According to DigoPaul, an animal is a living being that can move on its own. In general, the denomination includes the members of the kingdom known as Animalia.
There are various characteristics shared by most animals, even with their differences. Animals eat food, develop sexual reproduction, and absorb oxygen through respiration. These are just a few basic characteristics but of course animals can be very different from each other.
Although animals eat their food (and do not absorb it, unlike other living things), they can be differentiated according to the type of feeding. There are carnivorous animals (that eat the meat of other animals), herbivores (that eat plant species) and omnivores (that eat meat and plants). On the other hand, although the members of the Animalia kingdom breathe and consume oxygen, some do so on the earth’s surface and others underwater. With these details, we can see how the group of animals is very wide and includes the most diverse species, from elephants to sharks to rats, owls and mosquitoes.
Within the Animalia kingdom the human being (Homo sapiens) is included. To establish a more precise definition, the name of animals is often used to refer to the rest of the species, which many consider irrational.
When a person is classified as an animal, it is generally meant to express that the individual is a matter of being uncivilized, uneducated and with a bestial behavior, which shows the contempt that human beings tend to feel for the rest of the species. For example: “Rafael is an animal, he always wants to solve his problems by hitting him. ”
Animal, as an adjective, can also be used to name someone with extraordinary characteristics: “Lionel Messi once again proved that he is an animal and scored, again, four goals in the match. ”
False myths about animals
Lemmings commit suicide
This myth gained much strength thanks to the popularity of the video game titled “Lemmings”, in which the player’s mission was to do everything possible to avoid their death, towards which they were marching without apparent concern. The origin of this false claim is believed to lie in a Walt Disney documentary ‘White Wilderness’, published in 1958, although the alleged suicidal behavior of lemmings had been mentioned in a children’s encyclopedia in the United Kingdom half a century earlier.
Mice are fascinated by cheese
Despite the fact that cartoons and many animated films or even with real actors tirelessly repeat that mice are addicted to cheese, in reality they prefer foods such as fruit or grain, which have a certain concentration of sugar. As if this were not enough, given its sharp nose, the intense smell of cheese is often repellent.
Fish don’t have a good memory
It is common to hear that fish can only hold a memory for less than 5 seconds, although this is not true: according to some studies, their memory can last for several months.
Animals do not think or feel
Anyone who has lived with an animal, such as a dog or a cat, and who has given them their space to develop healthy, without subjecting them to training techniques, knows that there is nothing more out of the truth than the statement that places us as the only rational beings and capable of caring. The other animals have their own will, make decisions, learn from their experience, cross all imaginable barriers to understand each other and make themselves understood, and they express to us more love than we generally know how to return.
