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The animal tails are the parts that come out of the body at the rear end of certain kinds of animals. All animals that have a tail use it for various purposes. Some use it to attack, rout insects, give some signals, or express love, but mostly they are dealing with balancing their bodies. Only a few domesticated animals use their tails to express themselves.
Why do animals need tails?
- To keep their balance
- To show emotion
- To move
- To survive an attack
- To attack enemies
- To keep flies away
- To attract the opposite sex
There are numerous tales about animal tails. Especially Hanuman from the Indian myths, and can you remember in the Harry Potter movie that Hagrid gave Dudley a tail after Dudley ate Harry’s birthday cake? The most well-known is the fox tail, which we learned in elementary school. This sounds like a joke because people don’t have tails, but what would we do if we really had tails?
Experts have confirmed that humans also had tails in the early stages of human evolution and that we have lost them because they are no longer useful to us. Such organs and body parts are known as “remnants” (vestigial), and in fact, some of them are even in human bodies! However, since we have heard many stories about the tail and its evolution since childhood, we will look at the scientific side of the tail.
Photo Story
It was found that a baby girl with a tail was born on May 30, 2019, in Noakhali, Bangladesh. This is the first time this kind of incident has happened in Bangladesh’s history. She was a second child in the family.
It has a 16-cm-long tail, and after conducting a few medical tests, specialists found that the tail had no nerves or bones, and it is also not connected to the spinal cord. Doctors have performed successful surgery at Al-Karim General Hospital to remove the tail.
Ancestors and their tails
As our ancestors began to live on the ground, they no longer needed a tail to hang on to trees. It is thought to have gradually vanished from the human body as a result of the tail’s limited use and obstruction to easy movement. We still have a tail bone that helps us sit, but there is no longer a visible tail.
The tails of animals are preserved because they still benefit from them. The use of animal tails, on the other hand, varies. Some domesticated animals use the tail to express and communicate emotions, and for all animals, the tail has become an essential part of the body in dealing with balance, safety, and mobility.
Did you know that there are two types of animal tails ?
Prehensile and non-Prehensile Tails: The prehensile tail can be used to grab and hold objects. The prehensile tail functions as a fifth organ of the body. Monkeys are a very popular animal with prehensile tails. Many other animals have non-prehensile tails.
Flyswatter Skills
It is not uncommon for cattle, horses, and many other animals to be infested with flies and insect bites. But their hands are not able to repel the animals like humans, so they use their tails for that.
Tails can protect animals from Cold
Animals that live in cold regions, cover their noses with their tails to protect themselves from the cold.
To Balance their body
Many animals use their tails to balance their bodies as they move through very small spaces and between the branches of trees.
For Communication Purposes
Often, our pet dogs and cats use their tails to show their love for the owner. Cats normally wrap their tail around it and sway from side to side. When dogs were happy, they would wag their tails, and when they were sad or trying to get attention, they would hold their tails low. When those pets are intimate and angry, their communication skills change. Even after a conflict with a rival animal, animals exhibit the same condition. In such cases, the cat’s tail gets straight. Dogs stiffen their tails and may tuck their tails between their legs as a sign of submission.
Did you know this?
In fact, this is something that is unique to hippopotamuses. They use their tails to mark their territory by spreading their poop around a significant area. Then the other hippos will not enter that area.
Some lizards and geckos use their tails in a very special way. The tail helps the lizard geckos escape if they fall prey to a trap or predator. They flee by throwing their tails for the predator’s food. Then the lizards and geckos begin, surprisingly, to grow a new tail.
You will find this feature in several alligator species. In fact, they can store fat in their tails for up to two years (without eating anything) to keep the animal safe for a long time without food. In addition, the alligator uses its tail for protection as well as for swimming.
Do you know about the tail growing process?
Researchers have found that the lizards’ and geckos’ native stem cells are the primary factor hampering tail regeneration by transplanting neural stem cells between species. Lizards and geckos support the process by catching muscles around the fractured body area. The pulling apart of the muscles causes the tail to fall off along the line of weakness. Some species of lizards then regenerate the broken tails over six months to a year, with geckos having a faster rate of recovery than lizards.
Animals without tails
If we classify animals without tails, we have to remove the mammals from that. Because they have a tail (including humans). Among them, chimps and gorillas receive special attention.
Some of the tail less animals are:
- Chimps
- Spiders
- Worms
- Frogs
- Jellyfish
- Centipedes
- Kiwis
- Crabs
- Corals
- Clams
Apart from this you can see animals without tails in large quantity.
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