Why do hare and rabbit have long ears? Ecological project “Why does a hare have long ears? How did a hare have long ears?

Why does a hare have long ears?

For anyone who has had the patience to watch how a dog pricks up its ears when it hears an unfamiliar sound, or how a horse moves its ears anxiously, the question of hare ears will seem naive. Many animals with sophisticated hearing have large, movable ears. Even the champions of hearing among birds - owls and eagle owls - were forced to acquire a special structure made of feathers and down, imitating the auricle.

Nature is an economical designer. Having created a horn to capture sound waves, she tried to get as much use out of it as possible. For animals living in the tropics, the issue of overheating of the body is acute - and the ears at the same time took on the function of cooling devices.

In the central regions of the Sahara and in the Arabian deserts live small cute foxes - fennecs. In early spring, four to five pups appear in their burrows. Residents of oases, if they are lucky enough to track down fennecs, dig a hole and bring home adorable babies with a tiny tail and small round ears. The animals quickly gain weight, but their ears grow even faster. When the animals grow up enough that they are already suitable for soup (fennecs are not raised for fun), they, as the American physiologist K. Schmidt-Nielsen wittily noted, consist mainly of ears.

Many relatively small desert animals have big ears. This immediately catches the eye, especially when compared with their relatives from the temperate or northern regions of the planet. A long-eared hedgehog that lives in the south of our homeland (from the Stavropol Territory to the deserts Central Asia), has unusually large ears from the point of view of its northern counterparts. The red-sided hare, widespread in Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to Algeria, has incomparably longer ears than those of our hare or hare. Another African, the Cape hare, has even larger ears. Very long-eared hares from North America- silver-brown and Mexican. The ears of the California hare, which is not so common in some hot regions of the planet, are not very long, but extremely wide. But the American hare, or, as it is called in English, the leather rabbit, is especially long-eared. A rabbit's ears are larger than its owner.

Among the giants, elephants have the most big ears. African elephants love to roam in dry, hot savannas, and no less than small fry are interested in available means of cooling.

For a long time, scientists did not understand the reasons for the large ears of desert animals. It is logical to assume that large ears, significantly increasing the skin surface area, should contribute to overheating of animals. In fact, it turned out that this was not the case. All of the creatures listed above, with the exception of elephants, can survive completely without water. They receive the necessary moisture from food, from green plants, their rhizomes and fruits, from eaten insects, lizards, small birds and mammals. Therefore, they have to be especially economical with water. They cannot afford to sweat, cooling their bodies through water evaporation, as the vast majority of mammals on our planet do. How do they escape the heat? During the day, animals stay in the shade of dried tufts of grass, bushes, stones and rocks. If there is no wind, the air and soil temperatures in the shade are slightly lower than in the sun. The ears, richly supplied with blood vessels and due to the rather sparse hair cover, especially on the inside, do not have reliable thermal insulation, give off by radiation primarily to the palate, as well as to surrounding objects, the heat accumulated in the body. After all, the temperature of the northern sector of the sky over the desert, even at noon, does not exceed +13° ( Radiation - radiation (radiation), emission from a body into space in the form electromagnetic waves the energy contained in it. At thermal radiation, which can occur even with low temperatures, invisible rays of great length are emitted. Radiation measurements are often made using instruments that convert radiant energy into thermal energy. Radiant energy emitted by the northern sector of the sky over the desert, converted into thermal energy, does not exceed 13 °C). Radiation exchange makes it easy to get rid of excess heat, and the ears act as emitters. This, it turns out, is why ears are so long.

Thermoregulation is only an auxiliary function of the ears. The main thing, of course, is auditory. The ears are the first device in a long chain of devices for capturing sound waves and analyzing the information it brings. In mammals they are funnel-shaped. This trap funnel provides better perception of sound waves coming from a certain direction. In cats, dogs, horses, and antelopes, the ears have great mobility - they are able to turn towards the sound wave, towards the source of the sound. Thanks to this, animals manage to get rid of interference and even hear faint, distant sounds better than close and loud ones.

The human ear has lost the ability to actively move in search of the source of sound. Even apes have relatively motionless ears. However, it would be wrong to think that they are completely useless and are only a very dubious decoration of the human head. Although it is not yet entirely clear how effective the pinna is as a funnel that collects the energy of a sound wave, its participation in determining the direction of sound is beyond doubt. You can see this for yourself. Try to suddenly change the shape of the auricle - crush it with your hand, and you will immediately feel that it becomes more difficult to determine the direction of sounds, especially weak ones. Cartilaginous tubercles inside ears delay sound. The amount of this delay varies depending on which direction it comes from. The brain uses this delay to improve its accuracy in localizing the sound source.

The outer ear also performs another task - it amplifies sound. It is a resonator. If the sound frequency is close to the natural frequency of the resonator, the air pressure in the ear canal acting on the eardrum becomes greater than the pressure of the incoming sound wave.

Developed echolocation requires sophisticated hearing. It would seem that all parts of the auditory system of cetaceans should be better developed than those of other inhabitants of the planet. In general, this is true, but the very first link - the catching horn - is completely missing. It is useless to look for any, even the most modest, remains of ears on the smooth shiny skin of dolphins. There is none of them. Having carefully examined the head of a bottlenose dolphin, you can see on each side a tiny hole with a diameter of 1-2 mm. Like everything else on a dolphin's head, these holes are located asymmetrically. One hole is closer to the nose than the other. They are the beginning of the ear canals.

In land animals that hear well, the ear canal is never so narrow. Almost immediately behind the outer opening, it sharply narrows and takes on the appearance of a tiny slit with a gap. 360 * 36 microns, and in the common dolphin - 330 * 32 microns. A little further, the auditory canal is completely overgrown, turning into a thin cord. When the lace passes the thick fat layer and reaches the muscles, a gap appears in it again, filled with air and even wider than it was at the beginning: in bottlenose dolphins - 2250 * 1305 microns, and in the white drum - 1620 * 810 microns. Still, it’s hard to believe that this device has anything to do with the perception of sounds. Absence ear canal associated with life in the ocean. If it connected the eardrum to the external environment, as is usually the case in land animals, dolphins would be in constant danger. When diving, for every 10 m the pressure increases by about 1 atm. All mammals have a device for equalizing pressure behind the eardrum, but scuba divers know very well how unreliably it works, failing at the slightest cold or slight runny nose. In this case, during the first attempt to dive, the eardrum would be ruptured by water. Enormous external pressure, not meeting equal resistance from within, would easily crush the thin barrier. So, the dolphin's middle ear is covered with skin, a thick layer of fat and muscle and is in no way connected to the external environment.

Much research has been carried out to detect a sound guide that allows acoustic waves reach sound receptors. But to this day, the question of its location has not been completely resolved, and continues to cause heated debate.

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Svetlana Zhuk
Ecological project “Why does the hare have long ears”

T ip: short-term, research, thematic.

Pedagogical goals:

to bring parents closer to the problems of upbringing and development of children, to improve the pedagogical culture of parents; development of the intellectual and moral spheres in children, create conditions for familiarization with the life of hares, the purpose of ears, form an active life position in children, and involve them in environmental activities.

Tasks:

1. Develop basic ideas about hares and rabbits.

2. Contribute to clarifying and enriching children’s ideas about hares (bunny - bunny - bunny);

3. Encourage and support independent observations of animals;

4. Cultivate an interest in the life of animals, a caring attitude;

5. Develop the ability to answer questions and conduct dialogue;

6. Develop the ability to communicate with peers during gaming activities;

7. Develop cognitive activity, thinking, imagination, communication skills;

8. Develop productive activity children, improve their skills in drawing, modeling, appliqué; develop creative abilities;

9. Form primary ideas about the expressive possibilities of music; her ability to convey various emotions and moods.

Research hypotheses:

1. Suppose that a hare needs ears to protect itself from enemies.

2. What if a hare needs ears for beauty.

The following methods were used to confirm or refute the hypotheses:

1. Think for yourself.

2. Ask adults.

3. Call your grandmother in the village

4. Look at books.

5. Go to your computer

6. Observe

In the course of studying the collected information, we were able to find out the following.

Those hares that live in nature are seriously different from the rabbits that we keep as pets. They are larger, not as beautiful and have much longer ears. Why?

The first thing that comes to mind is to hear better. Indeed, the larger the outer part of the ear, the better it is to capture sound vibrations, including even rustling sounds. You can check this yourself by placing your palm to your ear - thanks to the increased surface of the auricle, your hearing will sharpen.

Since the hare cannot do anything to oppose its enemies, the only thing available to it is to flee. His long ears help him in this, as they are able to snatch even the quietest sounds from the silence, allowing the scythe to escape from a predator or hunter.

Why are the ears elongated and not round? When running, the hare presses them as close to the body as possible, reducing air resistance, thereby allowing itself to increase its running speed. However, there is another feature associated with the ears of a hare. The human body or any other living creature releases a certain amount of heat, which is accompanied by the removal of moisture from the body. Accordingly, the animal gets tired faster. The hare's ears have a lot of capillaries in which blood circulates. Due to the large area of ​​the ears, the oblique does not overheat his body, which helps him when he is hiding from his pursuers. In cold weather, on the contrary, he presses his ears to his body, saving heat loss.

The conclusion is simple: long ears for a hare - a vital necessity, a real gift from nature.

Implementation of thematic planning during

weeks: in forms of organization and types of activities sti

Examination of a rabbit, hare (possibly alive) -

“A bunny came to visit us.”

Examination of illustrations on the topic “Hare and Little Hares.”

Conversation on the topic “Why does a hare have long ears?”

Research activity “What does a rabbit like to eat.”

Reading the Russian folk tale “Zayushkina’s Hut.”

Memorizing the poem by A. Barto “Bunny”.

Acquaintance with the poem by V. Volina “The gray bunny washes itself...”.

Guessing riddles.

Drawing "Treat for the Bunny."

Modeling "Carrot for a rabbit."

Construction of "Zayushkin's Hut".

Application "Zayushka".

Outdoor games: “The little gray bunny is sitting...”, “Sunny bunnies”, “The little little bunny, come out”, “The gray little bunny is washing his face...”.

Russian dramatization game folk tale"Zayushkina's hut."

Description of the features of the organization of a developing subject-spatial environment

Watching a documentary about the hare

Selection of visual material (pictures, book and magazine illustrations)

Raising problematic issues.

Usage didactic games on this topic.

Didactic game “Guess the animal from the description.”

Organize children's activities aimed at developing children's ability to find an object, focusing on its main features and description.

Didactic game “Who lives where?”

Organize children's activities aimed at clarifying, expanding and systematizing children's ideas about the home of different animals, identifying the relationship between appearance, the animal’s lifestyle and the characteristics of its “house”.

Didactic game "Find Mom."

Organize children's activities aimed at developing children's ability to group animals according to the criterion of “one family of animals.”

Didactic game

“Feed the animal.”

Organize children's activities aimed at developing children's ability to find characteristic food for each animal.

Didactic game

“Where is whose tail?”

Organize children's activities aimed at developing children's ability to compare parts and wholes.

Involving parents in the educational process

Parent meeting on the topic “Formation of design and research activities.”

Consultation for parents “What is the project method?”

Involve parents in organizing an acquaintance with a live rabbit or hare.

Selection of information on the question “Why does a hare have long ears?”

Visit to the Zoo.

Reading fiction on this topic.

Assistance in organizing an exhibition on the topic.

The final stage is the presentation of the project.

Presentation of the family newspaper “Why does a hare have long ears?”

Final event “Let’s treat the bunny with a carrot.”

Publications on the topic:

Children's research project "Why don't ships sink?" Children's research project“Why don’t ships sink?” Goal: find out why ships float on water. Tasks: collect and analyze.

Children's project "Why do trees have holes in the spring?" (6 - 7 years old) Hello! Introducing: Doronina Tanya Voloshchenko Artyom “Development Center.

Photo report of children's artistic creativity. Modeling Topic: “Snail long horns” Elena Vladimirova. Goal: Expanding and clarifying children’s knowledge.

Objectives: - learn to sculpt an object in parts, convey the shape of the parts (oval body and head, characteristic features– long ears, sharing.

It was a long time ago. When there were no cartoons or movies. Not even a computer in a primeval cave. And the first animals lived on Earth: the first hedgehog, the first wolf, the first bear, the first raccoon. But the story is not about them, but about the hare. So...

More than anything else, the hare dreamed of growing up. Like an elephant. Or at least like a moose. Whatever he did: he ate vitamin-rich hare cabbage, and gnawed on healthy carrots, and did exercises in the morning, and hung on a branch...

And all in vain.

One day the hare decided to celebrate his birthday. The guests came with cabbage and carrot bouquets. And the hedgehog neighbor brought a birthday cake with one candle into the clearing.

“Blow on the candle and make a wish,” said the hedgehog. - And then your wish will definitely come true...

The hare blew as hard as he could - the candle went out.

- Well, what did you wish for? - everyone became interested.

“I want to grow big,” said the hare.

“That’s an excellent wish,” said the raccoon and, going up to the birthday boy, began to pull him by the ears. - Grow up, hare, big, big!

- Oh, what are you doing?! - the hare shouted.

“I will fulfill your wish,” answered the raccoon.

“Let me help you too,” the fox was delighted and also began to pull the hare by the ears. - Grow up, hare, big, big!

“Ay-ay-ay, my ears will come off,” cried the hare.

“Be patient, otherwise you won’t grow,” said the fox.

“Look, it seems he’s grown a little,” the hedgehog squinted.

“Exactly, exactly,” the guests made a noise. - Grow up, hare, big, big!

Of course, the hare has not grown a centimeter, only his ears have stretched out a little.

“Give it to me,” the wolf grabbed the hare by the ears and lifted him above the ground. - Look, hare! Now you will see Moscow!

The hare's ears pulled back even more.

“Grow up, big, big hare,” the guests shouted in unison.

The bear came later than everyone else.

-What are you doing? – he was surprised.

“Let’s help the hare grow,” everyone shouted joyfully.

“Now I’ll help too,” said the bear. But since his ears were busy, the bear grabbed the hare by the tail and began to pull him in the other direction. Everyone is pulling by the ears, but the bear is pulling by the tail.

“Ay-ay-ay,” shouted the birthday boy. - Oh oh oh!

And then the hare’s tail could not stand it and came off. Everyone fell to one side, the bear with its tail to the other...

And the birthday boy jumped out of the heap and ran to the third.

Since then, the hare no longer invited guests to his birthday.

Now do you understand why the hare has such long ears and such a short tail? And why, when he sees a fox, wolf or bear, does he immediately give chase?

White hare, where did he run?

Does everyone remember the answer? What exactly helps a hare run?

Of course - paws! By winter, the hare's paws become overgrown with dense fur, shaggy fur even grows between the toes, and the fur on the ears becomes denser and looks like velvet.

What do ears have to do with it? Yes, too, to run!

And the oblique has to run often and a lot. Either a twig will crack, or the snow will creak under someone’s paws, but the hare’s heart has already disappeared: must he run again?!

The gray one (and the white one in winter) has excellent hearing. This, of course, is due to his large, long ears. The hare has comfortable ears; put them upright, twisted them back and forth, set up your locators and receive all the forest news without delay! Again, it’s convenient to run: put your ears on your back, press them tightly and rush yourself in any dense undergrowth, you won’t damage your ears folded into a tube! But you need to stop, raise your sound detectors again and listen: how far is the chase? At the same time, you *cool down* from running.

Such ears are not just ears, but natural cooling radiators. Our bunny cannot sweat when running, he has almost no sweat glands, his body saves water and does not allow it to evaporate thoughtlessly. What should I do? If excess heat is not removed from the body, our scythe will cook in its own juice.

Mother Nature took pity on the little bunny and gave him ears with thick cords of veins that run right under the skin on the ears, and the vessels in them are visible and invisible, and the lumen of which is adjustable *in a wide range*. When the little one needs to “throw off” the heat, the vessels expand at full capacity, and when they are saved, they narrow. Doesn't threaten our bunny headache from overheating, but there’s no danger of freezing that little head either.

Such ears on the top of the head allow hares to live not only in harsh Russian forests, but also in arid deserts. Cooling due to heat exchange, you know, is a very beneficial gift from Mother Nature!

The hotter the climate, the more heat needs to be dissipated, so the most long-eared hares are the southern and desert hares. In the latter, the length of their ears is half the length of their body!

This was noticed back in 1877 by D. Allen and wrote a whole ecographic rule, calling it after himself. And it says approximately the following: among related forms of warm-blooded animals, those that live in colder climates have smaller protruding body parts (ears, legs, tail). And those who live in hot climates do the opposite.

Compare the photo of the average Russian hare and the *hermit*. Wow, what ears!!! And the glorious fennec fox is wow, how different her ears are from her usual little sister fox! This rule applies to all animals, and is 100% suitable for humans!

But we will not compare the ears of a hare and a rabbit. Although they belong to the same order of lagomorphs, rabbits are still not hares. These are two separate types. Hares and rabbits do not interbreed with each other and they do not have children!

For a long time, both hares and rabbits were considered rodents, but this turned out to be completely wrong. They are not rodents at all, they are lagomorphs!

And where can a rabbit catch up with our hare? Can it accelerate to 70 km? per hour, like our big-eared one? No, the rabbit is not a match for the hare, it is not a match!!!

And somehow our great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers managed without rabbits in the yard. How? Yes, they made do with hares! In the Arkhangelsk province, where frost below 40* is not uncommon, warm knitted things are very popular. There is also a white hare who lives there, who wears a gray coat in summer and a white coat in winter. One hare skin is not enough for good mittens, but I would also like a hat. There is a way out! The skin of a hare just needs to be... plucked. In itself, hare fur is very short-lived, but, thanks to the abundance of light down, in winter it is the warmest of all *downs*. There are almost no guard hairs on the winter skin, but there is plenty of fluff. Things made from hare down are surprisingly warm and comfortable.

Do you want to keep your ears from freezing? Go ahead, follow the hare! Play “Try and catch up!” with him.

A collection of fairy tales for children and their parents. I wanted the children to understand after reading these fairy tales what kindness, mutual assistance, belief in the impossible, careful handling of their things and all that was brought up in Soviet times are.

* * *

The given introductory fragment of the book Bedtime stories. Collection good fairy tales(Oleg Akatiev) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

© Oleg Akatiev, 2016

© Alexander Voznenko, illustrations, 2016

Created in the intellectual publishing system Ridero

Why do rabbits have long ears?

Many, many years ago, when the trees were large and tall, and because of this there was always twilight in the forest, because light could not break through the dense thickets of trees. When all the animals on Earth lived in harmony, there lived a hare. In those distant times he was not the same as he is now. Previously, he had small ears and small hind legs. And before he didn’t run as fast as he does now, because he had no enemies, and therefore there was no one to run away from. But he was just as much of a braggart as he is now.

With or without reason, he always boasted to every little animal:

- I can do everything! I can do everything! I am the fastest and most agile!

But all the animals got used to his boasting and looked at him the same way people now look at an alarm clock, that is, it rang, they remembered it, turned it off and forgot about it.

In the forest where the hare lived there was a large and swampy swamp. Everyone avoided it, because no one had ever managed to walk along it. And those who tried to do this were taken by the swamp, under the muddy, dark water. After which a terrible groan was heard throughout the forest:

This swamp was happy that it had swallowed its next victim. Hearing this groan, all the animals froze in place with fear and remained in this state until the groan stopped.

One fine day the hare decided to boast that he would cross this swamp. All the animals, of course, knew him as a braggart, but to decide on such a thing! So when the hare said:

- Tomorrow, you can all get together and watch me cross this trifling swamp!

All the animals wondered if he could really get through this terrible swamp?

The next day, all the animals, with the exception of the bear and the wolf, the strongest in the forest, gathered near the swamp and began to wait for the hare. After some time, the scythe himself appeared. The hare saw that so many animals had gathered, and this suddenly became very frightened, but it was too late to retreat. It’s one thing to show off in front of one hedgehog or two squirrels, and quite another when almost all the forest inhabitants have gathered to watch you cross this terrible swamp. And although the hare was a coward, he decided that he would prove to everyone how brave he was.

And then the hare took the first step through the swamp, all the animals froze. Then he took a second step... Despite the fact that all the animals were nearby, from the silence that was around, one would think that there was no one here, so everyone held their breath. Having taken the third step, the hare felt that he was falling through. Because of his strong excitement, he had not yet had time to understand what was happening to him, but just in case, when he had already fallen knee-deep into the swamp, he shouted as hard as he could:

– Help!... I’m drowning!

And this cry of the hare brought all the animals back from their stupor. All the animals ran around. Squirrels jumped up and down the trees, birds flew in and flapped their wings. But no one could reach the hare to grab him and pull him out of the swamp.

And the hare went into the quagmire already up to his waist. Then someone shouted shrilly:

- Bear! Wolf! Help, the hare is drowning in the swamp!

And the hare is already stuck up to his neck in the swamp. And then everyone heard it groan, pulling its next victim towards itself:

The hare had already gone completely into the swamp, only small ears remained. And suddenly, a wolf ran out of the bushes. Seeing what was happening here, the wolf immediately grabbed the small hare's ears with his teeth and began to pull with all his might. And now the hare already appears above the swamp - here is the head, here are the front paws, now he is already waist-deep in the water... But then, either the wolf weakened, or the swamp began to pull the hare towards itself even more tightly, only the hare slipped out and again began to plunge into swamp. The wolf, seeing the pitiful eyes of the hare, grabbed the poor fellow's ears with renewed vigor. This time the wolf did not let go of the hare’s ears from his teeth, and pulled him out of the swamp.

The poor hare was sitting on the grass, neither alive nor dead. All the animals were happy that the wolf saved this beloved braggart! Only they all now looked at him for some reason as if he were a stranger. A stranger, because it was a different hare. He developed long ears and long hind legs. The hare, noticing the surprised looks of his friends, looked around himself. His gaze lingered on hind legs, for some reason they stretched out... And after touching his ears, he realized that the same thing had happened to them. And then, instead of words of gratitude, the hare began to shout at the wolf:

“What have you done to me, you gray toothy creature!” Who asked you to pull me out by the ears, you incredible beast! So that your tongue becomes just as long and doesn’t fit into your mouth? You are the scarecrow, not the wolf!

After such words, the wolf’s eyes sparkled, burning with hatred. He bared his sharp teeth and headed straight for the hare. The hare, seeing that an extremely unpleasant situation could happen now, backed away. And when the wolf jumped on him, the hare made such a noise, chirping that as he ran, he thought: “How good it turns out to be when you have such long hind legs!”

So to this day, the wolf chases the hare and cannot catch up with him. Because with legs as long as a hare’s, it’s not so easy to catch him!