The World of Animals (10)

WITH GREEN HEADS What first occurs to your mind when one says "to waddle"? Usually: waddling ducklings following their mothers. Ducks have two techniques they use to feed themselves. While swimming, without plunging underwater, some of them feed on insects and plants. You often see them searching for food, with their head and half of their bodies underwater. Some kinds of ducks, on the other hand, search for food by diving underwater. Their wide webbed feet help them to dive underwater but are not good for walking on land. That is why they only leave the water occasionally, except in the breeding season. Water fowl such as ducks have air in their bodies. This is one of the reasons they float on the surface of the water. In the duck's body, there exist air sacs that look like tiny balloons. When these sacs are filled with air, they help the duck to float. When the duck wants to dive, it pumps the air out of the sacs and readily dives under the water since less air remains in its body. These aside, most water fowl are good swimmers. The web between their toes is one of the reasons for this. When they push one foot back, these webs broaden to provide a better pushing force. Of course, it is not a coincidence that all these features required for good swimming exist in water fowl. All these features have been granted water birds by Allah, the Creator of all living beings. Drakes, the male ducks, always have brighter feathers than female ducks. This is an important protection for the female ducks because they incubate the eggs in their nests, since, thanks to their pale colours, predators cannot see them. Their pale colours being quite suitable for camouflage, female ducks cannot be seen even at close range. The bright feathers of drakes, on the other hand, attract the predator's attention to them. When a predator comes close to the nest, the drake takes wing and makes a great deal of noise, making a serious effort to keep the predator away from the nest. Adult ducks, who stroll in groups, occasionally take care of their babies. Drakes do not incubate. Just a few hours after the ducklings emerge from the eggs, they begin to swim and feed on their own. The newly hatched ducklings know how to feed themselves and to survive, by Allah's inspiration to them. Think about yourself. What would happen if you were allowed in the water as soon as you were born? Without doubt, as soon as you gulped enough water you would die of suffocation. But, since our Lord has granted ducklings the ability to swim at birth, they don't drown. Do you know that ducks fly at a speed of 50 kilometres (31 miles) per hour? Do you also know that they avert wild animals by continuously changing their direction? Well, can anyone tell how ducks know to change their direction? Surely, as in the cases of the features Allah granted all other living beings, this is also a feature given to ducks by Allah. THE BUTTERFLY: A MIRACLE OF COLOURS Do you know that butterflies don't have wings when they are born? That is true! The butterfly is born without wings. It needs to pass through four phases to become the butterfly you see in the countryside or garden. Some have a lifespan of one to two months while some others only live for 24 hours. A butterfly emerges from the egg as a little larva. Soon, it grows into a lovely caterpillar and thus the second phase of the butterfly begins. There are a total of 14 to 15 rings on a caterpillar's body. It has little eyes on its head, and a jaw that it uses for chewing. On the front part of its trunk, it has eight legs. When the butterfly is still in the form of a caterpillar, it has no wings and its antenna are very short. Meanwhile, its salivary gland secretes a kind of silk. A caterpillar does not become longer as it grows; it only puts on weight. Finally, the caterpillar breaks loose from its skin by gradually tearing it. This skin is quickly replaced by a skin more fitting to its fat body. Caterpillars are very delicious creatures for birds that feed on insects. For this reason, our Lord has taught caterpillars various defence techniques. When standing upright, some of them resemble a branch, some of them camouflage themselves by remaining on a leaf that is exactly the same colour as their bodies, while some others play dead. These defence techniques are vital for their survival. They remain alive and grow into butterflies, thanks to these defence techniques. The caterpillar employs these camouflage techniques also when it grows into a butterfly. Butterflies live in regions that match their own colours. But how do butterflies check that their colour suits the environment since they are unable to see themselves? How can they be sure that they are secure? Certainly, they cannot know or consider any of these. Allah, their Creator, places butterflies in the most suitable place where they can be secure. Allah is the "Merciful" and the "Protector", and, as a manifestation of these attributes, He gives many capabilities to living beings, so that they can protect themselves from danger. Otherwise, butterflies are bereft of the wisdom that would make them think that they should protect themselves. Consequently, they themselves could never develop a defence mechanism such as camouflage. The One Who has created all these techniques that make life easy is our Lord, the One Who created the heavens and the earth and everything between them. The caterpillar, which develops under the protection of the defence techniques given it by Allah, finally reaches the third phase. In this phase, it fills its stomach with as many leaves as possible so that it almost splits apart. In this third phase, the caterpillar imprisons itself in a sack and the metamorphosis begins. The hard shell that is formed around the caterpillar in this phase is called a "chrysalis". In this shell, it is still and does not eat anything. In this phase, it utilises the energy of the leaves it ate when it was a caterpillar. Chrysalis shells are attached to a leaf, a rock or a branch. If you encounter one of them, have a look at it, because, when you look at the caterpillar inside the chrysalis, you can see the traces of the proboscis and the limbs that will be formed on the butterfly. After approximately ten days, tearing its shell open in just a few minutes, the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. At that time, the wings of the butterfly have not yet reached their normal size. In the fourth phase, in order to stretch its wings, the butterfly inflates the veins of its wings with its body liquid. When its wings dry, it instantly begins to fly without any training. The wings also help the butterfly in its respiration. As you see, even a tiny butterfly is a great miracle created by our Lord. Scientists have been conducting research to answer the question: "How does a caterpillar decide to change into a butterfly?" This metamorphosis only occurs because our Lord wills it so. Allah shows us how varied are the creatures He can create, and the unprecedented ways in which He can change them. Another miracle is that the wings of butterflies are covered with tiny scales. The wings consist of these scales arranged one on top of another. How do you think these wings have come into existence? Have these scales accidentally come together and formed a wing with its perfect structure? Have these scales spontaneously united to form a wing? Has the butterfly himself stuck these scales to one another to form the wing? Did the butterfly himself attach this wing to its back? A butterfly cannot see its back. But there are perfect symmetrical patterns on its back that it can never see. The scales are arranged in such an orderly manner that the patterns on both wings are exactly the same. If you measure the size of the patterns with a ruler, you will see that they are all equal. All of these show us our Lord's artistry, eternal knowledge and unlimited power. Upon seeing all these, we should reflect upon them and honour our Lord. INHABITANTS OF THE OCEANS: FISH The house in which we live, the school we attend, the pavement on which we walk, the parks in which we play, the air we breathe are all things that belong to our world. There are birds, people, trees, plants and animals in this world. However, there also exists another world with which we are not very familiar. We know the existence of this world and sometimes see it on TV. There are also animals and plants that inhabit this world. These animals and plants have no idea about our world. Neither could we live in their world nor is there any chance that they could survive in our world. We could not even breathe one time in that world. The "other" world we are talking about is the underwater world in which fish live. But, there is something we need to remember. Fish are not the only living beings inhabiting the underwater world. The underwater world harbours reptiles, insects and plants and shelters millions of kinds of creatures. The creatures living in this world have particular methods of eating, breathing and sleeping peculiar to them. The respiratory system of fish is different from that of all other creatures. Instead of noses fish have gills. By means of gills, they can use the oxygen in water. The water that is continuously taken into the mouth passes through the gill arches. Meanwhile, capillaries in the gills take in the oxygen dissolved in the water and release the carbon dioxide of the body to the water. Most fish have nostrils but these are not used for respiration. The nostrils open to tiny sacs by which fish detect the odour of the water that fills these sacs. Sharks, for example, find their prey by means of their odours. A fish does not have eyelids as do human beings. It looks at the world through a transparent curtain covering its eyes. This curtain resembles a diver's eyeglass. Since they usually need to see objects very close to them, fish's eyes have been created to meet this need. The spherical and hard structure of their eyes are adjusted to see objects close to them. When they want to look at an object at a distance, the lens system is drawn backward by means of a specific muscle mechanism in the eye. Beside its five basic senses of sight, smell, hearing, touching and taste, the fish also perceives the outside world through its "lateral" lines. Sensitive nerves that lie along these lines perceive the size and direction of objects the fish passes by. In this way blind cave fish can move very easily in the dark. This system is a kind of underwater radar or "sonar" system. Furthermore, many fish species have a long and slender balloon-like air-filled sac in the abdominal cavity. They maintain their balance in the water with the help of this sac. Fish of various kinds created by the will of Allah amaze people with their beautiful colours and movements. You can hardly find such vivid colours as those seen in many fish in any other animal. You may be familiar with what has been described so far. But, there is another piece of information about fish which will astonish you. Larger fish usually need tiny cleaner fish to cleanse them of parasites. Sometimes, these cleaner fish readily enter the mouth of a much bigger fish without fear. They clean the teeth and gills of the host fish, a service in return for which the host causes them no harm. Well, how can the cleaner fish be sure that the big fish will not suddenly swallow it? How does it know that the big fish will not cause it any harm? How can it trust it? It is as if they had an agreement. Let's assume that there exists such an agreement; how could the little fish be sure that the host fish would not violate this agreement and eat it, once it renders its services? The truth is that the cleaner fish is always vulnerable to its host, but, because Allah has inspired both of them to co-exist, neither does the big fish cause harm to the cleaner fish nor does the little fish feel fear of the larger one. The large fish is cleaned while the little fish feeds on the parasites it cleans. By Allah's inspiration to them, both of them lead their lives in harmony and co-operation. harunyahya.com