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.
The Opossum Ain’t Playing
Many people associate playing dead with the opossum - that’s where the term “playing opossum” comes from, after all. But something you might not know is that when an opossum feigns death, it really goes all out! Not content with merely closing its eyes and laying down, the opossum begins drooling profusely as if ill or even rabid, releases a putrid, greenish fluid from its anal glands that makes it smell like a decaying corpse, and after losing consciousness may even mimic rigor mortis! This is quite the elaborate routine, but it isn’t conscious: when an opossum plays dead, it has actually gone into shock due to stress.
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Discover Animals is a web-based educational resource offered by the NAIA
