Single animals. Taiga animals. Inhabitants of taiga forests Chinese giant salamander

The variety of shapes, colors and sizes of creatures that inhabit our planet surpasses even the richest imagination. We are pleased to present you the most unusual animals in the world. Some of them look like characters fantasy movie about Mars, others seem to have come from another dimension, but they all live on Earth and were created by mother nature.

25. Octopus Dumbo

Opens the hit parade amazing creatures funny octopus. He lives on great depths(from one hundred to five thousand meters) and is mainly engaged in the search for crustaceans and worms on seabed. The octopus got its name, reminiscent of a baby elephant with large ears, thanks to two unusually shaped fins.

24. Darwin's Bat

Creatures from the bat family are found in the waters around Galapagos Islands. They are terrible swimmers and have instead learned to walk the ocean floor on their flippers.

23. Chinese water deer

This animal has earned the nickname "Vampire Deer" for its prominent fangs, which are used in battles for territory.

22. Starship

The small North American mole gets its name from the circle of 22 pink, fleshy tentacles at the end of its snout. They are used to identify starfish food (worms, insects and crustaceans) by touch.

21. Ay-ay

In this photo - one of the most unusual animals in the world with the name "ay-ay" or "arm". This Madagascar native is notable for its unique foraging method; it knocks on trees to find larvae and then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts an elongated middle finger to pull out prey.

20. Living Stone

Pyura Chilensis are living, breathing organisms found on Chilean beaches. Them appearance allows them to avoid predators. Interestingly, these creatures have both male and female organs and can reproduce without the help of a partner.

19. Pacu fish

freshwater fish with human teeth found in rivers in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, as well as in papua new guinea. A nightmare for local fishermen who are afraid to swim in the water because they confuse male testicles with nuts falling from trees into the water.

18. Drop fish

One of the strangest animals in the world. By the appearance of this creature, we can say that it is the embodiment of despondency. It lives in deep waters off the coast of Australia and Tasmania.

The blob fish lives in the depths and its flesh is a gel-like mass with a density slightly less than that of water. This allows the "dull" creature to stay afloat.

17. Eastern long neck turtle

These turtles can be found throughout Australia. Their wonderful necks can reach a length of up to 25 cm.

16. Surinam pipa

The leaf-like appearance of the Suriname pipa is a natural defense against predators. These toads have a unique breeding method: the female lays eggs and the male releases sperm at the same time. The female dives down and the eggs fall on her back, into the cells, where they are until the time comes for the young peeps to be born.

15. Yeti Crab

The "hairy" claws of this crustacean, which lives in the depths of the southern part, contain many filamentous bacteria. They are needed to neutralize poisonous minerals from the water and, possibly, serve as food for their carrier.

14. Bearded man

These beautiful birds live on Everest, in the Himalayas and other mountainous regions in Europe and Asia. They were almost destroyed because people were afraid that bearded men would attack animals and children. Now there are only 10,000 of them left on Earth.

13. Pike blenny

They live in the waters west coast Americans can grow up to 30 cm in length and have intimidatingly large mouths. Their pike blennies show each other as if kissing. Whoever has a larger mouth is more important.

12. Decorated tree kite

A living nightmare for many people: a snake that climbs trees and then jumps down. Before the jump, the reptile curls up into a spiral, and then abruptly turns around and throws itself into the air. In flight, it stretches out and lands smoothly on a lower branch or other tree. Fortunately, flying snakes do not pay attention to people, they are more interested in the bats, frogs and rodents.

11. North American cahomizli

The homeland of this cute animal from the raccoon family is the arid regions of North America. They are so easy to tame that miners and settlers once kept them as companions and gave them the nickname "miner's cat".

10. Striped tenrec

Lives only in tropical forests Madagascar. The tenrec is somewhat porcupine-like, and the quills in the central back can vibrate. With their help, animals locate each other.

9. Pink sea cucumber

It looks like a character from a science fiction movie, but in reality it is a harmless creature. And it looks more like a jellyfish than its relatives holothurians. Around its red mouth are tentacles that dig up edible dirt from the bottom of the sea. From there, it enters the creature's intestines.

8. Rhinopithecus

Famed broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough once remarked that these marvelous monkeys, with their stump noses and blue "masks" around their eyes, looked like "elves." Can you look at them and say, plastic surgery gone too far." Rhinopithecus live in Asia, at altitudes up to 4000 meters and are rarely seen by humans.

7. Mantis shrimp

Colorful stomatopod or mantis shrimp spends most their lives hiding in burrows. Able to break through the walls of aquariums by moving at speeds up to 80 km per hour. During mating games Mantis shrimp actively fluoresce, with the wavelength of the fluorescence corresponding to the wavelength that the pigments in their eyes can perceive.

6 Panda Ant

Among the most unusual animals on the planet is a fluffy panda-colored creature. In fact, this is not an ant, but a wingless wasp that lives in South America. It is very similar in appearance to an ant, but, unlike it, has a powerful sting.

5. Leaf-tailed gecko

The master of disguise hails from Madagascar. Thanks to its leaf-shaped tail, it can fit into the "interior" of the local jungle.

4. Gerenuk

It is hard to believe that this long-necked charmer is not a mini-giraffe, but a real African gazelle. In order to reach the high branches, the gerenuk lacks only the length of the neck. You still have to stand on your hind legs.

3 Chinese Giant Salamander

It can grow up to 180 cm long and weigh up to 70 kg. If you are in China and see such a creature in a local reservoir, then you should know that the water in this reservoir is very clean and cold.

2. Angora rabbit

Looks like the result of a crossbreeding experiment Bigfoot with a kitten. Angora rabbits were exceptionally popular in the 17th and 18th centuries among European nobility. They were not eaten, but kept as pets.

1. Goblin shark (aka goblin shark)

Number one in our top 25 strange creatures comes the rare shark, sometimes referred to as a "living fossil". This is the only surviving representative of the Scapanorhynchus family, whose pedigree is about 125 million years old. Goblin sharks live all over the world at depths of more than 100 m, so they are not dangerous for swimmers.

In most animals, males and females gather only during the mating season. After that, they again disperse and continue to live separately. Females either leave offspring to their fate, or raise them without the help of a male. Such animals that lead a solitary lifestyle are called loners. Among them are many representatives of the cat family, bears, rodents, foxes, crocodiles, rhinos, hedgehogs, foxes, badgers and many others.

puma

Distributed in Northern and South America, from Canada south to Tierra del Fuego. Lives on the plains and in the mountains at an altitude of up to 5600 m. Local names are cougar and mountain lion. Deftly climbs trees and rocks. Lives alone. Its prey is deer, bighorns, peccaries, guanacos and large rodents. Like all cats, it hunts furtively. The body of the cougar, together with the tail, is up to 2.5 m long and weighs up to 80 kg. The cougar, in comparison with other felines, has rather large and massive paws, and the well-developed muscles of the hind legs allow it to make large jumps.

Chipmunk

The range of this animal covers the zone of mountains, taiga and mixed forests of North-Eastern Europe, Asia and North America. Leads a daily lifestyle. A solitary animal that categorically does not tolerate its own kind on its territory. It feeds on seeds, berries, buds, insects, but prefers pine nuts - high-calorie and nutritious, which the chipmunk makes for the winter. In this regard, the places of his residence are closely connected with the places where the Siberian and dwarf pine grows.

Squirrel

All squirrels are solitary animals. Each individual occupies a separate territory, so it makes no sense to create collective squirrel settlements in parks. All the same, some of them will leave the place, which they recognize as overpopulated. The squirrel builds a spherical nest from branches. Rarely occupies a hollow. Stores food for the winter. At the same time, he hides most of the provisions in the most secluded corners, and pricks mushrooms on knots to dry.

Nine-banded armadillo

Very common in the tropics and subtropics of America. Over the past hundred years, settled in the southern states of the United States. Body length with tail reaches 90 cm, weight - 8 kg. Its shell consists of small skin bones, covered with horny scutes on top. It feeds on a variety of small living creatures, and does not disdain plant foods. In search of food, it often digs into the ground with strong clawed paws. A solitary animal, forms temporary pairs during the mating season. The female gives birth to four cubs - always identical twins. Therefore, only males or only females can be in the brood. This is unique phenomenon in the animal world.

Wolverine

The animal is found in the forests of North America, Asia, in the taiga and tundra of Europe. leads a lonely life. The individual area that it occupies is very large. Sometimes its size reaches 2000 km ². Only 1-3 females can be found on a vast territory. Despite the fact that wolverines attack large ungulates, they cannot be called voracious. They eat much less than can fit in the stomach. The predator hides the remnants of food in reserve.

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Somehow related to climatic region taiga. Animal world the taiga has a certain hierarchy in which the stronger absorb the weak - weak animals are a food base for more strong predators. I made up full list animals living in the taiga, both in dark coniferous and light coniferous. Full review inhabitants northern forests Eurasia and North America, ranging from the strongest, largest and ending with the smallest. The list will not include except that insects, earthworms and other small inhabitants of the taiga. I will not compose this article according to the model of classical encyclopedias, but I will write only what I consider necessary. What seemed to me the most important and interesting for getting to know the animals of the taiga.

Bear

The most famous inhabitant of the northern forests is the bear. If in the taiga of Eurasia live only brown bears, then black bears are still found in the forests of North America -. The bear can rightfully be called the king of all animals in the taiga for its large size and physical strength. However, in Everyday life bears are very lazy and cowardly. In 99% of cases, bears avoid meeting a person or even some other animal, because they do not want unnecessary conflicts. Bears attack people most often in two cases. It's either waking up in the winter Bear rod , or a she-bear with cubs. In the first case, a bear, accustomed to eating mainly vegetation, is looking for food and does not find it in winter forest, therefore, goes to what is, i.e. for meat. And if a person who has entered the forest falls under his arm, then the bear may not deny himself the pleasure, to feast on this dish. In fact, connecting rod bears often begin to hunt other animals themselves. Having smelled the smell of a person, the bear will hunt him. The bear is dangerous as the protector of her offspring. She just turns on maternal instinct protection, and any living object potentially poses a danger to the cubs.

The bear is an omnivore, its diet varies depending on the habitat. For example, the North American Grizzly, like the Kamchatka bears, reaches large sizes by eating fish. You must have seen a lot of photos of bears fishing in a stream. In those places where there is a lot of fish, it is not difficult for bears to get it. But the bears living in the territory of Central Eurasia are usually much smaller, since they usually eat plant foods: berries, herbs, etc. Bears also like to eat carrion, after which Trichinella larvae penetrate their meat.

Male bears always live alone, while the female always walks separately from the male along with her cubs. Due to the fact that the male can afford to attack the cubs of some other male, the she-bears try to mate with as much as possible. a large number males living in the surrounding areas. In this case, the male will think that these cubs can be his, and will no longer attack them.

There were cases when bears came to the camp with overnight tourists in search of food. These meetings can end sadly, so in places where the population of bears is large (Kamchatka, Alaska, Yukon), people hang everything edible high on a tree at a sufficient distance from the camp. Also, all food is butchered, cooked and consumed away from the camp.

They hunt a bear, as a rule, from a storehouse or in a den (in winter). According to the rule that it is very difficult to meet a bear in the forest, because. he tries to avoid unnecessary meetings, hunting with the pursuit of a bear is a losing option in advance. Therefore, they hunt for a clubfoot from an ambush. Moreover, this ambush is made on a tree and carefully masks its smell, since the bear, like all wild animals of the taiga, has a very well-developed sense of smell, and he already feels the slightest smells, and therefore, he will be afraid and will pass by. Most often they hunt not for meat, but for the sake of the skin, bear fat and bear bile - the most valuable products of traditional medicine.

Elk

Many people think that the bear is the most dangerous animal in the taiga, but this is not true. The most dangerous is the elk. Namely, a male moose during the rutting season (" mating season"). At this time, the male intoxicated with male sex hormones becomes inadequate in his behavior and he perceives any living object as a competitor. The elk nursing the female is not interested in someone else nursing his chosen one - well, that's understandable ( who wants to?) And so his aggression is very high . He just attacks on the move, indiscriminately. He beats his potential competitor with his front hooves, and if this is a person, then he has practically no chance. The impact of this giant (from 300 to 650 kg) is very strong, and therefore an encounter with an elk during the rut is very dangerous. The rut period lasts in autumn, September-October. The most attractive to females are males with the largest horns. You say: because such a male seems stronger? Not right. The female thinks that if this male has such big horns, it means that he was able to get so much food for himself, compete so much for this food with other moose, that he managed to grow such big horns for himself. This means that for her future offspring, he will be able to get a lot of food, the offspring will be healthy and strong. Compared with people, women are more likely to prefer a more wealthy man to a less wealthy one.

Elk feeds exclusively on plant foods, as, indeed, cows and deer. Elk belongs to the deer family and artiodactyl order. Moose eat branches of shrubs, trees, mosses, lichens, edible mushrooms, various herbs. They love to live in mixed forests with dense undergrowth, with an abundance of aspens and birches. In this way, a moose eats about 7 tons of feed per year. And in winter it eats less, but saves energy.

Moose have a well-developed hearing and sense of smell (like all animals of the taiga), but their eyesight is rather weak. Still standing man may not be noticed at a distance of a couple of tens of meters. In principle, a rather peaceful animal: if you do not provoke a conflict, then the elk is unlikely to attack a person first.

Rangers and hunters build special salt licks for moose - moose willingly lick off this salt. They also approach roads and lick salt from highways. Moose live up to 20-23 years living in the wild. However, moose, like all artiodactyls, are also kept in captivity, growing them on special farms.

Deer

In the northern forests, as a rule, red deer is found. In the coastal taiga, this is a red deer, in the forests of Altai - deer, in North America- wapiti. Deer eat plant foods. The diet is varied: various herbs, mushrooms, berries. Eats needles of pine, fir, cedar. Due to the lack of minerals in the body, deer like to lick the ground, which is rich in salt, willingly approach salt licks specially prepared for them. AT winter time animals are forced to eat almost all day long to replenish their energy reserves. AT wild environment the deer lives on average up to 20 years, at the age of 5-6 years it reaches the period of puberty. Horns in young males begin to appear about a year later.

Young deer antlers (antlers) are of great importance in traditional medicine. In Altai, marals have been bred specifically for the sake of horns for many years. The antlers are cut off from live deer; when cut off, the antlers begin to bleed. The water-alcohol extract of deer antlers is used as a tonic, preparations are made on its basis. Pantocrine - a drug used in complex therapy for neurasthenia, asthenia and arterial hypotension.

Deer hunting is prohibited in many places, and therefore they are hunted mainly by poachers. Beyond man, enemies red deer are wolves attacking them in packs. The deer try to fight back with their hooves and horns, but as a rule, the wolves rip open the underside of the deer and it dies.

musk deer

Another representative of deer-like artiodactyls. Musk deer lives in the Far Eastern taiga. Prefers dark coniferous taiga, with stone deposits, outcroppings of remnant rocks. Runs well and jumps incredibly well. It is capable of galloping, without slowing down, to change the direction of travel by 90 °. Fleeing from the pursuer, the musk deer, like a hare, confuses the tracks. It feeds on needles of fir, cedar, lichens, and various herbs. The diet of the musk deer is strictly vegetarian. Gathering food, musk deer can climb an inclined tree trunk or jump from branch to branch up to a height of 3 - 4 m. natural enemies. On the Far East its main enemy is the harza, which hunts musk deer in families. The lynx often lies in wait for the musk deer while feeding, the wolverine and the fox pursue. Their life expectancy is only 4 - 5 years in nature and up to 10 - 14 in captivity.

Musk deer in the mountains		musk deer cub

On the belly of the male musk deer there is a musk gland filled with a thick, pungent-smelling brown-brown secretion. One gland of an adult male contains 10 - 20 g of natural musk - the most expensive product animal origin. Chemical composition muscle is very complex: fatty acid, wax, aromatic and steroid compounds, cholesterol esters. The main carrier of the musky odor is the macrocyclic ketone muscone. Volatile components of musk carry information about the age and condition of the male and can accelerate estrus in females.

Musk is widely used in oriental medicine at the present time. In China, it is part of more than 200 recipes. medicines. Experiments conducted in India have shown that musk has a general stimulating effect on the heart and central nervous system and is also effective as an anti-inflammatory agent. In Europe, musk medical preparation It does not enjoy much success, but here it has found another use: in the perfume industry as an odor fixative.

Roe

Artiodactyl animal of the deer family. Two species of roe deer live in the taiga forests: the European roe deer, which only slightly captures the taiga region, and the Siberian roe deer. Habitat mainly depends on the height and time of occurrence snow cover. The critical height of snow cover for the Siberian roe deer is 50 cm. The Siberian roe deer avoids areas where snow of such a height lies 230-240 days a year. Roe deer enter the taiga only when there is deciduous undergrowth in it, and mainly lives in mixed forests.

It prefers areas of light sparse forest with rich shrub undergrowth, surrounded by meadows and fields, or (in summer) tall grass meadows overgrown with shrubs as the most feeding places. It occurs in reed beds, in floodplain forests, in overgrown clearings and burnt areas, in overgrown ravines and gullies. Compared to Siberian European roe deer practically sedentary and do not make mass seasonal migrations. It feeds on plant foods rich in nutrients and water. Most preferred are young shoots (low in fiber). Dry and strongly woody parts of plants, hard grasses and sedges, plants containing toxic substances (saponins, alkaloids, phenols and glucosides) are usually not eaten or eaten reluctantly.

To make up for the lack of minerals, roe deer visit salt licks or drink water from springs rich in mineral salts. During pregnancy and lactation in females and the growth of horns in males, the need for minerals increases by 1.5-2 times. Water is obtained mainly from plant foods, however, if there are nearby reservoirs, they are regularly visited; in winter they sometimes eat snow. The daily need for water is small and is about 1.5 liters per day.

Boar

Mostly wild wild boar lives in warmer regions and is found even in the subtropics and tropics. But it can be safely called a representative of the animal world of the taiga. The wild boar is the ancestor of our domestic pigs and piglets, but is strong, powerful and very aggressive beast. A meeting with a wild boar in the taiga can cost a person his life under certain conditions. It grows to unprecedented sizes, the body length of some individuals is, if not to lie, about 4 meters. There are trophy photos of hunters with giant boars on the Internet. But on average, a wild boar weighs about 175-200 kg, body length is 1.5 - 2 meters.

The wild boar is omnivorous. And you can safely see that this comrade loves to eat quite. It feeds mainly on plant foods, but consumes various small rodents and carrion. Wild boars prefer an area rich in various puddles and reservoirs. They love to wallow in these puddles, mess around in the mud (pigs, though). A rather clumsy animal, but it runs fast and swims well. Hearing and smell are well developed, vision is not good. Boars are wary but not cowardly: irritated, injured or protective of their young, they are very brave and dangerous because of their strength and large fangs. They can also visit the fields of potatoes, turnips, cereals, causing harm agriculture, especially those that tear and trample the crops. They often damage young trees as well. Very rarely, wild boars attack rather large animals, sick or wounded, for example, fallow deer, roe deer, even deer, kill and eat them.

It is an object of sport hunting. Boar meat, before eating, must be checked in a special laboratory (however, like bear meat) for the presence of capsules with Trichinella larvae in it. There are frequent cases of human infection with trichinosis after eating wild boar.

Wolf

The wolf is the favorite animal of the taiga for many people. Many people like to put images of a wolf on their avatars and simply associate wolves with something beautiful, endow wolves with nobility and even magic power. But in fact, wolves are far from being as white and fluffy as many people see them. And lone wolves simply practically do not exist, they are very rare in the taiga. Wolves are pack animals, they gather in packs and have been for many thousands of years. In a pack, it is simply easier for wolves to survive, to get food in the frosty climate of the taiga, than one by one. Lone wolves, or rather wolf families, are found in places where there is an abundance of food, and they no longer need to gather in a pack. But most often the wolf lives in a pack. And there is no nobility here. The flock is a rigidly organized totalitarian society with its own hierarchy. There is a leader to whom all other individuals obey, there are medium wolves and the lowest - outcasts. Such outcasts are not driven away, but they are treated extremely badly, however, it is easier for an outcast to survive in a pack than alone.

Of course, wolves are very aesthetic in appearance because of the beautiful coat, but there is no nobility in them. They attack prey only in a pack, and therefore a lone wolf is not dangerous. Wolves are the most dangerous in winter , most often it is in winter that they attack people or livestock in villages. Black wolves are considered the most evil.

To hunt a wolf, you do not need to buy tickets for big money, like, for example, an elk. Hunting for wolves is always welcomed by the hunting sector, because with an overgrown population of wolves in a particular region, wolves begin to attack domestic animals and people. Hunting farms organize special raids in which any hunters take part.

So, wolves are dangerous in the winter season when attacked by a pack. Such a flock can be dangerous for both bears and moose. For moose, wolves are most dangerous in the spring, when the moose moves along the falling crust and moves slowly. The wolves attack him, and he cannot do anything - death cannot be avoided.

The lynx is a rare animal in the taiga. To meet a lynx, you need to try hard. The lynx population is not so large, and it does not live in all places in the taiga. Unlike wolves, I would really reward a lynx with nobility. Lynxes do not gather in packs and hunt alone. Lynxes are self-sufficient and independent. They prefer to settle in the dense dark coniferous taiga, hunt fur-bearing animals: hares, etc. Many people believe that lynxes lie in wait for their prey on a tree, and then jump on it from above. This is not true. The lynx attacks from ambush, like all cats: having noticed the prey, it quietly waits, and then makes a quick dash towards its prey. However, the lynx cannot pursue its prey for a long time - it runs out of steam after 65-85 meters of running.

Unlike many animals in the taiga, the lynx has a well-developed vision, which helps it when hunting. It attacks various birds, rodents and even large animals: deer, roe deer, musk deer, foxes, etc. If food is abundant in its habitats, then the lynx lives in one place, leads sedentary life, and if there is little food, then she has to constantly change her place of residence, roam, move around. She travels up to 30 km a day.

They hunt lynx only for the sake of the skin, often with traps. Lynx meat is not eaten. The skin is well valued and expensive. There is no exact information about the cases of a lynx attacking a person, when the lynx would watch for him.

The lynx is considered one of the most tameable animals. They even tame adults caught in traps. As a result, it can become almost manual, as domestic cat but with the habits of a wild beast. About such domestication in the Soviet Union, they shot the film "The Path of Selfless Love." This northern animal deserves much stronger respect than the orderlies of the forest - wolves.

Fox

The most cunning animal in the taiga is the fox. It is not for nothing that even such an expression has become fixed among the people - "cunning as foxes." It is understandable: in order to wild beast with such bright color to get your own food, you just need to be cunning and agile. The fox has a well-developed hearing, with the help of its ears it learns that its prey is hiding somewhere nearby. In winter, the fox hears well the mice crouching under the snow. The slightest rustles and fluctuations are picked up by her excellent ear locators. Under a multi-centimeter layer of snow, the fox tracks down its prey, dives into it - and grabs the desired rodent. Therefore, the fox prefers to settle more on open places, plains, ravines, rather than forests. In both winter and summer, it is much easier for a fox to get food in open areas than in dense forests. As a rule, foxes lead a sedentary lifestyle, they do not migrate anywhere. Why go somewhere if there are enough mice everywhere!

The fox is a monogamous animal, preferring to settle in holes. Moreover, it either digs its own burrows or uses others. Before going to bed, he carefully checks everything in the area, then lies down and listens to various rustles. Due to the fact that the main food base of foxes are rodents, the fox plays an important role in regulating the number of rodents. Rodents are dangerous when eating grain. But sometimes the number of foxes themselves grows to large sizes. Then the foxes start to come in nearby villages, cities. Rummage in the garbage dumps, climb onto the sites. They like to approach tourist sites.

The fur of the cheat is valued, so the fox is a furry animal obtained by hunting. There are different subspecies of foxes, for example, silver fox and arctic fox, living in the tundra. They hunt, as a rule, with traps, loops. Like all fur-bearing animals, only winter fur is valued in foxes. Foxes got their nickname due to the ability to confuse those who pursue them. Foxes are very careful. Therefore, tracking down a cheat on the trail is almost impossible. Hearing and sense of smell are well developed, smelling the slightest smell that heralds danger, foxes immediately change their route, therefore it is difficult to catch a fox with loops.

Badger

The badger is an animal of the southern taiga, it is not found in the northern forests. Adheres to dry areas, but near water bodies, lowlands, where the food base is richer. The badger lives in deep burrows, which it digs along the slopes of sandy hills, forest ravines and gullies. Animals from generation to generation stick to their favorite places. As special geochronological studies have shown, some of the badger towns are several thousand years old. Solitary individuals use simple burrows with one entrance and a nesting chamber. Old badger settlements represent a complex multi-tiered underground structure with several (up to 40-50) inlets and ventilation holes and long (5-10 m) tunnels leading to 2-3 extensive, lined with dry litter, nesting chambers located at a depth of up to 5 m .

Badger activity takes place at night. It is omnivorous, but prefers plant foods. The badger is not aggressive towards predators and humans, he prefers to move away and hide in a hole or in another place, but if he gets angry, he hits his nose and bites the offender, and then runs away. It feeds on mouse-like rodents, frogs, lizards, birds and their eggs, insects and their larvae, mollusks, earthworms, mushrooms, berries, nuts and grass. During the hunt, the badger has to go around large areas, rummaging through fallen trees, tearing off the bark of trees and stumps in search of worms and insects. However, he eats only 0.5 kg of food per day, and only by autumn eats heavily and puts on fat, which serves as a source of food for him during winter sleep.

The life expectancy of a badger is -10 - 12, in captivity - up to 16 years. The badger is an object of hunting. In folk medicine, badger fat is used. It is considered a panacea for many diseases due to the fact that fat accumulates in itself many biologically active substances necessary for the animal during hibernation. Badger fat is completely absorbed by the body when taken orally. It increases emotional tone, gastrointestinal activity, is rich in vitamins and microelements, and most importantly, it is used as a bactericidal agent in the treatment of tuberculosis and other pulmonary diseases.

They live in groups. Wildebeest, for example, congregate in huge herds to go on a long journey together in search of pastures rich in food. Vultures gather in flocks to deal with prey. There are other groups with more strict organization. Fish gather in large schools to prevent predators from hunting them, since it is more difficult to snatch individual fish from a dense school.

Many birds also form large flocks to make it easier to defend themselves from predators. However, there are even more organized groups in which each animal plays its own special role and performs certain functions that serve the benefit of the entire community.

Animal family groups

Desert dwellers South Africa meerkats are united by several families in groups of 10-30 animals. They settle in the same dwellings with other types of viverrids and chipmunks. Family unions are very strong, and all their members help each other in everyday life. One member of the family is always on the lookout for airborne predators, while the other is always on the lookout for land-based predators. All family members take part in obtaining food and attack the enemy together.

Life in the pack

Wolves, gathering in packs, can attack even larger herbivores than themselves. Each member of the pack during the hunt performs a specific task. As a rule, quite a lot of wolves unite in a pack. However, where herbivores are scarce and wolves are forced to feed on smaller animals, packs are small and consist of only a few animals.

More recently, in the temperate climatic zones there were no predators more common and dangerous than wolves. They could be found on the North American continent from Alaska to Mexico and throughout Europe and Russia. Long-term persecution of these animals has led to the fact that they are on the verge of extinction. But now in the Yellowstone Park in the United States, where they were brought, you can again hear their howl. Wolves are carnivores, feeding on almost any animal living in their territory, from small rodents to large herbivores, be it moose, deer or even musk oxen. The hunting tactics of wolves depend on the animal they are hunting. Sometimes a flock combs the area in search of field mice and rabbits, sometimes a chase is organized for big beast using various tricks. The more big booty accounts for each member of the pack, the smaller the hunting territory protected by wolves. From their lair, wolves loudly howl notify their neighbors about the size of the pack and about their strength.

hyena dog

Relatives of wolves and dogs, hyena dogs live in the savannahs of eastern and southern Africa. Like wolves, they form packs to hunt wildebeest, gazelles, and other antelope species together. They drive them in front of them until the exhausted animal falls. Just like with wolves, only one pair of hyena dogs gives birth to cubs. Other relatives of the dominant animal do not breed and only help raise puppies. When the pack goes hunting, one of the "aunts" stays in the shelter to guard the puppies.

Animal colonies

Some species of animals come together only during mating. They organize large colonies, which, immediately after completing their task, disintegrate again. There is no distribution of roles in such colonies. However, especially among less developed species of animals, there are communities that persist for life, the members of which behave as if they were a single living organism.

coral polyps

Coral polyps are simply arranged organisms, each only about 2 millimeters long. Together, however, they build huge limestone formations that keep growing. Depending on the type of coral, their colonies look completely different (bottom left). Some of them are over a thousand years old. The largest coral reef in the world, the Great Barrier Reef, also consisting of the smallest polyps, is located near Australia.

Physalia

Related to jellyfish and corals, physalia, also called Portuguese boat, is not a single animal, but a group of small living organisms (zooids). Each of them performs a specific task. Some zooids have oral apparatus, and they catch small fish with long tentacles, which the whole colony feeds on. Others turn into air-filled bubbles and hold the entire colony near the surface of the water. Organisms responsible for reproduction secrete sperm and eggs.

penguin colonies

During the mating season, emperor penguins gather in large colonies on the ice of Antarctica. There are over 30 giant penguin colonies, for the most part on the pack ice, which during the long winter is a single monolith. Why so many penguins gather in such an inhospitable region at this time may seem like a mystery. However emperor penguins hatch chicks in winter so that they hatch by spring, when there is a lot of food.

procession of caterpillars

caterpillars marching silkworms gather together to get food and defend themselves from enemies. They weave huge cobweb nests in the tops of fir trees and hide in them during the daytime. At night, they crawl out of the nests and in a long procession, sometimes stretching up to 10 m, led by the leader, go in search of food.

Nests on the rocks

Gannets - widespread sea ​​birds. Their noisy colonies are located whenever possible in remote places, for example, on small coastal islands. Despite the fact that these elegant birds live closely with each other, they are very aggressive and do not allow anyone to enter their territory, which is rarely larger than their nest. It can be difficult for raptors to attack such huge, aggressive flocks of birds.

Let's try to solve a system of equations, like

The solution of such systems is inextricably linked with the formula for reducing a matrix to a triangular form. It is visual, beautiful and never fails. There is only one but, you need to do a lot of manual work and use the concepts of matrix rank

There is no doubt to expose the technology verified over the centuries, but there is an equally beautiful solution using a vector product. There is no information on them as of January 2019 on the Internet, so we will modestly call ourselves a pioneer.

This solution, of course, is not optimal (in terms of speed), since when calculating the vector product, it is necessary to calculate the determinant of the matrix, and this is one way or another the calculation of a triangular matrix.

But the solution is beautiful and clear, besides it is easy to see the criterion under which the system has no solutions.

What is the essence of the methodology?

Solving this system as a product of two vectors, we get

Therefore, the roots of the system are equal

For those who do not believe, this is easily verified by substitution

The same simple trick is used in systems where the number of variables can be five or ten.

Let us consider how such systems are solved using vector products.

So we have the original system

Let's put it like this

We have 6 columns.

At this stage, we will not introduce new entities and do not use the concept of matrix rank in our work. We just see that there are 3 equations, and 5 variables. Hence common decision will use 5-3=2 independent variables.

At the same step, we can determine which of the variables will be free. Since fantasies are zero, then those of the variables that are to the right of all will become free.

That is, we will have two free variables

And now, in three steps, we determine the fundamental solution of the original system

Step 1.

Step 2

Step 3

There is no need to detail where we get the data from. It is obvious

What is more interesting is what we will do with these "vectors".

Divide them by -81

we get the following three vectors

Thus, the fundamental solution takes the form

Fabulous! Is not it....

I would like to solve something else .... Another example

This is an interesting equation, since any combination of vectors will give zero.

This tells us that one of the equations is "redundant". We agree with this and remove it. For example the last one.

Then we need to choose two free variables, let them be variables with indices 2 and 4.

Then the vectors are found as

Divide by -3 and our general solution will look like

Not everyone immediately becomes clear where we get zeros and ones in our slender vector series. This is due to the fact that we have chosen free variables as our heart desires, and not the most extreme right ones.

If we took variables with indices 3 and 4 as free, then we would rewrite the solution as the machine would give us.

At the beginning of the article, we mentioned the criterion for the unsolvability of a particular system of equations. In the classical version, the Kronecker-Copelli rule is used for this, here the result of the cross product is simply analyzed.

If the resulting vector is of the form

where , and among all the remaining ones there is at least one non-zero one, then such a system of solutions does not have

Examples of unsolvable systems of equations