How come the sparrows outside the window rarely see their corpses?
Sparrows are a very common bird that can be said to be ubiquitous.
Sparrows on the side of the road
There are also a large number of rats, and everyone often sees dead rats, but with so many sparrows, people rarely see what it looks like after death.
Could it be that the sparrow has a deflation technique and does not leave a corpse after death? Or is it that the sparrow flies by, and it is bound to leave traces.
Little sparrow
The birds around you
The sparrows we see everywhere are actually 27 species, all of which belong to the sparrow genus of the family Finches, distributed all over the world.
It can be said that with the exception of Antarctica and some islands, sparrows are everywhere.
The sparrow is small, the body length is about 15 cm, and the weight is only 30 to 50 grams, which means that the larger sparrow weighs only one or two, equivalent to the weight of an egg.
Such a small sparrow, but the voice is not small, otherwise how can it have more mouths on the telephone pole?
Sparrows take off
As a resident bird, the sparrow basically does not migrate, it will always live in a certain area, and it will be passed down from generation to generation.
So the question is, since sparrows are ancestral living areas, why are sparrows rarely seen dying?
Good villains want to see birds, and when they die, they want to see corpses, and sparrows will also live and die of old age and illness.
Is it difficult for the sparrow to be buried and bury the corpse of his companion?
Sparrows and lotus puffs
The lifespan of a bird is directly proportional to its size, and the larger it is, the longer it lives.
However, there is an exception to this law in sparrows, which can live for 5 to 10 years, which is still quite long compared with its size.
However, most sparrows are difficult to die, so the average age of sparrows in the wild is about 3 to 5 years.
It is difficult to find the carcass of a sparrow, but there are many reasons.
Why is it so hard to find sparrow carcasses?
Sparrow carcasses are hard to see
Sparrows in the wild are difficult to live to old age, and they will die for various reasons, the most common being eaten by other animals.
Sparrows are lower and middle animals in the food chain, and in addition to plants and some insects, other animals can ride on their heads.
Its main predators are birds of prey, snakes and cats, and most sparrows basically die unnaturally and are eaten by predators after death.
Birds of prey mainly catch sparrows to eat in trees, which are difficult to spot; Snakes are more insidious and not easily detected; It may also be that the case of cats scratching sparrows will occasionally be found.
Therefore, an important reason why sparrow carcasses are rarely seen is that sparrows are eaten.
Cats scratch sparrows
Of course, another reason why sparrow carcasses are rare is that the color of sparrow feathers is difficult to find.
Sparrows are black, white, gray and hemp, making their feathers extremely hidden in the natural environment.
After death, even if the sparrow is in the grass, it is difficult for humans to find.
Although there are many sparrows, they are very small, falling on the ground and covered by some fallen leaves and weeds, almost no one will notice.
Two sparrows in a fallen leaf
Another point, don't underestimate the decomposers underground.
The sparrow's body is small, and it is not difficult for microorganisms on the ground to break down a sparrow.
If the temperature is right, it only takes a day for the decomposer to eat the sparrow's carcass clean.
Sparrows live in cities for only a small fraction of the total number of sparrows, and most of them live far from inhabited areas and are scattered.
There is only one place in the city for sparrows to stop, and sparrows gather together to give people the impression that there are many sparrows in the city.
In fact, there are more sparrows far away from the city, and no one knows or sees them when they die.
Sparrows are more away from humans
On the whole, the life span of sparrows is very short, the theoretical value is 5 to 10 years, in fact, it can only live for 3 to 5 years, and even some unfortunate sparrows die in the nest.
Most sparrows die unnaturally and become food for predators, so they can't see the bodies.
The remaining sparrows that died unexpectedly or sickly are difficult to find when they fall to the ground.
The decomposers on the ground are very active, and in a day they may have decomposed the carcasses of the sparrows.
Decomposers of nature
The role of nature's decomposer sparrow
The mortality rate of sparrows is actually very high, it is a late adult bird, and it is born without opening its eyes, requiring parents to feed them wholeheartedly for 15 days.
During this time, the young birds are very dangerous and they are parasitized by various parasites, such as horse fly larvae.
Birds' nests are also dug up by tree-dwelling animals, such as cats, crisp noodles (raccoons) and even monkeys.
Once they encounter this kind of bird nesting, the efforts of the sparrow couple will be wasted, and they can only regenerate another nest.
Monkeys dig bird nests
But sparrows are strong in that they can breed all year round.
Sparrows do not migrate, do not have a fixed estrus period, can be born all year round, the abundance of food determines that a pair of sparrows are born several times a year, generally at least twice.
Sparrows are monogamous birds that raise their young together, and they are betting on a probability.
A nest of 4 to 6 sparrows is a "good man" as long as they can spend 15 days safely.
Sparrow brooding
With a super high reproductive frequency, sparrows have expanded their populations to more than 100 million, and the only birds that can compete with sparrows in number are poultry raised by humans.
The diet of the sparrow is very mixed, as long as it can be eaten, it will eat, whether it is vegetarian or meaty.
The food they often eat is grain, grass seeds, insects, and of course they don't mind picking up garbage and eating leftovers from other animals.
Although the sparrow is small, it eats a lot of food, and a small sparrow can eat 20 rice a day.
Because sparrows have a fast metabolism and eat so much that they pull fast, they often eat while pulling.
Sparrows eat peanuts
The sparrow is very important in the ecological niche, it seems to eat a lot of grain, but invisibly, it also helps the grain to deworm and protect more food.
In translation, the grain it eats is completely inferior to the grain it protects.
Of course, the most important thing is that the sparrow goes to be the food of other animals, so as to ensure the normal progress of the ecology.
Don't underestimate the sparrow, if it goes extinct, then the whole earth will lose half of its species because of it.
Sparrows eat grain
This is the ecological earthquake brought about by the lack of ecological niches in the middle and lower reaches of nature. In the same position, there are also people who hate people, and rats that are crushed to death by cars.
It is precisely because they are located in the middle and lower levels of the food chain that the number is so large, so that they can be born, of course, there are many deaths every year.
However, it is clear that humans are sometimes unaware of the role of these large numbers of animals in nature.
Sparrows play a significant role in nature
The history of the four pests of sparrows
The sparrow's position in the mainland culture is neutral, neither a very auspicious bird nor a very nasty bird.
Having sparrows doesn't mean good things, such as the Menkolo finches; It is impossible to do without sparrows, such as sparrows, although they are small and complete.
In the 1950s, sparrows were listed as one of the four pests by the mainland because sparrows could eat grain.
So the mainland launched a vigorous plan to eliminate sparrows, taking Shanghai as an example, in one day people eliminated 200,000 sparrows.
Under this efficiency, the sparrow disappeared in many parts of the mainland.
The Four Pests Campaign
Soon, however, the mainland discovered that the side effect of eliminating sparrows was that the pests had increased.
In the years when the sparrow disappeared, food production did not increase significantly, but rather declined, for which the mainland had to invest in pesticides to suppress pests.
As a result, agricultural losses are greater than when the sparrows were there, so it can be seen that the sparrows eating grain will not cause a food crisis, and eliminating the sparrows will lead to a reduction in food production.
Catch sparrows during the period of removal of the four pests
Beginning in 1960, people from all walks of life helped the sparrow clear the charges, and it was eventually removed from the list of four pests and replaced by bed bugs.
However, the damage to the sparrows in the process of removing the four pests shook the base number of sparrows, and the mainland imported sparrows from the Soviet Union in order to quickly restore the sparrow population.
So the sparrows we see on the street are most likely not native finches, but immigrant finches.
Today, the sparrow population has returned to healthy values, and the mainland also lists it as a tertiary animal.
Cats can do things that sparrows and birds' nests can do, snakes can do, even monkeys can do, but people can't do it.
People say that the sparrow now, that is, flew up the branches to become a phoenix.
You know, the sparrow used its own life to tell humans how important it was.
Although the sparrow is small, it has a great effect
Of course, the sparrow also has a relatively elegant life in the human world, and in nature, the sparrow is still the object of being eaten, and it is rare to see it being eaten to the corpse.