Questioned by Sciences and Future, doctor Édith Beaumont-Graff, behaviouristic veterinarian and author of the book "Mon chien a peur...
09:24
Questioned by Sciences and Future, doctor Édith Beaumont-Graff, behaviouristic veterinarian and author of the book "Mon chien a peur" is above all anxious to restore the truth. " Fact to move the tail, as well for a dog as for a cat, is often the sign of a tension or a certain excitement and a state of uncertainty: attack or not ". If this behavior is generally well understood by the human beings to the cat, he is him less at the dog. To this animal, the balance of the tail is practically always - and wrongly - associated with the enjoyment. " Certain very anxious dogs move the tail by grumbling for example ", specifies the specialist.
Towards the right or towards the left?
In a study appeared in 2013 in the magazine Current Biology, Italian researchers had even established as a tail which beats more towards the right do not indicate the same state of mind to the dog as the tail which beats more towards the left. In the first case, it would translate a positive behavior (the view of master), whereas a tail which leaves towards the left would be the sign of a negative state of mind (the view of another dog with which he does not get on for example). Better still: this subtle difference would be noticed by the congeners. According to this study, when a canine observes it an other one which moves its tail towards the left, he demonstrates signs of stress and his heart rhythm accelerates. Otherwise, he seems perfectly relaxed.
However, it is obvious that to beat of the tail became a behavior ritualized between the dog and his owner: "the dog uses him nevertheless very often in the game, which he even is an appearance of fight and flight but which gets some pleasure. And he welcomes its master very often by an invitation in the game the answer of which is pleasant because associated with caresses. It eventually stands out as a rite of synonymic welcome of pleasure", explains Edith Beaumont-Graff.
The discretion above all
To cats, the modalities of game between congeners are different. " These activities look like more the predation, a behavior during which the body has to remain rather motionless, motionless to win in discretion ", indicates the veterinarian. It is thus necessary no way for these animals to move the tail, even if the session of game gets them some pleasure. They are thus going to guard this balance in the situations which are for them uncertain and source of tension. The latter precede very often an aggression or a flight.
More than 50 years ago, a named cat Félicette took off for brief moment in the space. Questioned by Sciences and Future, the scientist lo...
09:16
More than 50 years ago, a named cat Félicette took off for brief moment in the space. Questioned by Sciences and Future, the scientist loaded his follow-up remembers.
Félicette was not a cat as the others: on October 18th, 1963 and after a training intended to accustom him to the rumours and to the accelerations, she took off since the base of Hammaguir, in Sahara aboard a rocket Véronique whose speed varies between Mach 5 and 6. "The general practitioner Grandpierre, the director of the Cerma (Center of education and searches for aeronautical medicine of the Air Force) had asked me to study the effects of the non-gravity on the vigilance of an awake mammal", tells Sciences and Future Doctor Chatelier, former master of searches for the health service of the armies.
Electrodes to watch in real time the cerebral activity of the cat
The animal reached the 157 kilometer height becoming the first cat astronaut of the world. " At the end of propulsion, there was a separation of the head and the point of the rocket which contained the animal. This one then took a parabolic trajectory which allowed to put the cat in weightlessness ", remembers Doctor Chatelier. Electrodes, implanted in the brain of Félicette allowed to transmit his intellectual activity on the ground by telemetry during all the duration of the flight. Then, at the end of a few minutes, a parachute spread to weaken the fall of the point of return on dry land.
Discovered by " the central inhibition "
During this experience, the researchers noticed that in absence of sensory reference, the vigilance of the cat decreased little by little. Only in this capsule, the brain of the animal set in sleep mode: "we noted several moments when Félicette began napping and we baptized this phenomenon the central inhibition", pursues the former researcher. Does this trance also affect the astronauts? "We believed it but not, explains the man. The sensory inhibition did not occur during the human flights: the astronauts have other sensory afférences because they have gestures to be realized and they are not alone. But if they were isolated, things would be maybe different".
Félicette, as for her, returned alive and healthy on Earth. The animal lived for a long time in the shade of Laïka, the dog of the Soviet spatial program which was the first living being to have been placed in orbit in 1957. But she since got back her pioneer's place of the space.
The Red Fox It is at the same time a father and an attentive partner. He feeds the female whereas it takes care of youngs until which it...
14:00
The Red Fox
It is at the same time a father and an attentive partner. He feeds the female whereas it takes care of youngs until which it can take out to hunt by itself.
THE RHEA
the male is not maybe a faithful partner but it is a very protective father. It is him who hatches eggs until their hatching. He protects then fiercely his youngs.
THE MARINE CATFISH
To several sorts(species) of this family, males hatch their eggs in their mouth until hatching. A period during which they do not feed.
THE EMPEROR PENGUIN
The emperor penguin: to this species, the male rest two months without eating to keep its egg warm on its legs to prevent him from freezing while the female left feeding.
THE SEA HORSE
Probably the most famous animal dad, the male sea horse possesses a pocket where the female puts down eggs. He fertilizes them and hatches them "until" 'deliver' small sea horses.
