The longevity male among birds, the two longest-lived birds on earth

In the history of our country for more than 5,000 years, there have been many animals, such as the ox, sheep, tiger and other cultural symbols in the Chinese zodiac, which have become an integral part of Chinese culture. In addition, many birds have also entered the poetry and paintings of ancient people, showing their unique beauty.

The two birds we are going to talk about today are the red-crowned crane and the short-tailed albatross. Among them, the red-crowned crane must be very familiar to everyone, but due to some messages from the public, many people still have misunderstandings about it. Today we will talk about the story!

The Misunderstood Red-crowned Crane

Among the totems of ancient Chinese culture, the red-crowned crane is undoubtedly the most popular one. Once, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty Zhao Ji used exquisite skills to create a painting called "Auspicious Crane", which has become one of the few treasures handed down from generation to generation, in which the red-crowned crane is the protagonist. And among ancient officials, only first-rank officials were qualified to embroider red-crowned cranes into official uniforms.

Not only in the court, the red-crowned crane also has a high status in folklore and some legends. It is often dubbed the "Crane", which shows the people's love for it. However, the red-crowned crane is a rare bird, and people don’t know much about it, so there are some misunderstandings about it.

The first misunderstanding is its name. The name here does not refer to "red-crowned crane", but the Latin literary name "Grus japonensis" in biological taxonomy, which translates to "foreign crane". I believe everyone is wondering. Obviously, most of the red-crowned cranes are distributed in my country. Why should they be named "foreign cranes"?

Time goes back to more than 300 years ago. At that time, the Qing government acted like a celestial state and implemented a policy of isolation from the country. Therefore, Western scholars could not enter our country to study local birds at that time.

So they could only go to the island country near our country - abroad, and find the red-crowned crane here, and finally connected the name of this bird with the birthplace of the sample. In this way, the scientific name of the red-crowned crane was permanently recorded as "foreign crane".

The second misunderstanding is the legend about red-crowned cranes and poison. In ancient times when people knew little about chemistry, arsenic was produced using relatively crude methods. Due to poor purification ability, a large amount of sulfide was mixed into it, making it red. It is precisely because of this that the ancients thought of the top of the red-crowned crane's head.

Taking the meaning of "the crane's top is beautiful and its blood is highly poisonous", and adding some artistic processing, we have the beautiful and highly poisonous "Heding Red". It has to be said that the phenomenal power of the ancients surpassed that of today's various Chinese masters, and they were able to describe a poison in such a poetic and picturesque way, which is amazing.

Perhaps the legend and image of red-crowned cranes are too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, which makes many people really think that the blood of red-crowned cranes is highly toxic, so it is necessary to explain that the blood of red-crowned cranes is not poisonous, but the poison is dioxygen trioxide containing impurities. .

After debunking the rumors, let’s take a closer look at the red-crowned crane. This bird is about 1.4 meters tall and has a wingspan of about two meters. In order to fly in the sky for a long time, the red-crowned crane weighs only about 10 kilograms and looks very light. The whole body is composed of red, black and white feathers, like a walking ink painting.

They are masters of long-distance flight and can easily fly over mountains of more than 5,000 meters at speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour. They like to migrate in groups, maintain flight formations by rotating positions, reduce physical exertion, and have a high IQ. At the same time, they are also one of the longest-lived birds, reaching 60 years old. If you really raise one, it will accompany you until you grow old!

The longevity star of the bird world—Short-tailed Albatross

Like the red-crowned crane, the short-tailed albatross has a very long lifespan, able to live up to 60 years. The short-tailed albatross is a typical large seabird that basically lives on the seaside. It doesn't like humans and ships. It usually makes its nest on the rocky walls of the island. Since the specific heat capacity of seawater is high, the temperature difference is not as large as in the mainland, so there is no need to migrate.

The short-tailed albatross' breeding season occurs around ten months a year. They like to live in groups and after mating, they will hatch their eggs together and take care of each other. Since the incubation period and the growth of young children are slow, the newly born short-tailed albatrosses have a defense method of vomiting gastric juice. After one year, the young birds can become truly fashionable and fly alone in the sky.

When an adult, the short-tailed albatross is nearly one meter tall, weighs over 9 kilograms, has a wingspan of 1.2 meters, has a snow-white body and gray-black wings, and looks like an angel. Its beak is 16 centimeters long, and its sharp toes can easily break through the defenses of most animals when flying at high speeds.

It is a pity that this year due to hunting and volcanic eruptions, the number of short-tailed albatross has dropped rapidly. When statistics were collected in 2009, the number was less than 3,000. It is a first-level protected animal in my country, and all species are included in the list. IUCN endangered species.

Summary

Both the red-crowned crane and the short-tailed albatross are mainly white in appearance, and both have very graceful bodies. Each has its own strengths. However, compared to the majestic short-tailed albatross, I still prefer the elegant red-crowned crane.

Which bird do you prefer?

animal tags： albatross seabird crane