i have a zoo

Chapter 113 Popular Science Knowledge (4000 in [-] [-]+)

After two o'clock in the afternoon, Qi Ming arrived at the elephant house on time, and the alpaca interactive project was immediately suspended.

On the one hand, the alpacas are already full after being fed by a large wave of tourists in the morning, and an important experience point of interaction is gone.

On the other hand, Qi Ming also received the reluctance transmitted from the hearts of Curly Hair and Brother Jiongmei.

It’s okay to have something to eat and drink in the morning for you to touch, but if you want to replace it with a prostitute, who would want it!
However, in Qi Ming's opinion, even if food is still provided, the alpacas probably don't want to be touched by tourists anymore. Just like a massage, one hour is enjoyment, and five hours is torture.

Feeling the reluctance of Curly Hair and Jiongmei, Qi Ming immediately announced the cessation of the alpaca interactive project. Although many tourists in line had some opinions on this, he still announced the cessation of the activity.

However, for these tourists who have already queued up and paid their time, Qi Ming sent them some leftover lottery tickets from the last event, and told them that they can directly participate in the alpaca activity with the tickets next time, so as to appease the dissatisfaction of tourists down. .

The next time he opens the alpaca interactive project, he plans to control the time within three hours, and the number of tourists participating also needs to be controlled.

Qi Ming has already made a preliminary plan for the number of places in this school. Some of the places will be booked on the public account of the zoo, and some places can be used as lottery prizes on the official account and other self-media platforms. Make an appointment on site.

This distance can reduce the queuing time of tourists at the scene, and can also attract tourists who failed to participate in the interactive project to return to the park again.

At the same time, it can also add a gimmick to the zoo. After all, these days, the more everyone can have it, the more people don't care about it. If the threshold is raised a little, it will generally be more popular.

"Director, you are here!" Zhuge Qi waved to Qi Ming.

"Yeah, come here early to help you get ready. After all, this is the first time our zoo has made Doudou's nail clipping public." Qi Ming said with a smile, "By the way, how are your preparations going now?"

"The general preparation is almost done. In fact, there is not much to prepare, that is, add a fence outside the place where Doudou cut her nails to prevent tourists from breaking in." Zhuge Qi said.

"That's right. It's a good thing that the zoo set the fixed door for nail trimming on the side, so that visitors can walk directly through the exhibition area." Qi Ming nodded.

In fact, after confirming the weekend nail cutting project, Qi Ming moved the big iron gate used to fix Doudou's feet in the elephant house to an independent field outside the elephant house yesterday, and also adjusted the path outside slightly. , so that tourists can see more clearly.

Some time ago, Lao Wang had just weighed Doudou. As a young elephant, Doudou weighed nearly three tons.

Therefore, the iron gate used to fix Doudou is also relatively thick and wide. It was custom-made by the old director Qi at the factory, otherwise the ordinary iron gate really couldn't withstand such a huge monster as Doudou.

The iron gate as a whole is somewhat similar to an ordinary large iron gate, except that there is a small window with a length of [-] centimeters and a width of [-] centimeters at a height of more than [-] centimeters, and a small door with a width of one person is located in the lower right corner.

This small door is for the staff to enter and exit, and the small window with a length and width of [-] centimeters is for Doudou to put his feet.

While Qi Ming and Zhuge Qi were discussing the work they had prepared, the small team of two men and one woman also walked to the long bench in front of the elephant house and sat down.

"By the way, Zhao Jia, do you know how the zoo weighs elephants? There should be no scales of their size!" Zhao Dapeng said, looking at the weight on the information board of Doudou in front of the habitat with great interest.

"Elephant weighing generally has four methods: suspension method, drainage method, footprint method, and modern technology method.

The first kind of suspension method is to hang a strong tackle on a big tree, tie an elephant on one side, and a basket on the other side, put stones in the basket until the elephant is lifted up, and then weigh the stones , this utilizes the principle of leveraged balance.

The second drainage method: first dig a geometric puddle, the depth of which can exceed the height of the elephant, so that the elephant cannot stand at the bottom of the water, fill up the water and drive the elephant in, then pull it out, calculate the reduction The volume of water, this was invented by Cao Chong when he was young.

The third footprint method: pull the elephant on the soft ground, then measure the depth of four footprints, and then measure the depth of the footprint of a person who already knows the weight on the same ground, and then the weight of the elephant can be calculated. This method is often used in detective dramas, where the detective measures the weight of the prisoner.

The fourth modern technology method is also the most common method at present. Use a large electronic scale to weigh, and pull the elephant to the electronic scale to directly get more weight. "

"Uh, you are joking with the first three methods. It is obviously different from the fourth method."

Originally, Zhao Dapeng heard the first three measurement methods, and was still guessing that it was really not easy to measure weight like this in the zoo. After hearing the fourth method, she knew that the first three methods were all Zhao Jia's tricks.

"Hehe!" Zhao Jia scratched his head and smiled honestly, "I'll tell you some knowledge about Asian elephants before I start cutting my nails."

"Let's talk, idle is idle anyway!" Tao Yingying took out a small mirror to adjust her makeup.

"Okay, let me tell you about the elephant drinking water first,
When an elephant drinks water, it first sucks the water into its nose, then puts the nose into its mouth, and then drinks the water. It takes about 60 kilograms at a time.

There is a piece of cartilage above the esophagus behind the elephant's nasal cavity. When water is sucked, the muscles in the throat contract, so that this piece of cartilage temporarily covers the mouth of the trachea, and the inhaled water will enter the esophagus from the nasal cavity instead of the trachea. , and then this piece of cartilage will automatically open again to ensure normal breathing. "

"Oh, so that's the case. If we also have this cartilage, we can eat noodles with our noses in the future." Zhao Dapeng said pretending to be humorous.

Zhao Jia ignored Zhao Dapeng, but continued to say:

"Elephant tusks are a hotspot for tourists to appreciate, but for Asian elephants, this is only the "patent" of adult males. This is a pair of long incisors that grow continuously throughout their lives, but never come off. The length can reach 2 meters About 30-40 kilograms for a single piece.

Ivory is also very useful, it is a tool for digging food, and it is also a weapon when fighting.

In addition to ivory, the big fan-like ears of Asian elephants have also attracted the attention of tourists. These ears are very important to elephants.

Body overheating is a challenge for large animals, and this pair of "big cattail fans" with a width of nearly 1 meter seems to be born to solve this problem.

Unlike the thick skin that wraps most of their body, the skin on the ear is paper thin and has many folds inside, greatly increasing the heat dissipation area. A series of blood vessels in it act like a car radiator. Like the grille of the ear, when it flaps the ears, the flowing air can lower the temperature of the blood by as much as 5°C!
Asian elephants often use infrasound waves to communicate with each other, and their big ears are also good for collecting sound waves, making their sense of hearing extraordinarily keen. "

"That's really a cattail fan, and the shape is a bit similar!" Tao Yingying took out her lipstick and tapped her lips.

"Elephants seem to walk very quietly. This is because the bones of the feet and the pads have a layer of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber. The outside hits the ground before the center of the pad hits the ground, and the sound of the pads hitting the ground will be received by the airbags under the feet.

When it walks fast, it always lifts the front and rear limbs on the same side at the same time, instead of leaving the ground at the same time with the two limbs on the diagonal like other mammals. A peculiar rocking motion. "

At this point, Zhao Jia paused, and added: "This phenomenon of "slipping the hooves" is a phenomenon of elephants walking normally, not their stereotyped behavior as Wang said just now."

"Don't look at Doudou's size, but he is a good swimmer.

The buoyancy provided by the huge body of the Asian elephant can easily float in the water and become a good swimmer. It can swim continuously for 5-6 hours and cross a wide river.

It also likes water baths very much. It often takes a bath by the river or pond, plays, uses its long nose to absorb water and washes its body, and also likes to smear mud all over its body to remove parasites on its body and prevent mosquito bites.

In the wild, Asian elephants like to eat pickle moss, elephant trunk vine, chaff, samara, and the twigs and leaves of wild plantain, palm leaf reed, Dong palm and other plants.

When eating, it often rolls up the plants with its proboscis, uproots them from the ground, and pats off the soil on its legs or trunks before sending them into its mouth.

Sometimes the sound of snapping branches "snap, slap" in the silent forest, spread throughout the valley.

The elephant's nose is not only a respiratory organ and an olfactory organ, but also a sense of touch. It can also be used to ingest food, drink water, carry objects and attack, and even to communicate feelings and transmit information between individuals.

After training, the elephant can hold the harmonica with its nose and play the tune.It is no exaggeration to say that the elephant's trunk is worthy of its own universal tool, with multiple functions.

The end of the elephant trunk has rich and well-developed capillaries and sensitive nerves. It has a keen sense of smell and touch like a human finger. It can detect external environmental information like a radar and transmit it to the brain.

Elephants often erect their long trunks and swing them in the air. They can smell smells hundreds of meters away or even further away. They can also judge whether there is danger. Once they find danger, they either run against the wind or rush , fight to the death.

In addition, it can use its nose to taste whether there is delicious food.

And they only evolved this function because they eat an astonishingly large diet, eating about 100 kilograms of fresh plants every day.

It needs to occupy an area of ​​tens of square kilometers as a field for activities and feeding.In order to eat enough food, elephants often have to go from one place to another, eating while walking, which is the reason for the migration of elephants.

In the zoo, the food of Asian elephants is mainly some hay, including sago dan grass, fresh alfalfa, dry rice straw, sugar cane, corn, etc. In addition, the feed is also matched with nutritious food such as apples, rapeseed, and carrots.

Asian elephants in the wild are usually in groups of three or five, or large groups of dozens of individuals.Each group is made up of a "family" or multiple "families", who help each other and live in harmony.

Different from other group animals, the leader is an adult female, and the other members are arranged in order according to age, physical strength, and move forward together.

The leader plays the most important role in the group. It directs the daily activities of the whole group, such as the action route, time arrangement, foraging places, resting places, etc., and also undertakes the important responsibility of defending the group.

Although the Asian elephant is the largest animal in its habitat and is not afraid of any other animal threats, it also maintains a high level of vigilance and even sleeps standing up.

Asian elephants only give birth to one calf per litter.The weight of a newborn cub is 70-100 kg, which is about the same size as a calf. Its nose is not too long and it has no teeth. Moved around. "

Hearing this, Tao Yingying couldn't help asking: "Zhao Jia, is there any difference between this Asian elephant and the African elephant we saw in our documentary?"

Zhao Jia thought for a while with his head sideways, and answered according to the memory in his mind: "Asian elephants are the largest land animals in Asia. Generally speaking, Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants.

African elephants have big ears and Asian elephants have small ears.

African elephants have smooth foreheads, and Asian elephants have two bumps on their heads.

Because African elephants are larger, their tusks are larger and thicker than those of Asian elephants.

In addition, the ivory of Asian elephants is white in color, easy to yellow, poor in luster, and the hardness of dentin is lower than that of African ivory. crack.

African forest elephants have 5 toes on the front feet and only 4 on the back feet, while African savannah elephants have 4 toes on the front feet and only 3 on the back feet.Asian elephants usually have 5 toenails on the front feet and 4 on the back feet, and some Asian elephants also have 5 toenails on the back feet.

The back of the Asian elephant is convex, and the buttocks are lower than the back; the back of the African elephant is sunken in the middle, with a tall buttocks.

Asian elephants have only one protruding nose, which grows above the nostril, while African elephants have two, one at the top and one at the top.

Asian elephants are light gray in color and African elephants are dark gray in color.In terms of skin texture, Asian elephants have fewer folds and more delicate skin.The African elephant is a real rough guy.

亚洲象有19对肋骨（其中苏门答腊象有20对肋骨），33块尾椎骨；非洲象有21对肋骨，26块尾椎骨。

Asian elephants are docile and friendly, while African elephants are more violent and wild. "

"Little brother, do you know a lot about elephants?"

(End of this chapter)