How do horned animals differ: an overview of horns

The fauna of the Earth is inexpressibly rich. The planet is inhabited by a variety of interesting creatures - predators, herbivores - all have their own individual appearance. Horned animals are representatives of herbivores. There are domesticated - cattle, but there are wild ones. Their horns also differ in size and shape, for example, cow from deer.

Cattle

Domestic horned animals are cows, bali, yaks. They all have large dimensions and the presence of horns. The horns of cloven-hoofed animals are original processes that grow from the skull, are far apart, grow mainly in the sides. Horns in cows and yaks are inherent in both males and females. With their help in the herd is a battle of bulls for primacy. And what are they for cows? And they are given by nature to be a large herbivore so that they can protect themselves and the young from the attack of predators. This is the main weapon for large, well-marked individuals. There is an opinion that the larger the horn size of a cow, the more milk it will give. Science does not prove this dependence, but farmers are guided by such a sign and have proved in practice that communication takes place.

How do the horns of rams and goats look like?

Horned animals are diverse in appearance, and the horns of all are different. In cows, they have a straight form, a wide base and a thin pointed tip. The sheep and goats are completely different. There are in shape resembling a corkscrew (at the goat's screw), curled with a sickle (near a ram), argali have horns in the form of a spiral, and a Siberian goat is armed with a "weapon", similar to a saber. Domestic sheep do not have such large horns as their wild relatives, mostly they are curled with a wheel. You can not do much damage to such a car, but they can frighten off a predator and temporarily distract them. The goats, on the other hand, have a strong weapon that has remained unchanged for many centuries, they are sharp, thin and capable of hurting a predator or rival.

Elk: description of the animal

The largest species of the Olenev family is the moose. This is a cloven-hoofed mammal, a herbivore, a very large horned animal. A mighty elk that inhabits forests. These majestic horned animals are beautiful. Males have a weight of up to six hundred kilograms, the maximum length of the body reaches three and a half meters. The height at the withers, which has the form of a hump, is often found at two and a half meters. The appearance of moose is very different from other deer, in the first place - it's horns. Also it is a hunchbacked withers, long legs. The moose can not bend completely to the ground, so often, in order to drink, it needs to go deep into the water or stand on the front knees to eat. Elk - the treasured prey for hunters. In this animal everything is valued - meat, skins, and even horns - they decorate walls, make hangers for outer clothing.

Features of elk horns

Moose moose is called because of its horns - their structure resembles a plow. Male elks have the largest horns of all living mammals. Their size can reach two meters, and weight - more than thirty kilograms. Such females do not. Los every year in autumn drops old horns, within a year grows new. They have a shovel-like shape, from the large plane the horny processes depart. According to these processes, one can judge the age of the sucked. To get rid of bored horns, moose rubs them against trees, it happens that horns get stuck in branches and bushes, through which the beast made its way. Often elk loses them in battle.

The horns that the elk threw off differ in structure from those that were mined by shooting the animal. The discarded ones have a grayish color, a porous structure. The horns of the killed moose are light and dense, so much more is valued. On the upper side, elk horns are grayish-brown, and inside, near the middle, almost white. For the crafts, specimens of young specimens are used - fifteen centimeters. Of these, whole small pieces are produced, decorated with carvings.