvae-tadpoles are very different in appearance, feeding habits and so on. Tadpoles may have small horny teeth in their mouths; There are gills and tails, which are outer gills in the early stage, and soon the outer gills shrink and replace them with inner gills; The skin at the lingual arch gradually grows backward, becoming a gill fold covering the inner gill, and then heals with the skin at the ventral position, forming a gill cavity, leaving only 1 or 2 water holes, which are located in the middle or both sides of the ventral surface or on the left side of the body and lead to the outside. There are generally rows of small horny teeth and horny jaws in the mouth. Scraping algae is the main method, and swallowing plankton is the main method. Tadpoles germinate hind limb buds first, and forelimbs develop in or near the gill cover cavity in the early stage. At the peak of metamorphosis, forelimbs extend out of the body, tail and gills atrophy or even disappear, and organs are reorganized, especially respiratory and digestive organs. At this time, you usually don't eat, and you can't stay in the water for a long time, otherwise most of you will drown.
Metabolism: The metabolism level is low, it can't produce enough heat by itself, and there is no perfect body temperature regulation mechanism, so it can't maintain a constant body temperature, so it is greatly influenced by the change of environmental temperature.
Living habits: In the middle of June every year 165438+ 10, choose loose riverbanks or vegetable garden soil, crevices and tree roots for wintering. In March and April next year, when the temperature rises above 10℃, it will begin to wake up and come out to move. In hot summer, sometimes there will be summer sleep. The frog's own "defense" ability is weak, and almost only passively avoids or secretes protective color, warning color or glandular fluid to protect itself. For example, a female frog that is black in spring turns black and gray in May-June and light gray in July. After August, the skin color begins to deepen, and it will deepen when the light is dark on cloudy days. Frogs live in a humid, cool, quiet and clean environment. If it is dry, it will cause a lot of water loss in its body, leading to dehydration and death.
European crucian carp
Crucian carp, also known as golden crucian carp, is the seed of crucian carp.
Crucian carp (Cyprinidae)
【 Local name 】 Carassius auratus seeds, Carassius auratus, Carassius auratus muscles, Korean fish, saury and Carassius auratus shells.
[Morphological characteristics] The average body length is 15 ~ 20cm. Body side is flat and high, body is thick, and abdomen is round. The head is short and the kiss is dull. No need. The gill harrow is long and the gill filament is slender. The hypopharyngeal teeth are in a row and are flat. Large scale. The lateral line is slightly curved. The dorsal fin is long and the outer edge is flat. The dorsal fin and the gluteal fin have strong third spines and serrated trailing edges. The end of pectoral fin can reach the beginning of ventral fin. The caudal fin is deeply forked. Generally, the back of the body is grayish black, the ventral surface is silvery gray, and the fins are grayish white. Due to the different growing waters, the body color is also different.
【 Origin and season 】 It is produced all over the country all the year round, and crucian carp is the fattest in February-April and August-65438+February.
Economic value is one of the important edible fish in China. Meat is tender and sweet, with high nutritional value. Every100g of meat contains protein13g, fat 1 1 g, and contains a lot of minerals such as calcium, phosphorus and iron. Crucian carp has high medicinal value, sweet and warm nature. Entering the stomach and kidney has the effects of harmonizing the middle energizer, tonifying deficiency, eliminating dampness, promoting diuresis, tonifying deficiency, warming the stomach, nourishing the middle energizer and benefiting qi. In particular, live crucian carp soup has an unparalleled effect on lactation. Melon crucian carp and radish crucian carp are not only delicious, but also can cure diseases and prolong life. A small crucian carp can be made into crispy fish. According to the analysis, every100g of crucian carp meat contains protein13g, fat 1. 1 g, sugar 0. 1 g, thiamine 6.6mg, riboflavin 0.07mg, nicotinic acid 2.4mg, calcium 54mg and so on. Clinical practice has proved that crucian carp meat is effective in preventing and treating arteriosclerosis, hypertension and coronary heart disease.
Medicine believes that crucian carp is sweet and warm. It has diuretic, repercussive, invigorating qi, invigorating spleen, detoxicating and promoting lactation. Suitable for people with spleen and stomach weakness, anorexia, vomiting or diarrhea; Spleen edema, dysuria; Qi and blood are weak, and milk is blocked; Bloody stool, hemorrhoid bleeding, edema, ulcer, etc.
"Compendium of Materia Medica" contains: "Boil the red bean juice to reduce swelling: apply oil to the pudendal sores of housewives to kill insects and relieve pain; Galla Chinensis is brewed to treat blood; Brew tea, simmer clothes to quench thirst; Saihu and garlic simmer and drink to cure qi. " Fish carp
China/Chinese alligator
Scientific name: Chinese alligator
Alias: Chinese giant salamander, earth dragon and pig dragon.
Classification: Alligator, Alligator.
Protection level: Chinese alligator is listed as a national first-class key protected animal.
Chinese alligators live in fresh water, mainly distributed in parts of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi. It is not only ancient, but also an endangered reptile in the world. Reptiles once ruled the Mesozoic era, when the earth was their world. Later, because of environmental changes, many reptiles such as dinosaurs could not adapt and became extinct. However, reptiles such as Chinese alligators continue to this day. Many features of dinosaurs and reptiles can still be found in Chinese alligators. Therefore, people call the Chinese alligator a "living fossil".
Chinese alligators live in reeds or bamboo forests near the water and eat fish, frogs, snails and mussels. But sometimes it attacks poultry and crushes crops. Coupled with the "ugly" appearance, it has long been regarded as a harmful animal, so the number is scarce. The Chinese alligator is about 2 meters long, with a dark brown back and a gray abdomen, and its skin is covered with large horny scales. Every year from June 5438 to 10, he went into the cave to hibernate until April and May of the following year. It breeds with eggs, mates in June, usually lays eggs in July and August, and hatches young crocodiles in September. Chinese alligator is a special animal in China. Nowadays, when people study dinosaurs, in addition to dinosaur fossils, they often infer the living habits of dinosaurs from reptiles such as alligators. Therefore, alligator sinensis is of great significance for people to study the rise and fall of ancient reptiles and the evolution of paleogeology and biology. China has listed the Chinese alligator as a national first-class protected animal, and killing is strictly prohibited. In order to keep the competition of this precious animal going, China has also established nature reserves and farms for artificially raising Chinese alligators in Anhui and Zhejiang.
trait
The total length of an adult fish can reach about 2 meters, and the tail length is similar to the body length. The head is flat, the nose and mouth are long, and the external nostril is located in the nose and mouth with a flap. The body is covered with a piece of leather armor, and the abdominal armor is soft; The nail plates are nearly rectangular and neatly arranged; There are two rows of nail plates protruding to form two ridges running through the whole body. The limbs are short and thick, with webbed toes and claws. The back of the body is grayish brown, the front of the abdomen is gray, and it is grayish yellow from the anus to the back. Flat tail. Newborn crocodiles are black with yellow stripes.
Some people call the Chinese alligator a crocodile and treat it as an aquatic animal such as fish. In fact, Chinese alligators have no gills and are not aquatic animals. It's just that the Chinese alligator has returned to the water and formed some characteristics to adapt to life in the water, with amphibious skills. In this way, the Chinese alligator has expanded its life field and easily became the winner in struggle for existence.
strange hobby
He lives by digging holes in rivers and lakes, and he is fierce, feeding on all kinds of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and crustaceans. Mating in June, laying eggs in July and August, each nest can lay more than 20 eggs. The eggs are laid in the grass, covered with weeds, and the female crocodiles stay by and hatch at natural temperature. The incubation period is about 60 days. Have the habit of hibernating.
Chinese alligators like to inhabit lakes, marshy beaches or hilly mountains and streams in wet areas full of weeds and absinthe. It has superb ability to dig holes in buildings. Its head, tail, pointed toes and claws are the tools for digging holes in buildings. As the saying goes, "There are three caves for cunning rabbits", but there are more than three caves for Chinese alligators. There are often several holes in its caves, some are overgrown with reeds and bamboo forests on the beach, some are at the bottom of the pond, there are entrances and exits and vents on the ground, and there are also side holes adapted to various water levels. The cave twists and turns, criss-crossing, like an underground maze. Perhaps it was this underground maze that helped them survive the cold ice age and the cold winter, and also helped them escape from the enemy and survive.
Chinese alligators are quiet. They often live in caves during the day and go out for food at night. However, it also comes out during the day, and especially likes sunbathing on the shore and beach near the cave. It often closes its eyes, crawls motionless, and is in a state of semi-sleep, giving people the illusion of being slow. However, once it encounters the enemy's injury or finds food, it will immediately swing its thick tail from side to side and quickly sink to the bottom of the water to avoid the enemy's injury or chase food. Its favorite foods are snails, mussels, small fish, shrimps, waterfowl, rabbits, water snakes and other animals. Chinese alligator eats a lot and can store a lot of absorbed nutrients in its body, so it has strong hunger tolerance and can spend a long hibernation period.
Place of production
Produced at the junction of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Chinese alligator is a unique relic species in China, which has many physiological characteristics, and the discontinuity of distribution also illustrates this point. In order to explore the mystery of the Chinese alligator, China established the Chinese alligator reserve and the Chinese alligator breeding research center.
Chinese alligator is a unique crocodile in China and one of the endangered reptiles in the world. Its body is about 1.5-2 meters long, which is not as huge as African crocodiles and Thai crocodiles. The Chinese alligator has a short and blunt kiss, which is a kind of alligator. Because the Chinese alligator looks like a dragon, it is commonly called "earth dragon" or "pig female dragon". In 1970s, it was taken abroad and traveled around Europe, and became famous all over the world.
Unique predation method
Chinese alligators can jump up and catch when they encounter enemy injuries or hunt for food on land. When it can't catch it vertically, its huge tail can wave violently. Unfortunately, although the Chinese alligator has seemingly sharp teeth, it is slotted. This kind of tooth can't bite and chew food, but can only "clip" the food like pliers and swallow it. Therefore, when catching large terrestrial animals, Chinese alligators can't kill them, but drag them into the water and drown them; On the contrary, when Chinese alligators catch large aquatic animals, they will throw them on land, causing their prey to die of lack of oxygen. When a large piece of food can't be swallowed, the Chinese alligator often slaps the food on a stone or tree trunk with its big mouth until the food becomes soft or broken, and then swallows it with its mouth open. If not, it throws its prey aside and lets it rot naturally until it can be swallowed. Chinese alligators also have a special stomach. This stomach is not only rich in gastric acid but also high in acidity, so its digestive function is particularly good.
Anhui alligator national nature reserve
Anhui alligator national nature reserve is located in Xuancheng, Anhui Province, covering an area of 44,300 hectares. 1975 was established as a provincial nature reserve, and 1986 was promoted to a national level. The main object of protection is the Chinese alligator and its ecological environment.
The reserve is located in the transitional zone between Jiangnan ancient land and Jinling sag. The climate is warm, the rainfall is abundant, the terrain is complicated, and gullies, ponds, canals and dams are scattered all over the place. In ponds, gullies, gullies and reservoirs below 300 meters above sea level, the Chinese alligator, the oldest reptile endemic to China, lives. Chinese alligator and American Mississippi alligator are the only two kinds of freshwater crocodiles in the world, and their numbers are extremely rare, so they are listed as first-class protected animals by the state. Since the establishment of the nature reserve, the population of Chinese alligator has greatly increased through the combination of in-situ protection and artificial reproduction, which has initially lifted the danger of extinction of this species.