Why do dead fish float upside down?

Why do dead fish float upside down?

Like a living creature, gases build up inside a fish's body when it dies, and this keeps it afloat in the water. these gases collect mainly in the abdominal cavity, which is on the underside of the fish. When this happens, the lighter, gas-filled abdomen becomes buoyant and the more compact back forms the center of gravity, with the result that the fish is turned upside down. It is only when decomposition is further advanced that the gases are released. and the fish sinks.

Do fish sleep?

Do fish sleep?

Although fish do not have eyelids, they regularly have short naps, just like the higher vertebrates. Some sleep during the day, others at night. Sleeping fish hide in caves, crevices or coral canyons, lying on their sides or surrounding themselves with a coat of slime, which also helps to protect them from predators. As they sleep, alert. However, they never completely unconscious. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) taken of the fish brains have shown that resting fish do not have phases of deep sleep. Some fish even manage to continue swimming slowly while they are asleep.

How does a fish's sixth sense works?

How does a fish's sixth sense works?

Fish have sensory equipment that can detect impulses caused by movements in the water. This is often referred to as a fish's sixth sense. Because the sense organ responsible for this ability runs along the body, from the eye to tailfin, it is known as the lateral line consists of small pores - which often appear as a pale line along a fish's body - that lead to canals beneath the skin lines with sensory cells called neuromasts. These cells enable fish to sense even the smallest vibrations and movements in the water, which why they never swim into the well of a fish tank, and why they can always manage to find their way around, even in the murkiest water. This sense also gives fish some idea of the size of the creatures that may be lurking in their vicinity, important for predator and prey alike. Sharks, for example, use this ability to locate nearby prey.

Do fish drink water?

Do fish need to drink?

The answer is yes and no - saltwater fish drink, freshwater fish do not. The reasons are all down to a matter of physics and a process knows as osmosis.
               When two fluids of differing concentrations are separated by a membrane - in this case, the skin of the fish - water always flow towards the more highly concentrated solution. The body fluid of freshwater fish is more highly concentrated than the surrounding water. Therefore water is absorbed into the body through the skin and gills and the fish must actively excrete water, otherwise, it will eventually explode. The opposite is true for saltwater fish. In their case, the surrounding water is more highly concentrated and draws fluid out of the fish. This means the saltwater fish must actively take in water to avoid drying out. They take in water through their mouth, mucous membranes and gills. The salt is excreted by the gills before reaching the body.

Are fish deaf and dumb?

Are fish deaf and dumb?

Fish are anything but dumb. Squirrelfish communicate with clicking sounds, wrasse grunt, gurnards growl and male dumb fish have special muscles around their bladder which produce a drumming sound when contracted rapidly. Most remarkable of all, when herrings fart it has nothing to do with their digestion, but everything to do with communication. In order to have a conversation, they swallow air which they expel through the anal orifice in their gas bladder. In this way, the fish can produce notes extending over more than three octaves at frequencies of between 1.7 and 22 kHz. they can hold each note for almost eight seconds.
            since fish can make such a range of noises, it seems only logical to assume that they can hear. They do so through their inner ear which is connected to the air bladder by what is known as the Weberian apparatus then transmits the sounds to the inner ear - in a similar fashion to the way the auditory ossicles function in mammals. 

Wrasse native to the western Pacific Ocean communicates by making grunting noises.

How do elephants chew?

How do elephants chew?

Elephants eat by grinding tough plants matter back and forth between four massive molars- one on top and one on the bottom at each side of the mouth. These are rasped away over many years and replaced six times throughout the elephant's life. As each tooth is gradually worn down, the root is reabsorbed and the whole tooth is eventually replaced by a new one developing behind it. If an elephant is still alive when its last tooth wears out, it can no longer chew its food and will die of starvation. In fact, this rarely happens in the wild, since the animals don't usually live to such a great age.

What is the lifespan of an elephant?

How long do elephants live?


These magnificent pachyderms can live to an age of 70 years. they live in herds of about 10 cows and they are young, led by an older matriarch. Males are excluded from the herd as soon as they reach sexual maturity. Young bull elephants will often get together to form bachelor herds, but will only approach females for breeding purposes.

History of the coconut.

History of the coconut.

Did you know that just one coconut can be the beginning of an entire island?

Coconut palms grow on the isolated island as well as the mainland because coconuts can drift across the sea for thousands of kilometers without losing their potential to germinate. Whether they come ashore on a sandbank, a flat atoll or a coral island at the end of their long journey, any little bit of land they do find will provide enough space for them to germinate. As the seedling grows, more and more seed and solid material are deposited around it and so, over time, a small island can form. Because coconut can spend more time drifting at sea without being damaged, it is very difficult to determine where the first coconut came from. 

What is the juice in a coconut?

Coconut juice, or coconut water to be more precise, is liquid food for the coconut tree seedling. The sweet, almost transparent liquid is full of nutrients, containing oil, sugar, water, vitamins, and minerals, including potassium, phosphorus, and selenium. As the fruit ripens, the hard coconut flesh absorbs the water. As a rule, it is true to say that the riper the fruit is the less water it will contain. Coconut water is sterile and can, therefore, be used in an emergency as a substitute for serum and injected directly into a vein in cases where there has been major blood loss.

What does a coconut really look like?

Coconuts are in fact green. They are wrapped in a thick, fibrous layer with a fine green outer skin, all of which is removed as soon as the fruit is harvested in order to save bulk and weight. what remains is the actual coconut seed, which - from a botanist's perspective - isn't a nut at all, but a stone fruit like the cherry, with a skin and a stone. When people speak of green coconut they mean the six- to seven-month-old, unripe coconuts that are harvested before the hard kernel forms. At this stage, the fruit is at its most nutritious. It holds around half a liter of clear coconut water and its flesh is still soft enough to be eaten with a spoon. The coconut milk commonly found on grocery store shelves and used in Asian cooking is simply water that has been pressed out of a soaked and pureed dried coconut. 

              The world's largest seed, which can reach 30 cm in length and 18 kg in weight, is shaped like a double coconut but not directly related to the true coconut. It comes from the coco-de-mer palm that grows naturally only in Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.

Mysterious Nature

Facts about trees and plants.

1. What strategies do plants use to survive?

 Amazing adaptive and regenerative abilities are a plant’s most important survival strategies. This is why plants can be found growing in the most extreme locations from deserts to mountains. Some able to withstand high salt concentrations and periods of drought, while others survive temperatures as low as -80˚C. If a plant is injured or suffers some other form of stress, its recovery will often be amazingly rapid. 

 2. Why are flowers colorful?

Red, orange, yellow, blue and lilac- whatever the hue, the spectacular colours of flowers are all tools in the service of reproduction. Plants use the bright colours of their blooms to attract pollinators such as insects and birds. This also explains why the flowers of the plants that are pollinated solely by the wind, such as grasses, tend to be rather nondescript. They don’t need to look attractive.         Some flowers, like that of the hours chestnut, will even inform their pollinators when it’s no longer worth paying them a visit. Brown stains develop inside the bloom as soon as it fully harvested and it's empty. Pollinators then lose all interests in the flower and can be target other, more inviting blooms.

3. Why are so few flowers blue?

One of the reasons for the rarity of blue flowers is the complex chemistry of flower colour. This is why all attempts at bleeding a blue rose have failed so far. The blue colour is the result of the interaction of many factors. Acidity or alkalinity have to be just right, and certain metal-complex pigments – organic molecules that can combine in metals – need to be present. Hydrangeas, for example, are only blue if the soil in which they grow contains sufficient quantities of aluminum, a metal that is able to combine with their pigments. Cornflowers are blue because the pigments they contain combine with iron or aluminium ions.       Another reason for the scarcity of blue flowers is evolutionary, and a result of the close relationship that has developed between flowers and their pollinators. Birds are attracted to red flowers, whereas beetles, moths and flies tend to prefer creamy colours. Bees can’t perceive the color red, which is why they tend to be attracted by white and yellow flowers, although they like blue flowers as well. However because the contrast between green foliage and white are yellow flowers is much greater then it is between blue flowers and foliage, this gives the brighter colours an advantage, which is why they occur more frequently.

 4. How do pitcher plants catch their prey?

Pitcher plants, such as Nepenthes sp., lure their prey with sweet nectar and then rely on their hapless victims aqua-planting to their doom. The nectar is produced on the edges of the pitchers or traps. Insects that land to sample the nectar lose their footing on the thin film of slippery liquid and slide into the pitcher and the pool of the water it often contains.              Even if the pitcher is dry, it is easy for insects to lose their foothold. This is because many pitchers plants have tiny slippery wax leaves covering their surface. In the case of the so-called ‘fanged pitcher plant’ Nepenthes sp. the surface structure is such that the insects are able to get a grip in one direction only- downwards and into the pitcher. There is nothing to help them climb back up to the rim because the surface is made up of circular grooves with the stepped structure, and all of the steps lead down into the pitcher’s interior.

5. What is the deception flowers?

Plants use many tricks to deceive insects in order to attract them for the purpose of pollination. The aptly named deception flowers, for example, lure pollinating insects with the perfume that appears to promise a rich source of food, even though the plant doesn’t actually deliver on the promise. Various orchids, such as the fly orchid, look and smell remarkable like a female of the insect species that are responsible for pollinating them. This encourages the insects to fly from the flower to flower in meeting frenzy, transferring pollen in the process. Carrion flowers imitate the smell of dung or carrion which attracts flies that then lay their eggs. The unfortunate maggots, when they hatch from the eggs, simply starve to death.