There are many animals that, although seemingly known, still arouse a great interest in the scientific world, as well as in people not professionally related to zoology. Undoubtedly, the mysterious giants inhabiting the mountain streams of China and Japan to this day belong to this group. Giant salamanders, the biggest among contemporary amphibians, can reach up to 180 cm of body length and almost 30 kg of body weight.
We used to treat myths and stories about supernatural powers as fairy tales, which were an inseparable part of our childhood. It would be difficult to imagine that the medieval superstition would survive to this day and, what is more, a deep faith in it will contribute to almost total extermination of one of the most beautiful bird species of prey that occur on the globe.
The first spring image are catkins and emerging flowers. In the spring Easter tradition, Easter eggs are an inseparable symbol of the reviving life. Various cultures have created their own ways of decorating Easter eggs; among others in Greece crimson-coloured eggs symbolize the blood of Christ, in some regions of Germany and Austria the green-coloured eggs symbolize Maundy Thursday. In Poland Easter eggs are a huge variety of designs and colours, and each region tries to outdo others in decorating Easter eggs.
From the dawn of time the world of animals has aroused deep emotions in human beings. Fear, horror, disgust, curiosity, sympathy, admiration and also friendship and love revealed by man in dealing with animals are an expression of our - more or less - conscious excitement with "smaller brothers".
Once zoos were treated only as places where you could see wild beasts from the jungle. Up to this day, in the oldest zoological gardens, there are cages which used to be deliberately adapted to "irritate the beast", which was an additional attraction for crowds. In the Wroclaw ZOO you can see the nineteenth-century cages for bears with cloisters over them from which the audience could stab predators with several meters long sticks.
A red-crowned crane /Grus japonensis/ also called a Japanese Crane, is a symbol of the disappearing nature of the Far East. An unusual, beautifully coloured bird forms two isolated populations - one that is constantly on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the other one spread in north-eastern China, eastern Russia and Mongolia, wandering to wintering grounds to eastern China and Korea. It reaches from 220 to 250 cm wingspan, body weight up to 10 kg, height over 150 cm.
Killing of seals was lavishly rewarded not so long ago. In Pomerania at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, huge prizes were awarded for killing each seal, and as the evidence the hunter presented the jaw of the seal . And then carefree environmental pollution completed the rest of the destruction. As a result of such behaviour in 1970 and 1980 the population of all species of seals in the Baltic Sea was alarmingly low. The magnificent Baltic mammal was lost due to the bad opinion that has accompanied it for generations. Fishermen, convinced of high harmfulness of seals, treated them as a competitor hunting for fish which was the basis for their maintenance.