<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > preface</h1>
There is a creature in this world, not only looks like a mouse, but also has a mouse in the name, but it is not a mouse, and even the relationship that cannot be beaten by eight rods, and this rat-like little guy is today's protagonist - the shrew.
They are small animals that are good at escaping and hiding, because these behaviors do not look like warriors, so the average person does not treat them very well, but in fact, it is not only the least specialized among the living mammals, retaining the most mammalian ancestral morphological characteristics, but also a super-strong creature that survived the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period.
However, there are some "cowards" in the intellectually developed human beings, who specialize in bullying small shrews and small animals that cannot speak, label them as "evil" out of thin air, and unverifiedly believe that they are "pests" that will harm cattle, sheep and other domestic animals, so in order to prevent the destruction of the world and maintain world peace, Xiaobian had to come out and say two sentences for this ancient creature.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > ancient and powerful creature</h1>
Human prejudice
Feudal superstition is a pervasive misconception in this world, and there is such a terrible custom of ignorance among peasants in some parts of Europe:
Early farmers drilled a hole in the trunk of a tree, put a live shrew into the hole, and then closed the hole, and if any cattle and sheep got sick, they used the branches of the tree to cover the affected area, which was said to cure the disease.
Obviously, this is a stupid ritual that cannot be useful, and of course there are many fewer such feudal superstitions now, but it still seems unpopular. Probably confuse them with rats, and most farmers will see them and eliminate them.
However, their presence is not only harmless to farmers, it can help farmers eliminate many pests in the field, for some reasons they eat a huge amount, a wide range of recipes, such as slugs, dragons, voles can be its plate food, so often the more vigorous the shrew, the better the crop of the field.
Nature's Cruel "Bounty"
On a long causeway or on a piece of hay, we can often see something flashing in front of our eyes, but before we can bring it and see clearly, it has disappeared into the hole, at first, you may think it is a mouse, in fact, it is likely to be a shrew, because it is endowed with super mobility, its heartbeat is even as high as 1200 times per minute, to know that even in the case of vigorous exercise, it is difficult to beat more than 200 times, it is six times ours.
However, the cost of the super-high-speed heartbeat is that the metabolism intensifies, they can't stop for a moment, so the consumption surges, and it has to eat 3 times its own weight every day, otherwise it will starve to death, so its day is often either hunting or on the way to hunting. For this it requires powerful and efficient hunting weapons.
Weapon - foul-smelling body odor
Although it is not a mouse, it has as many natural enemies as rats, and predatory birds such as owls and peregrine falcons, and hunting experts such as wild cats and foxes are all animals that it wants to meet in this life.
So it selectively evolved a chemical weapon - a foul-smelling body odor, they have a gland on each side of their flanks, two lines of coarse hair are their marks, the secreted liquid has a foul odor, the enemy smells and wants to vomit, so until the last resort, they will selectively let him have a way to live.
Weapon - paralysis
With such a life-saving skill, the shrew has the courage to hunt in the open, but the predation is still dangerous, and the huge amount of food makes it not satisfied with the small bugs, so it will hunt some animals that are larger than it and think of frogs.
In order to easily eat this big man, he evolved a rare skill in mammals, "paralysis attack", and the poison entered the frog's body along the teeth of the shrew, instantly paralyzing the frog's body, so it became the shrew's plaything, watching as it was eaten by the shrew bite by bite.
Life is forced - strong reproductive ability
But even if you eat a frog can not satisfy its appetite, it still has to go out to find food, and this is actually a very dangerous and helpless thing, in the face of the real overlord of the night sky, the shrew is vulnerable, for this, it needs a strong reproductive ability to ensure the continuation of the race, the yield of each litter is as high as 5-7, and the reproduction rate of rats is similar.
Reducing the wisdom of the blow - "In the face of survival, IQ is a floating cloud"
Even with the ability to reproduce against the sky, on days like winter when the prey plummets, you still have to find a way to keep yourself alive as much as possible, so the shocking self-harm skills are pointed out, reducing the weight of their brains, which makes the IQ that is not rich even worse.
But I have to say that this superpower against the sky, very easy to use, greatly improves the survival probability of the shrew, and the important thing is that it can be slowly adjusted back in the spring of the next year.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
In summary, although not complete, it can also be seen that the life of the shrew is quite bumpy, and a large part of the reason is because of their irrepressible huge meals, which is an extremely dangerous event for a relatively weak animal.
Even if they spend most of their time hunting for food, eating, and fighting in the glimmer of light and at night, they cannot escape the fate of being hit by predators.
Therefore, if we have the opportunity to meet these little guys, don't be stupid and stupid, the history of the shrew is much older than the mouse, the most primitive ancestors of our mammals may be even a creature like the shrew, and it will not have any adverse effect on humans, and even help humans to remove pests in the field, which is much better than rats, isn't it?
#图片源自网络
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