A different mammal that excites you!

 

A mammal was introduced to me by its laughing voice! Hyena. It is a wolf-like animal that has high front legs and short hind legs. It has special teeth that can crush even bones of its prey! Apart from its laughing sound, it has many other sounds for communicating. It hunts in packs, often at night time (nocturnal). It can eat the carcasses of dead animals that are left out by the hunting animals. So, it is a scavenger of their forest territory in which they live in. It has an anal pouch that produces a white secretion with which it marks its territory on the grasses! Female hyenas are larger than the males in this kind of Spotted Hyenas (Crocuta crocuta, Kazhuthai puli in Tamil). Females dominate males. They have penis-shaped clitoris and a urogenital canal for copulating with male. Born cubs begin hunting in the first year of age itself! This hyena is said to be resistant to Rabies virus attack, as it has antibodies for that in its saliva! So a bite by an infected rabid animal cannot produce Rabies disease in it. There are many stories about this hyena – like taking away children sleeping on open grounds. This strange and different mammal, the Laughing Hyena, lives in a den that has many entrances on the ground, like that of mouse! 

Rabies, the Fatal Disease and the Vaccines that prevent it

The disease Rabies is infective. Usually a dog having this disease spreads it to man or other animals by its bites. Rarely domestic animals such as cattle, pigs, and cats and monkeys too can also spread it. When man goes for trekking or hunting in forests he may be bitten by wild animals such as fox, wolf, mongoose and bats, that may have been already infected, and get this disease.

The virus causing this disease attacks nerves and brain after entering the body through the bite wounds. As the disease cannot be cured and leads to death quickly, one has to prevent himself from acquiring it by getting himself and also his pet animals vaccinated against it before sustaining any such bite wound. Even after any unexpected bite, the Rabies can be prevented by getting vaccinated! (- but only after immediate washing the bite wounds with soap and water, and applying Povidone-Iodine ointment - for this removes and kills the virus instantly). By taking all these precautionary measures the Rabies can be avoided by all. The wonder vaccines used get all the credits as an incurable and fatal disease is prevented by them!