The Strangest Things in the World: A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of NatureHenry, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert)
History
The Strangest Things in the World: A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of Nature
Henry, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert)
Animal behavior; Natural history
The highest land-dwelling animals on earth are small, black attid
spiders. They live in islands of broken rock on Mount Everest at an
altitude of 22,000 feet. This is far above the line of perpetual snow
and nearly a mile above the last vegetation. Since there is no other
living thing near them, they have to eat one another for sustenance.
Presumably their ranks always are being repleted by new arrivals from
below.
Highest of all living things are red-legged, black-feathered choughs,
birds of the crow family. A lone chough has been seen in the Himalayas
at 27,000 feet. There is an intimate association between these birds
and mountain sheep. The chough sits on the sheep’s back and searches
its hair for insects. The sheep seems to like this attention and stands
still while the exploration is in progress.
Another bird-animal association at high mountain altitudes is that
between mouse hares, rabbit-like animals about the size of large rats,
and finches. The hares live in burrows and usually are seen feeding at
the entrances or running from hole to hole. Both hares and birds are
seed eaters.
Wild sheep and mountain goats in the Himalayas struggle up to about
17,000 feet. There are small, wingless grasshoppers at 18,000 feet. A
few bees, moths and butterflies are found at 21,000 feet.
_Barking Spider Monkeys_
Barking spider monkeys that fight off unwelcome human invaders are
dominant animals in the “green mansions” of Panama jungles. They live
in semi-nomadic troops, each of which occupies a fairly restricted
area of the forest, sometimes overlapping slightly with areas of other
groups. Within their territory members of a troop wander freely, but
their activities tend to center around food and lodge trees.
In reporting on his observations of their activities Dr. C. R.
Carpenter of Columbia stated: “Almost every night the group slept
within earshot of camp. For eight successive nights they returned to
the same group of trees. Throughout the day the troop travelled, in
general, over the same routes from one food tree to another and from
favorite places in the deep forest where the midday siesta occurred.
Several other groups were regularly located in their own particular
home areas.”
The monkeys resent intrusion of their territories by anything that
looks like another monkey, such as a man. When approached they start
barking. The usual terrier-like bark of great excitement may change
to a metallic chatter repeated with great frequency. When males,
and sometimes adult females are approached closely they growl in a
strikingly vicious manner. Typically they come to the terminal ends of
branches, often within 40 to 50 feet of the observer, and vigorously
shake these branches. Both hands and feet may be used while the animal
hangs by its tail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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