How do the ANIMALS keep up the time?

Question

I have always thought that the animals have only five senses but they keep up the time much more sincerely than human beings. Human beings with so many gadgets cannot know natural calamities. Forget about the human beings. Take for example the dogs and cats. They just remind us about the meals time, lunch time, often we go late and offer the meals to all the animals. How do the animals come exactly for the morning breakfast 8 AM, for the lunch exactly 1 PM, evening tiffin 4 PM and night dinner exactly at 8 PM.
We often underestimate other living creatures. I have made indepth study but still I have to learn a lot from animals. Animals die in zoo due to non availability of air-conditioner facility during summer lack of sufficient water, irregular food supply, non availablility of freedom to go out etc.

Answer 1

MIGRATE

Animals do many different, amazing things to get through the winter. Some of them "migrate." This means they travel to other places where the weather is warmer or they can find food.

Many birds migrate in the fall. Because the trip can be dangerous, some travel in large flocks. For example, geese fly in noisy, "V"-shaped groups. Other kinds of birds fly alone.

How do they know when it is time to leave for the winter? Scientists are still studying this. Many see migration as part of a yearly cycle of changes a bird goes through. The cycle is controlled by changes in the amount of daylight and the weather.

Birds can fly very long distances. For example, the Arctic tern nests close to the North Pole in the summer. In autumn, it flys south all the way to Antarctica. Each spring it returns north again.

Most birds migrate shorter distances. But how do they find their way to the same place each year? Birds seem to navigate like sailors once did, using the sun, moon and stars for direction. They also seem to have a compass in their brain for using the Earth's magnetic field.

Other animals migrate, too. There are a few mammals, like some bats, caribou and elk, and whales that travel in search of food each winter. Many fish migrate. They may swim south, or move into deeper, warmer water.

Insects also migrate. Some butterflies and moths fly very long distances. For example, Monarch butterflies spend the summer in Canada and the Northern U.S. They migrate as far south as Mexico for the winter. Most migrating insects go much shorter distances. Many, like termites and Japanese beetles, move downward into the soil. Earthworms also move down, some as far as six feet below the surface.

ADAPT

Some animals remain and stay active in the winter. They must adapt to the changing weather. Many make changes in their behavior or bodies. To keep warm, animals may grow new, thicker fur in the fall. On weasels and snowshoe rabbits, the new fur is white to help them hide in the snow.

Food is hard to find in the winter. Some animals, like squirrels, mice and beavers, gather extra food in the fall and store it to eat later. Some, like rabbits and deer, spend winter looking for moss, twigs, bark and leaves to eat. Other animals eat different kinds of food as the seasons change. The red fox eats fruit and insects in the spring, summer and fall. In the winter, it can not find these things, so instead it eats small rodents.

Animals may find winter shelter in holes in trees or logs, under rocks or leaves, or underground. Some mice even build tunnels through the snow. To try to stay warm, animals like squirrels and mice may huddle close together.

Certain spiders and insects may stay active if they live in frost-free areas and can find food to eat. There are a few insects, like the winter stone fly, crane fly, and snow fleas, that are normally active in winter. Also, some fish stay active in cold water during the winter.

HIBERNATE

Some animals "hibernate" for part or all of the winter. This is a special, very deep sleep. The animal's body temperature drops, and its heartbeat and breathing slow down. It uses very little energy. In the fall, these animals get ready for winter by eating extra food and storing it as body fat. They use this fat for energy while hibernating. Some also store food like nuts or acorns to eat later in the winter. Bears, skunks, chipmunks, and some bats hibernate.

AND MORE

Cold-blooded animals like fish, frogs, snakes and turtles have no way to keep warm during the winter. Snakes and many other reptiles find shelter in holes or burrows, and spend the winter inactive, or dormant. This is similar to hibernation.

Water makes a good shelter for many animals. When the weather gets cold, they move to the bottom of lakes and ponds. There, frogs, turtles and many fish hide under rocks, logs or fallen leaves. They may even bury themselves in the mud. They become dormant. Cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, and the frogs and turtles can breath by absorbing it through their skin.

Insects look for winter shelter in holes in the ground, under the bark of trees, deep inside rotting logs or in any small crack they can find. One of the most interesting places is in a gall. A gall is a swelling on a plant. It is caused by certain insects, fungi or bacteria. They make a chemical that affects the plant's growth in a small area, forming a lump. The gall becomes its maker's home and food source.

Every type of insect has its own life cycle, which is the way it grows and changes. Different insects spend the winter in different stages of their lives. Many insects spend the winter dormant, or in "diapause." Diapause is like hibernation. It is a time when growth and development stop. The insect's heartbeat, breathing and temperature drop. Some insects spend the winter as worm-like larvae. Others spend the winter as pupae. (This is a time when insects change from one form to another.) Other insects die after laying eggs in the fall. The eggs hatch into new insects in the spring and everything begins all over again.

Answer 2

This is a really interesting question. All living creatures 'live' through metabolic processes - heart beat, oxygen intake through lungs or gills, perspiration etc. So we all have many different systems working in us, day and night.

These are mostly cyclic - when a resource is depleted, the system brings more in. When our lungs need to expel carbondioxide we breathe out without noticing, and then we breathe in air with necessary oxygen, etc. The pattern repeats endlessly - till we finally die.

Just because we are not actively conscious of these systems they still go on, and they are all interactive with each other, so the body 'knows' what is going on. This is true of animals as well as humans of course, and to some extent plants as well.

The digestive system quickly learns when it is likely to be fed, and produces digestive acids in readiness for the meal. You may have noticed yourself getting hungry about lunchtime, or you may have noticed sometimes you are NOT hungry when you normally eat - it's like your body is saying actually I don't need sustenance right now, even if society expects you to sit and eat.

Animals are highly socialised among themselves and some of them among humans too. They are (have to be) sensitive to the conditions around them in order to survive. So they can be aware of their inner metabolic systems - maybe more than we are.

Also we are all subject to changes in daylight, position of the sun in the sky, seasonal changes, moon and tidal movements, gravity, temperature etc. and all these give essential life-saving information to living things whether we are aware of them or not.

In short, living creatures are wonderfully fascinatingly complex and humans mostly are arrogant in assuming that 'we' know best. Keeping animals in zoos where they die from appalling conditions is very depressing to read about: it's bad not just for the poor animals but it's bad for us too.

I totally agree with you about underestimating animals. I am interested in the tiniest plankton and squids and microbes as much as pretty kittens and lambs.

Answer 3

Animals are much more sensitive than human beings because animals have the larger sense organs and no. of nuerons therein are higher than human. Their smell sense organ is sensitive to catch the micro wave rays raising during the earthquake or other natural calamities, and so they are able to find out in advance and alert themselves to save him.

Answer 4

Whatever is having live aloways keep time ,including human except nature.

Answer 5

By modelling and acting for Animal Planet Channel !! Cheers !!

Answer 6

by observing the nature around them

Answer 7

They're not distracted by the big brain.

Answer 8

you can go and read some science books.then you will clearly about that maybe ..

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