We are all different: someone is lower, and someone, on the contrary, is higher, someone is thinner, and someone is fuller. And this is not surprising. In principle, it should be so.
In the animal world, everything happens the same way. Although ... That's what you think, which of the predators has the smallest heart? As a rule, in search of an answer to this question, we begin to sort through the memory of small representatives of the fauna, ranging from affection and ending with the usual domestic cat. But are we right? Let's try to figure it out together
Section 1. What does "small heart" mean?
In general, according to scientists, it is extremely erroneous to judge the volumes of the most important organ by the size of the whole body. Of course, if the animal is small, then his heart is unlikely to occupy the entire internal cavity, which means that it will be tiny a priori.
It would be more correct to study the proportional ratio of the volume of the mentioned organ to the whole organism. For example, the average adult weight is 77 kg, while the weight of the heart is only 380 g, i.e. approximately 0.5%. Agree a bit.
Section 2. The king of beasts and then distinguished himself
It’s hard to imagine that in response to a question about which of the predators has the smallest heart, you can call a lion. Nevertheless, this fact is not only discovered by scientists, but also scientifically confirmed. His heart accounts for 1% of the total mass.
You can talk about this majestic beauty endlessly, because, in addition to the tinyness of the main organ of the cardiovascular system, he also has a host of other unique physiological features.
We list only the most basic ones.
- You will never meet lions with the same muzzle, because they are actually unique in them.
- Do not meet you and chewing predator. He is simply not able to do this. Food is bitten off and swallowed whole.
- By the way, a lion has fewer teeth than a human. We have 36, he has only 30.
- But the length of the claws is amazing: they can reach 7 cm.
- Little lion cubs are completely helpless. Their eyes open only on the eleventh day, but they begin to walk only from the fifteenth.
- Have you seen a roaring lion in a zoo or a movie? Know that this predator is no less than 2 years old. Only at this age does the animal acquire this ability.
- The Lion Pride is often compared to a gypsy camp. Why? The thing is that not only his mother, but all the females, who also have cubs at this time, can feed the lion cubs with milk.
- At night, a lion is able to see 6 times better than a person.
- As with any feline, sleep plays almost the most important role in the life of this animal. Sleep twenty hours in a row? Not a problem!
Section 3. Thunderstorm Nile
And which of the predators has the smallest heart? At the crocodile. According to experts, he should be awarded an honorable second place: the weight of his vital organ occupies 1.5% of the total body weight.
What else is known about this bloodthirsty creature? Firstly, like a lion, a crocodile cannot chew, and it needs powerful jaws to bite off food and protect it.
By the way, not everyone is aware that in most cases a predator does not immediately attack the food. He drowns it and leaves it in the water for a while to soak. The muscles responsible for opening and closing the jaws of the crocodile are weak. This physiological feature is often used to demonstrate tricks: in order to prevent the animal from opening its mouth, a lot of effort is not needed.
But his teeth are really terrible. Actually, there are 24, but this is not the main thing. The scary thing is that they are updated throughout life.
Of course, everyone heard such a catch phrase as “crocodile tears,” and compassionate people immediately endowed the predator with some sentimentality. No, a crocodile does not cry over its victim. Everything is much simpler. Absorbing food, it swallows a lot of air, which is then removed from the body with the help of the lacrimal glands.
The small size of the heart does not prevent the predator from having the glory of a great swimmer and an excellent diver. By the way, while swimming the crocodile, the nose and ears are protected by movable valves.
In general, the answers to the question about which of the predators has the smallest heart turned out to be quite unexpected. Agree, few people knew that such a kind of champions can be called a merciless lion and a cold-blooded, both literally and figuratively, crocodile.