Category: Mammals
These large ungulates have been domesticated for more than 10,000 years. All the 1.3 billion cattle in the world are thought to have originated from 80 progenitors in Turkey. Humans raise and use them for a variety of uses and products including meat, dairy products, leather, and as draft animals. Cattle are ruminants, which means they have a digestive system that allows them to eat poorly digestible plants as food. In addition to having a stomach with four specialized compartments, cattle regurgitate and chew their food, or “cud,”as an extra stage of digestion.
Bats: The Only True-Flying Mammal
Bats, the only mammal capable of true flight, are not blind - their eyes are just fine, thank you very much. But instead of eyes, most bats rely on an incredibly fine-tuned sense of hearing when they fly and hunt. Using a technique called echolocation, they emit high-pitched calls (usually above the range of human hearing), using the echos that are reflected back to them as a means of navigation and locating objects. The ears, auditory cortex, and (in a few cases) even noses of some bats are extraordinarily specialized for echolocation; there are even bats that have adapted the frequency of their calls to frequencies above or below what their favorite prey can hear!
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Discover Animals is a web-based educational resource offered by the NAIA
