Hi, I’m Danielle and you’re watching Animalogic: Second Nature.
When Meany comes near there is always trouble. She shakes her horns at any animal in her way.
The lives of herbivores are dangerous and full of stress. Predators on the prowl, battles for their
role in society, and the constant search for food leave them little time to relax.
Luckily, some of them have evolved tools to make their lives a bit easier: headgear.
King could easily push his head through a fence or wall.
However the Buffalo in captivity have forgotten their wild ways and do not realize their strength.
Horns and antlers are super useful tools that started out as single
purpose structures and quickly became vital to the survival of their species.
Horns and antlers were originally weapons for males to fight other males with and to
this day that continues to be their main usage. But it has expanded to be sort
of a symbol of success and power for these males. Ungulates are the kings of horns and antlers.
Almost every species of ungulate has some sort of fighting apparatus on their head. Most large
species, like moose and water buffalo, have large headgear. While smaller species such as
vampire deer tend to have tusks or fangs instead. But how did they get so big? That’s a question
that we’re still looking for definitive answers to.
Growing up is a strange and exciting experience full of pleasure pain and wonder. During this
period size increases, but the body is out of proportion - head large, legs small.
One of the theories is that as primitive mammals got bigger, they began to use their head as a
weapon. Their head, of course, was also getting bigger and their skull started packing more of
a punch. During combat, animals would stand side by side and hit each other on the head
until one of them rolled over or gave up. Over time, thicker skulls and headgear
developed as tools to win these fights, either by wrestling like deer or ramming like bighorn sheep.
At the same time they became defensive weapons against predators.
Many thousands of years ago prehistoric ancestors were forced to protect themselves
against the larger animals, ven some of those that they later learned to use.
Lions had a new reason to worry about attacking a large buffalo. And lastly they became display
organs, when females began favouring males with larger horns or antlers.
Smaller ungulates tend to live in more dense forest, so it’s more
practical to have fangs than big headgear. When fighting in close quarters in the dark
it's easier to use a knife than a baseball bat. In more open environments headgear now has two
uses: one, to fight your enemies, and two, to win the fight before it even starts.
In fights, usually the bigger guy with the bigger horns or antlers wins. But even in winning
battles there’s a good chance of injuries. The best case scenario is to have headgear
so big that it intimidates your rivals and prevents them from wanting to fight.
This creates open societies where hierarchies can be established with very little fighting.
But enough of theory. Let’s take a look at some of the coolest horns and antlers
in the animal kingdom. First, the rammers.
The ibex has huge horns that can be up to 1 meter long. These mountain goats fight in
perilous conditions where a bad step can lead to a lethal stumble. If you’re an ibex in a fight,
what you really want is your rival to stumble down the mountain and never come back up.
Its cousin, the markhor, A.K.A the screwhorn, is also a mountain dweller and its fights consist
of getting the high ground and ramming its opponents down the hill. Males can weigh
over 100 kilograms and their horns can be up to 160 centimeters long.\
The North American bighorn sheep dwarfs the other rammers. Males, also known as rams,
can weigh up 230 kilograms, and their horns weigh as much as the rest of their bones combined. So,
it goes without saying, don’t get into a headbutting match with a ram.
Moving on to the wrestlers, we have pretty much all the bovines and the ungulates with antlers.
Despite the stereotype, bulls don’t chase after the colour red or ram anything that
moves. They actually prefer to grapple each other to the ground.
The giant eland has huge and tightly spiraled horns, which can be up to 120 cm long.
These African badasses have never been domesticated, as they’re too
strong and temperamental for people to handle.
If they can fight off a lion, they can probably fight off a cowboy.
Buffaloes are also a tasty but dangerous meal to predators. Though they’re relatively docile,
their horns are long and sharp and can easily gore predators to death.
Some species can weigh up to a ton, so this is not an animal you wanna wrestle.
Buffalo are not tame and do not make good pets,
they cannot be trusted because you never know what they will do.
Among domestic breeds, the coolest one is the Ankole Watusi, whose horns are about 1 meter
in circumference. They keep growing throughout their life and can get to over 2 meters long.
The two main differences between horns and antlers are that horns have a keratin sheath while antlers
are made entirely of bone. And also, horns are permanent, but antlers are shed every year.
Among the coolest antlers, we have the moose and the red deer.
Moose have palm-leaf shaped antlers. In some subspecies they can be up to
1.8 meters across. They help them show off their strength, fight predators and foes,
and possibly work as a parabolic antenna to help them hear better.
Each winter they shed their antlers, as they’re big, heavy, and radiate a lot of heat, so they’re
a major inconvenience. During the spring they start growing again at an incredible 20cm a week.
It’s one of the fastest growing animal tissues on Earth.
Red deer have twig-like antlers. They’re not as massive as moose’s at just over 1 meter long,
but they get a special mention for growing at about 2.5 centimeters a day. So,
they can grow their huge set in just over a month, just in time for the mating season.
Ungulates are not the only horned animals. Among reptiles,
there’s a number of predators with really impressive head gear.
Most desert horned vipers have horns, but not all of them. Even within one litter some are born with
horns and others with just a big brow. Nobody is sure why they have these structures, but they seem
to be for either eye protection, as camouflage, or as tools to break the outline of their heads.
Some chameleons, such as the Jackson chameleon and the four horned chameleon have horns,
which are apparently used to defend territory. Just like ungulates,
having big horns is a good signal that they’re not to mess with.
Finally we have insects. Though there are many species that have head protrusions I
want to focus on two of my favourite horn wrestlers.
Some large beetles such as the Atlas, Hercules, and rhino beetles have horns
as long as their whole body and they use them to wrestle challengers off branches.
These are some of the largest beetles in the world, and also the strongest fighters.
The rainbow scarab is one of the coolest looking beetles in the world.
They have an amazing iridescent metal sheen and a big ol horn to fight each other. If they look
a bit familiar it’s because we’ve talked about their family before. These are dung beetles,
and when they fight they usually fight for access to the freshest pile of poo.
Delightful!
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