Animal "hard work" red and black list to see which animal is the laziest?

Today is May 1st International Labor Day. Labor is a glorious thing for people. In our human society, we advocate diligence and despise laziness. In order to commend those hardworking people, our country sets up the May 1st Labor Medal every year.

So, are there hardworking and lazy animals in the animal world? The answer is yes. However, the hardworking nature of animals cannot be defined by our human standards.

It is very difficult to select the model worker in the animal world. This is because there are too many species in the animal world. There are millions of species of insects alone, and new species are described and named every day. Moreover, animals have different species and different lifestyles, so it is difficult to compare them together. Therefore, it is almost impossible to select the model worker in the animal world.

If we have to evaluate, we have to set a rough standard first:

Standard 1: Comparison of animals of the same group, such as mammals with mammals, birds with birds...

Standard 2: The diligence here is different from the "diligence" of humans. The diligence of the animal world cannot be emotionally colored. In short, hardworking animals are not worthy of pride.

Standard 3: The diligence of animals refers to their activity relative to themselves, such as the distance they move, the number of prey they hunt, their metabolic rate, etc.

The main purpose here is to introduce the habits of these animals to you. Don’t take the topic of ranking too seriously.

Part 1

The best hard-working bird on the animal list: Arctic tern

The Arctic tern is a seabird belonging to the genus Tern. It lives in swamps, coasts and other areas, moves in groups, and feeds on fish and crustaceans. It is distributed in the Arctic and nearby areas. It is a migratory bird. Every year, it spends two summers, migrating from its northern breeding area to the ocean near Antarctica, and then migrating back to its breeding area. The total journey is more than 40,000 kilometers, which is the longest migration route known to animals.

The Arctic tern is a beautiful little bird with a red beak and red feet. Its gray-white coat and black hat make it look like a fashion model. Its weak body weighs less than 120 grams, but it has created a miracle in the history of bird migration. It needs to fly more than 40,000 kilometers to go home (migration), which is equivalent to flying around the equator. It is the bird with the longest migration distance on Earth. In its lifetime of more than 30 years, the total migration distance of the Arctic tern is more than three times the distance between the earth and the moon. It is truly the king of bird migration.

In 2010, scientists from Greenland, Denmark, the United States, the United Kingdom and Iceland formed a research team and used a miniature GPS device provided by the British Antarctic Survey to track the entire migration route of the Arctic tern from one pole of the earth to the other. The study found that these small birds weighing only more than 100 grams actually completed a flight distance of 7,000 kilometers. The tracking device placed on the Arctic terns by the researchers weighs only 1.4 grams and is installed on their legs. It can record the light intensity and the time of sunrise and sunset every day. Since the sunrise time and sunshine duration at different longitudes and latitudes are always different, the specific location of these birds can be calculated using software every day. The results show that when the Arctic terns fly to the Antarctic, they either pass through the African coast or the Brazilian coast, but when they fly back to the Arctic, they take the middle route of the Atlantic Ocean, forming an "S" shape. Why do they prefer to take a detour rather than the shortest route? The main reason is that the Arctic terns rely on air currents. Although the journey is long, it is more labor-saving to go with the wind. Another possible reason is that Arctic terns migrate along the continental shelf, where food is more diverse and they can replenish their energy at any time.

Part 2

Animal "hard work" red list bird model: hummingbird

Hummingbirds do not need to migrate long distances like the Arctic hummingbirds. The reason why they are chosen as model workers is that they have a relatively fast or even the fastest metabolic rate and super-fast flight speed among birds. Hummingbirds are not a type of bird, but a general term for nearly 400 species of birds under the family Trochilidae. They have a common feature, which is that they are very small and resemble bees. They are mainly distributed in Latin America and North America. There are no hummingbirds in China.

Hummingbirds have several "qualities" that perfectly match diligence. First, hummingbirds have an extremely high metabolic rate. When flying, their heartbeats can reach 1,000 beats per minute. In order to meet such high energy consumption, they must "eat and eat". Hummingbirds can eat more food than their own body weight every day, which is not common in the animal kingdom. They eat so much every day, but they stay so slim. This has to be said to be "hardworking". Secondly, hummingbirds fly very fast, up to 90 kilometers per hour. If you only look at the speed, they are not outstanding among birds. But you have to know that hummingbirds weigh mostly 2.5-6.5 grams, the smallest is less than 2 grams, and the largest is no more than 20 grams. Therefore, this speed is based on the tiny size of the hummingbird. In this way, this speed is already terrifying.

Part 3

Animal "hard work" red list Insect model worker: honey bees

The diligence of bees is visible to the naked eye. When we see bees, they are always busy, flying around in the flowers. Those who collect pollen are mostly worker bees, who bear the burden of building nests, guarding, and feeding their younger brothers and sisters. A worker bee is busy for about 10 hours a day. The reason why I chose to vote for the model worker for bees is that their diligence carries a hint of sadness. The worker bees are busy all day long, but they cannot reproduce their own offspring. It can be said that: "I have no share in the city, and who am I working so hard for?"

The bee colony is a mysterious organization. The members of a beehive are roughly divided into: queen bee, drone bees, and worker bees. They each have their own duties, and are organized and disciplined. In the bee colony, the queen bee has the highest status. Its main task is to give birth, and it can lay 2,000 eggs a day. The bee colony only breeds a few drone bees during a fixed period of each year. They exist only to mate with the queen bee and do nothing else. The largest number of bees in the bee colony are worker bees. They are also female, but their ovaries are not fully developed and cannot mate. Worker bees have the hardest work. All the work inside and outside the hive, such as nesting, feeding young, cleaning, breeding queen bees and drones, protecting the hive, and collecting pollen and nectar, are completed by them.

In this mysterious colony, each worker bee works hard for the benefit of the entire colony, and even sacrifices his life when necessary. When the flowers bloom in spring, the worker bees begin to collect pollen and nectar and breed more and more new bees. At this time, the number of young bees fed is as high as 30,000, which accounts for almost one-third of all the beehives. In late spring, the bee colony grows too large and begins to split. For this purpose, the worker bees first build a special royal chamber, whose chamber mouth hangs downward at the bottom of the beehive. The number of royal chambers is about 10 to 20, and the larvae hatched from the royal chamber are fed with royal jelly throughout the development stage. The larvae in other beehives are only fed with royal jelly for the first three days, and then honey. Their status among them is determined from birth. The larvae fed with royal jelly will develop into the new queen bee in the future. When the new queen bee begins to pupate and seal the beehive, the old queen bee and about half of the worker bees will fly away from the hive and temporarily gather on a nearby branch. In the next few days, the worker bees will find an unused cave nearby, and then build a nest to welcome the queen bee. This is the lifelong mission of the worker bee, which repeats itself over and over again until the end of its life.

After talking about hardworking animals, let’s take a look at lazy animals. We still need to adhere to the above principles, especially not looking at "laziness" with tinted glasses.

Part 4

Animal "hard work" blacklist Lazy animals: sloths

Sloths are synonymous with laziness among mammals, and even their names contain the word "lazy". Sloths are truly lazy, and the three-toed sloth is the laziest of all.

The three-toed sloth is a mammal belonging to the family Slothidae and the genus Sloth. It is generally 50-60 cm long and has very rough fur. It lives in trees all its life and is mainly distributed in Brazil, Suriname, Guyana and other places. It feeds on young leaves and buds. The three-toed sloth often does not move for several hours and sleeps up to 15 hours a day. Even moss can grow on it. The main reason why the three-toed sloth dares to be so lazy and still survive is that it has an ultra-slow metabolic rate. It wins the slow metabolic competition and consumes only 162 kilojoules of energy a day.

Part.5

Animal "hard work" blacklist Lazy animal: Anglerfish

Among fish, the anglerfish can be said to be the representative of "laziness". The "anglerfish" here mainly refers to male fish, which are too lazy to even find a wife. On our planet, no matter what kind of creature it is, reproduction is always the top priority. Anglerfish is no exception. Interestingly, for a long time, all the anglerfish people found were female (for example, the ugly anglerfish mentioned in this article are actually female). Is this a "country of women"?

The picture comes from the Internet

When scientists began to study anglerfish, they found that almost all the fish they caught were female, and there were some things on their bodies that looked like parasites. Later studies found that these "parasites" were actually extremely degraded male fish. The male fish attached to the female fish's body like a parasite. And sometimes there were several male fish on a female fish, which was a typical example of "polyandry".

The newly hatched male anglerfish already has a well-developed sense of smell, which is, of course, necessary for them to complete their mission of finding female fish. In fact, the emergence of this reproduction method is not surprising. After all, it is not easy to find a mate in the vast deep sea. The well-developed sense of smell enables the male fish to detect the female fish's pheromone at the fastest speed, and then find a lifelong meal ticket. After finding the female fish, the male fish will bite the other's skin, release enzymes that can digest the skin, and eventually the two will fuse together at the vascular level. In the following days, the male fish's body slowly atrophies, first losing its digestive organs, then its brain, heart and eyes, and finally only a pair of gonads left to release sperm. This extreme sexual dimorphism ensures the reproduction of the anglerfish. When the female fish is ready to lay eggs, there are always sperm waiting.

As a result, female anglerfish will never practice "monogamy". Someone once found a female anglerfish with 8 spermatocysts hanging on its side - that is, it "married" 8 husbands. And these couples have a common fate: sharing life and death, honor and disgrace. This is a lucky male anglerfish. As for those fish that can't find a "wife" at all, it's even worse. If they can't find a "wife" within a few months, they will starve to death.

Produced by: China Science Expo

Author: Zhao Xumao, a young researcher at Lanzhou University

The article only represents the author's views and does not represent the position of China Science Expo. This article was first published on China Science Expo (kepubolan). Please indicate the source of the official account when reprinting.