The animal world is, of course, very huge and diverse. It beckons with its unknown and beauty. Very interesting domestic and wild animals for children. Kids, of course, need to be told about the life of animals, their habits and characteristics, about how they live in the wild. An important and very relevant issue is the proper maintenance of animals at home, as well as their role in our lives.
The world around us: domestic and wild animals
The world is huge and rich in various animals. Among them there are both cute domestic fluffies, which we have known since childhood, and angry wild predators. The life of pets is certainly interesting, but much more informative is the information about wild fauna, about which we know so little.
Most of the animals live in the forests. It is they who received the name - wild animals. Many of them are very dangerouspredators. And others are quite cute and harmless little animals that live in all corners of the globe. We can say that they are all united by one single goal - survival.
Pets
As you understand, pets are those animals that live next to a person. People support them, take care of them, giving them food and a home. Some varieties of pets bring very specific benefits to their owners. For example, they give food (milk, cottage cheese, meat, eggs), materials (leather, wool) or do work (guard, transport goods, help in agriculture). On the other hand, pets are friends who have long lived side by side with a person and share his home, helping to spend leisure time together.
For residents of megacities, pets are rather family members who are taken care of, played with, go on vacation. So the life of pets in urban environments is completely unrelated to bringing any benefit to humans. Rather, on the contrary, people care about the comfortable living of animals, which do not face the difficult task of obtaining food.
The role of pets in human life
It must be said that wild and domestic animals are quite different. Nevertheless, they all play an important role in human life. Let's start with pets, for example.
Their role in our lives depends on what tasks we set for ourselves, getting a pet for ourselves or for a child. Dogs usguard and are our friends. Cats and other fluffies are our favorites. We take them into the house for our own pleasure. Another thing, farm animals that are beneficial. These species include cows, camels, ponies, sheep, horses, pigs, oxen, goats and many others.
However, it would be unfair if we did not remember that absolutely all domestic animals originated from wild ones. But in the course of his purposeful activity, a person selected among them the best specimens with the necessary characteristics, until he achieved the breeding of certain agricultural breeds. Such pets are usually kept in special buildings (cowsheds, chicken coops, pigsties, stables, sheds, aviaries). As a rule, their productivity depends on how well they are looked after and fed.
Wild and domestic animals are very different in nutrition. Unlike domestic animals, wild animals each time have to take care of their "lunch" on their own. Agricultural species are on the full content of man. However, even such breeds are bred by people not only for good, but also for pleasure. For example, horses are purchased for equestrian sport and riding, rabbits are used for decorative purposes.
Historical digression
Tame pets began ten to fifteen thousand years ago, at a time when people began to move to a settled way of life and agriculture. After the hunt, the wounded, weak individuals, lagging behind, were often killed.from the herd. Such animals remained close to the people who looked after them, providing protection and food. And they, in turn, gave food. It also happened that wolf cubs that grew up near human settlements got used to it so much that they stayed with people forever and even went hunting with them. So gradually a person acquired pets, which later began to benefit him.
Tame the beasts was not easy. After all, once at home, a person kept antelopes, cheetahs, cranes, tours, wild boars, mouflons and argali. People looked after them and looked after them. Animals gradually changed. Of course, the process was very long.
Wild Animals
Wild animals live in the wild. Unlike domestic species, no one takes care of them. They get their own food, protect themselves, breed and raise their offspring. Of course, such a life is much more difficult and more dangerous. It is necessary to fight daily for survival. Comparison of wild and domestic animals in this sense is hardly possible, their living conditions are so different.
Wild animals are very diverse, there are a large number of them around the world. Let us give an example of just some of them: bears, foxes, lynxes, elks, hares, seals, horses, lions, tigers, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes. You just can't count them all.
Life of wild animals in winter
Wild animals especially suffer in winter. During this period, they have a rather difficult time. This is due, first of all, to the fact that it is becoming muchthere is less food, and it is more difficult to get it when the ground is covered with a thick layer of ice and snow. Of course, all animals are adapted to such natural conditions. Nevertheless, it is still very difficult for them at times to survive. In winter, some animals change their coat color (foxes and hares), others hibernate, like badgers and bears, and others make supplies for the cold period, like squirrels. Everyone prepares for the arrival of cold weather in their own way.
Wild animals live very differently in winter. Some are saved by food supplies and warm houses (squirrels), others sleep, spending summer fat reserves (bears), and still others get food even in cold weather.
The importance of wild animals in people's lives
Wild and domestic animals clearly benefit people. We have already discussed the role of domestic species earlier. Let's talk about wild animals now.
I must say that they are also useful for us, because they give us:
- Food. In many regions of the world, the meat of wild animals is used for food. The fact is that wild representatives of the animal world are more adapted to life, which means they are more productive. For example, wild boars, roe deer, hares, beavers, muskrats, foxes, wolves and many others can be attributed to hunting species. Don't forget the fish and birds. Fishing is generally widely used by people. In addition to breeding fish in specialized farms, they are engaged in catching in the seas, rivers and oceans.
- Leather and fur. Wild animals are the source of beautiful natural fur. They cannot be replaced by artificial products either in terms of warmth orby beauty. There are also special farms where such representatives of wild species as fox, muskrat, rabbit, arctic fox are grown for fur. All of them are valued for beautiful and warm fur. And the number of animals in the wild is not able to provide us with the necessary skins. Therefore, people began to breed some species in artificial conditions.
- Medicinal and perfumery substances used in pharmaceuticals and perfumery.
Besides, wild animals in any case remain, so to speak, the gene pool of animal husbandry. By crossing them with domestic species, you can get new breeds with better performance.
People use animals to fight the pollution of nature. Animals act as a kind of indicators. It's no secret that animals are very sensitive to the slightest changes in the environment, which means that their behavior can be used to judge environmental pollution.
In addition, animals help people in search of certain types of minerals, weather forecasting and earthquakes. Many examples can be given. Absolutely all animals know in advance about the upcoming earthquake. Fish and jellyfish, for example, can sense the approach of a storm.
And do not forget that animals are carriers of plant seeds in nature. And this is very important in the cycle of biological processes.
Wild pets
Increasing rates of urbanization have led to the fact that people have more and more desire to communicate with wildlife. If a hundredyears ago it was customary to keep only cats and dogs at home, but now hamsters, hares, jerboas, chinchillas, otters, monkeys, hedgehogs and many other representatives of the wild are in fashion. The project "Wild Domestic Animals" has been sufficiently implemented. In fact, many wild animals began to live in our homes as if they were pets. And it no longer seems something unusual and exotic. Of course, these are not quite the species that exist in the wild. After all, some of them were subject to crossbreeding to produce the best breeds. However, these are not the same pets that lived next to a person before.
Instead of afterword
Wild and domestic animals play a big role in the life of mankind. In our article, we have given only some examples of the usefulness and necessity of animals. In fact, the scope of their influence on our lives is much larger. It’s just that we don’t always think about it and sometimes cause irreparable damage to nature with our actions.
