Welcome to: The Self-Talking President
Legend has it that there is a mythical beast in Africa that can swallow lions raw when it comes ashore and bite crocodiles when it is launched.
Completely devoid of predators and amphibious, it is one of the most dangerous animals in the eyes of the indigenous people of Africa.
But in our dictionary, it has a docile name — the hippopotamus.
Scientists have found that hippos can change the landscape with a secret weapon.
And the mysterious plague that broke out in Uganda was also caused by the indescribable things that hippos do behind their backs...
What exactly is a hippopotamus?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="174" > Uganda, 2004</h1>
In 2004, in Uganda's Elizabeth National Park, a mysterious plague suddenly broke out.
First overnight, hundreds of dead hippos appeared on the river, and then the local residents also began to show signs of infection, people did not dare to drink water, did not dare to bathe, said that the river was cursed.
So, scientists rushed to the scene and began to investigate. What kind of earth-shattering secret will the results of the investigation be?
Before we uncover the answer, let's talk about what scientists already know about hippos before this.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="175" > herbivores</h1>
First, hippos are considered standard herbivores.
They eat about 80 kilograms of plants a day, especially when they come out at night against the moon to graze and walk while eating.
Usually it takes 10 kilometers to eat this supper, at this time, the sun is almost out, they hide in the river, to prevent being sunburned.
Hippos are very afraid of the sun, because their skin is too thick to breathe and dissipate heat.
For example, the hippos in front of them, after death, will bulge like a balloon, also because its skin is too strong.
Like the whale blast we talked about before, hippopotamus skin is also airtight, and after death, the microorganisms in the body produce gas and blow it into a large balloon that may explode at any time.
This metaphor may still not be intuitive, how thick is the skin of the hippopotamus?
The following picture of the lion gnawing on the hippopotamus should be a good illustration of the problem - this tank, can not move at all; this output, is simply scratching the itch.
Not only is the back armor strong, even if he encounters the grassland bully hyena brother, he can also let the brother see the strength of the tail armor, completely afraid, stable like an old dog.
However, the price of filling the physical defense is the loss of spell defense, and ultraviolet magic wounds like the sun can easily penetrate the armor, and if they are not good, they can dry it into a balloon alive.
Therefore, hippos love to stay in the water during the day and quietly graze.
Hippos are very efficient at eating grass, eating about 80 kilograms of grass a day, but that's only about 5 percent of its body weight.
Humans eat leaves, 1 kilogram can get almost 130 calories of energy, 2000 calories is not hungry, then you need to eat at least 15 kilograms of leaves a day, equivalent to 1/5 hippopotamus, but a hippopotamus, but there are twenty or thirty of you so heavy.
Therefore, the hippopotamus, which is 5% of the weight of the herbivorous efficiency is very frightening, take the old cow we are familiar with, it is used by humans to do hard work, dry for thousands of years, and the herbivorous efficiency has reached about 15%.
So, if the hippopotamus is taken by the production team to be ground, the old cow and the bald donkey will have to be laid off.
If the hippopotamus is caught by the chicken farm to produce meat, the white feather chicken will be saved.
But why don't humans domesticate hippos?
This is the second characteristic of hippos - grumpiness.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="176" > grumpy hippopotamus</h1>
In the game, if any character is as thick as a hippopotamus, it is absolutely impossible to make it have a high output.
However, in reality, this hippopotamus is a bug that Earth Online has done, which is thick and the damage is not low.
The main output of lions and leopards on land does not dare to compare with the output of hippopotamus, even if it encounters a rhinoceros of the same BUG level, directly take the rhino horn to pick the teeth, the cow brother also has to call The Margot mighty.
It is said that the only one who dares to fight with the hippopotamus is the crocodile in the deep water area, because the hippopotamus's small short legs cannot touch the ground in the deep water area, and the crocodile can rely on the terrain advantage to hit the super high damage.
But when it comes to shallow water, the crocodile will change into this shape.
Then the hippopotamus will teach you how to be a man.
On land, it would run 40 km/h on that pair of small short legs, 10 percent faster than Bolt.
No need to bite, just a collision, it is equivalent to an SUV running over you.
In the water, look closely, does its swimming speed also break your imagination of the hippopotamus?
Very fast, 8km/h, about 10% faster than Phelps.
Don't look at it so grumpy in the water, but in fact, scientists say that hippos can't swim, so how on earth does it move faster in the water than Phelps?
We'll talk about that later.
These are what scientists knew about hippos before the investigation began.
It looks docile and loves grass, but don't mess with it, it's the continent's number one killer, with about 500 people dying in hippos each year and fewer than 50 people dying in lions.
Hippos get angry and occasionally bite a lion, nibble on a crocodile or something, but they don't eat meat.
Because their herbivorous efficiency is very high, the stomach has long evolved to be unable to digest meat.
With these preliminary insights in place, scientists began to investigate.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="177" > investigate</h1>
First, the scientists found that these dead hippos had significant bleeding symptoms around their mouths, which was a manifestation of poisoning.
Arrange the locations where the dead hippos were found, which happen to spread upstream along the river.
So, scientists have the first object of investigation, the copper mine in the upper reaches of the river, is it a heavy metal leak that causes hippopotamus poisoning and death?
But after testing the water quality, it was found that there was no problem at all.
Moreover, except for hippos in the river, other animals show no signs of poisoning.
It seems that there is no problem with water, then test the soil again, will it be the hippopotamus eating grass in the middle of the night, what toxic substances in the soil are gnawed?
After investigation, there was no problem with the soil.
That's the last resort – dissecting the hippopotamus to see if there are any pathogens of infectious diseases in the hippopotamus.
As a result, scientists did find a rod-shaped pathogen that could be stained with purple dye from the brain tissue of hippos.
Purple, rod-shaped, brain...
This probably won't be the legendary anthrax.
Scientists couldn't believe their eyes and sent the sample to Germany, hoping to confirm it with more precise equipment, and sure enough, it was anthrax.
Anthrax is a rod-shaped bacterium, and the general bacteria multiply by division and spread by individuals.
But anthrax is different, although it is a bacterium, but there are fungi like mushrooms, releasing spores, and generally anthrax spreads, all because this spore is spreading everywhere.
There are three known modes of transmission:
The first is inhalation infection, which accidentally sucks anthrax spores into the body and causes infection.
Obviously, hippos don't get anthrax through this route, because if there are anthrax spores in the air, there's no reason to infect only hippos and not other animals.
The second is a skin infection, in which anthrax spores enter the body through a wound on the skin.
This route of infection, like inhalation infection, would not infect only hippos if there were anthrax spores in the water.
That leaves only the last route of infection – gastrointestinal infection, which is the infection caused by eating food with anthrax spores.
Apparently, this infection can infect one or two hippos, for example, one or two unlucky hippos accidentally gnawed down the soil while nibbling on the turf, and these soils happen to have dormant anthrax spores, which can lead to infection. But how can this route of infection be able to break out into a spreading outbreak?
In the results of soil testing, a large number of anthrax spores were not found.
How is this case solved?
Since, the main food of hippos, turf, is not a lot of anthrax.
That only means that they have also quietly eaten something unknown to humans, which carries a large number of anthrax spores.
What would this unknown food be?
Obviously, there is only one truth, and that is to eat the meat of a dead hippopotamus...
First one or two hippos accidentally nibbled on the anthrax spores in the turf and died of infection, then the companion ate their flesh and died of infection, and then the companion came to nibble again, which led to anthrax outbreaks in the hippopotamus colony...
This is completely chaotic, aren't hippos herbivores? Isn't it not meat-free?
It seems that before we did not know about hippos at all, and now it turns out that in addition to eating grass, they also like to eat the rotten meat of the same kind when you can't see it...
Did you suddenly feel that Hippo, a bright little warrior, had suddenly changed into something in the camp of zombies?
Indeed, after the survey ended in 2005, scientists were ready to classify hippos among omnivores.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="178" > reacquaint yourself with hippos</h1>
Scientists began to re-examine hippos, and from an evolutionary point of view, the closest animal on our planet to be related to hippos is whales.
Maybe 30 million years ago, there was an animal called a carboniferous beast, and some of them went to the sea to eat fish, and they became today's dolphins, whales and other animals.
The part that didn't go to sea became today's hippopotamus.
It just so happens that dolphins and killer whales are examples of people who like to eat their own kind.
In this way, it is not surprising that hippos quietly eat some of the same kind of rotten meat at night.
Back to the previous topic of hippos can't swim, from the hippopotamus, scientists actually solved a prehistoric mystery, that is, more than 30 million years ago, how did the ancestors of dolphins and whales swim after going to the sea?
There is such a picture that shows the principle of hippopotamus moving at high speed in the water.
Does it look like a dolphin?
In fact, the bucket figure of the hippopotamus, it is impossible to do the difficult butterfly swimming action of pressing the chest and lifting the waist and swinging the legs, and if you look closely, you will find that the hippopotamus is actually jumping in the water.
Sink to the bottom of the water, then kick it hard, pop out of the water, then plunge into it, kick it again and bounce it up.
Although it is tired to watch, the facts tell us that this move is not good to practice, and it can be faster than Phelps.
Moreover, if this trick is practiced for tens of millions of years, it can change from a hippopotamus to a dolphin.
In addition to high-speed jumping, hippos also have such a fat and non-drowning way of swimming, relying entirely on fat, and it feels like it only needs the small tail to swing a little, and it can be used as a propeller.
Hippos also have water avoidance devices in their eyes, ears, and noses, which can be automatically closed when diving, of course, the eyes are closed by a transparent goggle, which is very advanced.
Hippos can dive underwater for up to 5 minutes, and even have this four-legged, water-to-water stunt, worthy of being a whale's brother.
The little hippopotamus is very cute and comes with this kind of water feeding skill.
In fact, hippos also sing whale songs, and when they dive underwater, they can also make a buzzing sound similar to that of dolphins, sometimes much like human laughter.
But if this sound reaches land, it will become very frightening.
I believe that the students who went to the zoo to see the hippos sleeping have feelings, and the snoring is simply louder than the train.
Scientists have measured that the cry of hippos on land is up to 115 decibels, which is similar to the way you go to a rock music festival and stand 4 meters away from the loud sound, which can directly shock your pupils and dilate for tens of seconds.
Therefore, the Hedong Lion Roar is a novel, and the African Horse Roar is the reality, which is definitely a solid sonic weapon.
Moreover, in addition to the sonic cannon in front, there is actually a more grumpy sonic weapon behind the hippopotamus...
The reality is definitely more exaggerated than this GIF, and there is a chance to invite everyone to go to the zoo to experience it for themselves.
Even if the spray is concerned, the most important thing is your little tail, why do you have to rotate and scatter?
In fact, this is the hippopotamus confirming the territory, just like the dog running under the tree stump.
Hippos don't actively attack humans and other animals unless they think you've invaded its territory, and it's going to burst out and kill with one blow.
Therefore, the hippopotamus hall in the zoo is generally the place with the greatest staying power.
This is because the administrators go to the toilet, and if they don't do well, they will be greeted coldly as intruders, and who can stand it.
Therefore, the general zoo minimizes the number of times to clean the hippopotamus pond, and the hippopotamus manure fermentation is very, very large.
So, don't eat too much before you go to the zoo to see hippos. As for how big this momentum is, behind this is another famous biological investigation case, which has just been solved in 2018.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="179" > The Mara River Survey</h1>
The Mara River is a large river on the East African plateau, and every year in August and September, a spring migration of animals will be staged here.
Countless wildebeests have to cross the Mara River and dodge the snipers of crocodiles in the river to reach the fat grassland on the opposite bank.
It was spectacular...
Scientists have been observing this great migration for hundreds of years, but around 2000, scientists suddenly discovered a problem.
That is, every year before the Great Migration, in April and May, the Mara River will usher in a period of abundant water.
Originally, in the general river, fish and shrimp will breed in large quantities during the flood period, but there is a problem in the Mara River, where the fish will die in batches when the Mara River rises in April and May, and the dead fish are all over the riverbank, which is incomparably fishy, and every year, it has never stopped.
What is the reason for this?
Scientists initially suspected that there must be some source of pollution, and that it must be an African country that is quietly discharging toxic substances.
Check, must be checked, but the results of several years of searching, found nothing.
Moreover, if there is a source of pollution, it is difficult to achieve fixed discharge every year during the flood period.
Therefore, scientists suspect that it is a geological problem, because the Mara River has been known as the African Blood River since ancient times, originally, according to common sense, this river should be very clear, but historically, it has never been clear.
What must be the geological reason for this, will there be any toxic substances released from the riverbed every time the water is abundant?
But after another three years of investigation, there was still no result.
It wasn't until 2018 that scientists finally figured out who killed the fish, which turned out to be more than 4,000 hippos lurking in the Mara River day and night.
A scientist called Christopher L. Dutton said 4,000 hippos, which discharge 8.5 tons of manure a day, spread more than 100 kilometers through the river.
In the experiment, they put the fishing net into the water along the river bridge, and it only took a few seconds for the fishing net to stick a small half-pound of hippotamus manure.
These things are everywhere in rivers, and the riverbeds, channels, and crevices of rocks are all filled with this kind of thing that has been deposited for millions of years.
It turns out that thousands of dead fish are smoked to death by these things...
It seems that the Mara River, the name seems to have explained everything long ago.
Scientists further experiments, and found that in the dry period, some small pools will gather thousands of hippos, they will quickly turn the entire pool into a septic tank, detection instruments show that it is already full of ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, oxygen has long been all consumed by bacteria...
There may be a question here, that is, so many hippos are crowded together, what do they eat?
Don't think crooked, hippos also have a superpower, that is, fat rumination, a bit like a combination of camels and cattle, cattle rumination is to eat the grass first and store all the stomach, spit out a little when hungry, chew it and then eat it; camels are to turn the nutrients needed in advance into fat in the hump, and digest some fat to fill the hunger when hungry.
Hippo is a combination of the two methods, eat the hay for 3 weeks beforehand, and then, relying on the fat rumination skill to resist for 3 weeks, without eating anything, but the pull still has to be pulled.
Then, when the season of abundant water comes, the hippos will stir the pond like joy, and the water will rush down like a toilet.
Dutton said they planted 171 testing devices downstream, and the results showed that there was simply not enough oxygen in the washed-down water for the fish to breathe.
And the river is unusually turbid, which is the real reason why the Mara River has never been clear...
Finally, Dutton published the study in the journal Nature, titled "Hippopotamus Excretes Organic Matter Leads to Hypoxia and Fish Death in Downstream Rivers."
It was so shocking.
It seems that the whale explosion is not the most flavorful story I have ever said, and the story of this hippopotamus explosion has more staying power.
Whale Burst: Nature's Bomb, the most flavorful video.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="180" > five additional secrets</h1>
First, hippos sweat under the sun, which is slightly reddish and looks like a legendary sweaty BMW from a distance.
But in fact, these secretions are not blood or sweat, but a red pigment called hipposilic acid.
This thing is used by hippos to protect the sun, and it can also be anti-inflammatory, bactericidal and mosquito-proof, very advanced.
Second, the hippopotamus's blood basin mouth can be opened more than 150 degrees, and the bite force is one of the best on the African continent, especially its fangs are very lethal.
But if you look closely at the hippopotamus mouth without our kind of chewing teeth, how does it chew?
Swallowed raw like its brother dolphins?
Actually, no, the muscles in the hippopotamus's mouth are very developed, and these muscles play a role in grinding teeth and can help it chew.
Third, the hippopotamus's courtship method is also very peculiar, and it is exactly the same as the way it demarcates territory, spraying directly into the face of the other party.
This is probably called wishing to smell it.
Fourth, hippo meat can be eaten, but it is said that the taste is too African, and only Africans eat it.
A few years ago, a friend went to Kenya to eat hippo meat, he said that the tour guide took an outdoor kind of aluminum pot in the hotel to cook hippo meat for them, the result was cooked for three days, the pot was boiled, the hippo meat has not yet been cooked, and it is still the same as beef jerky, it can't bite at all, and there is a choking taste of eating coriander mixed with bean juice.
Fifth, hippos are still good gentlemen on the African continent, and many netizens have photographed hippos chasing crocodiles in rivers and saving other animals.
Although scientists say that it may just be a coincidence that the hippopotamus is protecting its territory, many people still believe that the hippopotamus, like its close relatives dolphins and whales, is a spirit of nature, a hippopotamus that did not go to the sea, and perhaps has other tasks on land.
Well, today's story is shared here, thank you.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="288" > finally said Mrs</h1>
The hippopotamus must be the elf that nature accidentally dropped when he slid his phone on the toilet.
(End)