Do Dogs Dream?
Ever wondered if dogs dream? If you have, you wouldn’t be the only one. Fascination with our pets often leads us to wonder about random, yet legitimate things. Lets take some time out from the serious topics and explore some interesting trivia.
The quest for answers (especially answers to questions like these) will never be over. Pets are a unique bunch with their special quirks. If you have been tuned in to the same frequency as us, you would have wondered …
Q: Do dogs dream?
A: In theory, any creature that has the ability to think and store memories should be able to manifest its thoughts and memories during sleep. This manifestation takes the form of dreams. Ever noticed your dog twitching or even whimpering while it is sleeping? Chances are, your dog has some visuals running though its head! Dreaming most often occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) rest. During this time, information and memories are being compacted and stored in the brain’s database, so, let your dog dream!
Q: Why do birds sing?
A: You wouldn’t be wrong if you think birds sing to communicate, but what exactly are they communicating? It would be easy to confuse birdcalls and bird songs as the same thing, but in fact, the messages being communicated are two different things. Usually, male birds do more singing. When they settle into a new territory, they sing to signal to other birds that the place belongs to them. They also sing to attract females. Birds can only understand the songs sung by other birds of the same kind.
Q: Is it true that dogs are colour blind?
A: Dogs can be thought of as colour blind, yet not colour blind at the same time. Perhaps a more suitable description would be ‘colour – limited’. Unlike us humans, dogs only have two colour receptors in their eyes (compared to our three). Their perception of colours is limited compared to ours. Dogs can only see certain colours such as violet, indigo, blue, yellow, and red. The colours of green, yellow and orange look similar to dogs, in addition, a blue/green shade will look like white to a dog.
Q: Do fishes sleep?
A: Have you ever looked at your motionless pet fish and wondered, ‘Is it sleeping?’ Who could blame you? Devoid of eyelids, can fishes actually sleep? The truth is, fishes don’t exactly sleep, theirs is more like a state of rest. Fishes go into an energy saving state of rest, different from the conventional idea of sleep in land creatures. Most of them will rest at the bottom of the tank or if in the wild, hide in reefs or crevices. Some fishes have to keep moving even when resting, this is to ensure that water continues to push through their gills to ensure they can continue breathing.
As mentioned earlier, the questions can go on and on, and new scientific discoveries and answers are being reported everyday. Now, who says pets are boring?
