Let’s see a show of hands, Pandas: how many of you love animals? Uh-huh, uh-huh, it’s just as we suspected—a whopping 159% of you are huge fans of the animal kingdom! Whether it’s cats, dogs, rabbits, or horses, we know for a fact that they matter to you just as much (and sometimes even more than) other people. But just how much do we really know about the animal kingdom?
When you start digging deeper, you realize that other living beings can be just as weird, if not weirder than, people themselves. Odd behaviors, character quirks, and peculiar instincts make for a better story than some of the fiction novels we’ve seen coming out in recent years. So today we’ll be diving headfirst into the world of obscure animal facts, courtesy of the knowledgeable trivia and biology experts over on r/AskReddit.
Check out the coolest facts below, upvote the ones that you didn’t know, and let us know in the comments if you’ve got some other interesting tidbits to share with the class. Oh, and you should definitely consider dropping some of these tasty info morsels at the next dinner party you go to—there’s nothing like bragging to your fellow Ravenclaws to make you seem like the next Attenborough. (Just remember to keep flapping your arms like a fashion chicken as you recite what you know.)
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Crows recognize individual people even if they are wearing disguises and after many years. (The people are wearing disguises, not the crows.)
You probably have and just didn’t recognise it
Load More Replies...That clarification is much appreciated. I don't wish to see my crows flaunt deer hunters and staches one fine morning when I'm late to feed them!
My dream is to befriend some crows and collect the little random treasures they bring.
I would love to make a crow friend! They bring you cool shiny things and have good conversation. "Caw" -My future crow buddy
Yes, in fact it has. Researchers wearing full masks abducted and then later set free some crows. Not only did those crows later avoid them and harass them, but they got other crows outside their immediate family to do the same. Many years later they put back on the mask to see what would happen and walked around in it. The crows remembered that was the 'danger person' even after all that time. Pretty cool!
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All the deep sea anglerfish you see pictures of with the lil lights hanging over their heads? They're all female.
The males are tiny and born with a terribly weak jaw and a massive hunger. They seek out a female, and torn between hungry and horny they bite her.
She then releases an enzyme that fuses the male to her body. She slowly absorbs them into her body with only their lil testicles remaining so she can instantly fertilize her eggs when she wants to.
Some females have rows and rows of lil testicles on their bodies from where they have absorbed multiple males.
And you thought your sex life was weird, eh?
But no kink shaming.
I think I remember watching a show on Discovery where for the longest time a particular species of Angler was thought to reproduce asexually because no one could find the males (biologists were thinking the male would be similar in size or larger) Eventually they realized that those tiny little fish fused all over the female Angler's body were the males. Nature is so incredible. 😊
Though apparently it's only a few species of anglerfish where this occurs. The rest have a more average sexual dichotomy.
'Only a few' is already too many for me to absorb this knowledge while drinking my morning coffee.
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Sloths are literally too lazy to go looking for a mate, so a female sloth will often sit in a tree and scream until a male hears her and decides to mate with her
I have been applying this strategy too. Not particularly successful so far, I must add.
It might be the tree-part that is the problem. Maybe try it on a park-bench. ;-)
Load More Replies...For some reason sitting and screaming doesn't seem to work quite as well for humans. Doesn't even get a sibling to bring me the tv remote :(
Maybe learn a few telekinetic spells(including one for channel-changing), and scare the sibling into being nice. Idk-just a thought.
Load More Replies...Why can’t this be more socially acceptable? Way easier than dating someone, cuz I probably can scream the loudest out of anyone. Honestly.
Steven Wooding, from the Institute of Physics in the UK, recently shared with Bored Panda a cool animal fact that he thinks others should know, too.
“Crows are the Einsteins of the bird world. Expert at solving puzzles, and they can even recognize your face. They will actively avoid individuals who have been aggressive toward them in the past," he told us that we should never underestimate crows. Ca-caw indeed.
Female dragonflies will fake being dead in order to stop unwanted male advances.
In some species of animal, being dead does not stop unwanted male advances. I am looking at you ducks!
The story briefly - Horny male duck A, chased male duck B in to a window. Duck B dies, undeterred duck A performes homosexual necrophilia on duck B. Kinky scientist watches whole thing with a raging D, spends X amount of time writing a paper on his experience. Everyone ridiculed him for wasting his time, as no one gives a flying F.
Load More Replies...I often do this myself. If some guy catcalls me while I'm out in public I just lie down in the street and pretend to die. It usually works, but not always. :)
And that's the story of why the grown-ups don't want us to see Auntie/Uncle/(I need a gender-neutral term for this sibling-of-my-parent thing)!
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The chemical compound which is used to make fake banana flavour is the same compound honey bees use as an alarm pheromone. So never eat banana sweets near a beehive, and if you suddenly smell banana near a beehive, run!
And beware, this compound is very often used in parfumes:) So no fancy Channel, if you planning to visit your bees. (And no alcohol, they hate it.)
Load More Replies...I knew this about wasps but didn't know bees were the same, that's cool. A man entered a record shop and said to the owner "I'm the world's top expert on wasps and I'd like to listen to the record about wasps that you have in the window. The owner said of course and took the man to a listening booth. A few seconds later, the man storms out, declaring again that he was the world's number one expert on wasps and those were definitely not wasps. The owner apologises, says perhaps it was a rare wasp that he hadn’t heard of before and he’ll have look to see if the record has been put in the wrong sleeve, but the man was so incensed he kept shouting at the owner saying he was an imbecile and how dare he treat the world’s top wasp expert so disrespectfully! The owner took him back to the listening booth looked at the record and says “Sir, you’ve been listening to the Bee side.”
They're so important. The loss of pollinators over the past few decades is a tragedy on a global scale. Also, bees are really cute when the dance. I really hope bee populations can be rehabilitated... in part, because we will probably experience a mass human die off if that doesn't happen.
I once learned that lemon balm (Melissa Officinalis) has the same chemical compound as a bee pheromone that tells them a location is a good place to live. So rubbing lemon balm near a hive will encourage them to accept it as their home. "Melissa" means "bee".
I find it fascinating when the same chemical compounds show up all over in nature. Like cyanide being in almonds (amaretto scent) but also in apple pips, centipedes and wheel bugs. Or coumarin being in cinnamon, alfalfa, clover, and sweet grass. I want more examples of this!
Load More Replies...So you mean that smell doesn't mean they're handing out free banana lollies? Dang it
Isoamylacetate, the room smelled of bananas for a week, still can't stand the smell.
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FACT: Dolphins have "bromances" in
which two males pair up for as long as 15 years and help each other hook up with females.
Meanwhile, Dr. John W. Wilkinson, from the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation charity in the UK, told Bored Panda that learning about animals can help inspire us to protect them. He said that people sharing photos of animals can create a deeper interest in them and their conservation. So long as the wildlife doesn’t get disturbed too much.
If you happen to have a garden, one way that you can help your local amphibians and reptiles (we hear they’re very polite) is by building a garden pond for them. That and not using chemicals are two ways that you can really help out the life growing in your garden.
Tarantulas have pet frogs. The frogs eat bugs and parasites that would damage the spider’s eggs, and in turn the spider protects the frog. Even after the eggs hatch they continue to protect the frog.
Dogs can help transport people in the snow, heard sheep, narc on your friend holding a dime bag, sniff out explosives, be guide dogs, emotional support dogs. Plenty of dogs help humans and we still consider them pets.
The binturong, also known as the bearcat, is an arboreal mammal closely related to the red panda. It smells like popcorn!
My obscure fact about it is that captive binturong are capable of holding grudges, and will climb above people they dislike in order to s**t on their heads.
They release the pheromones that smell like popcorn into the air. In the Night Safari in Singapore, where I had seen them, you can smell them before you get to the binturong enclosure itself.
Load More Replies...Exactly my thought. I'm surprise you don't have more upvotes yet.
Load More Replies...This beast is native to my country. The villager afraid of this creature for they eat their chicken in ninja fashion. Some ghost case is actually their act
Did this happen to the person with the interesting fact? -otherwise how do you know??!
In Africa certain tribes communicate directly with birds called Honeyguides letting them know they are ready to hunt. The honey guides then lead them to hidden beehives in trees. The tribesmen break open the hives and take the honey( an important resource in their diet) and leave the honeyguides the bee larva and wax to feast on. In fact, it’s the only known example of targeted two-way signals between people and a free-living species.
Yes, they guide the honey badger, or ratel, to the bee colony, the badger rips it apart to get to the honey, and the birds eat the exposed larvae.
Load More Replies...Importantly, if you don’t leave anything for the Honeyguides, they will then lead to you to predator. They’ve been known to lead humans and honey badgers to lions. So always make sure you pay them!!
This is really hilarious if it's true (with apologies to anyone who's actually been mauled by a lion for screwing over a honeyguide as the punishment does seem a bit harsh).
Load More Replies...Fun fact: Do you know Africa has 54 countries and more than 300 tribes. At least specify the country.
Looks like there are many species in both temperate and tropical climates south of the Sahara.
Load More Replies...Where we live in Texas wild birds help with bug populations. My sister had a wild mockingbird bird that would eat any grub worms she found while gardening. I had a wild robin that would follow me mowing the lawn to eat bugs that flew up. She also ate little snakes that hoeing the ground stirred up.
The falcons are captive though. Or at least, captured young and hand-raised.
Load More Replies..."In a small garden, even an upturned dustbin lid or bowl will provide a place for animals to drink," Dr. Wilkinson explained to us that if space is an issue, even something as small as this can help. If you have more space, you can make a compost heap or build a log pile.
"Climate change can be a very negative factor for frogs, toads, and newts. Ponds can dry up too quickly, meaning their tadpoles don’t have enough time to develop. Also, warmer winters affect hibernating frogs. They use more energy during hibernation and partially wake up, meaning they are in poorer condition for breeding. This is particularly hard on the females who put a lot of energy into making eggs (spawn)," the wildlife expert stressed that climate change is having a massive impact on local critters.
When caterpillars enter the chrysalis phase, they don’t just sprout wings, their entire body first turns into a liquid, soupy substance which then reforms into the butterfly.
A comment from Reddit: The real crazy fact is that despite liquifying and then reforming as a butterfly they retain memories from when they were a caterpillar.
I'd love to know how scientists figured out that butterflies retain memories of being caterpillars.
Load More Replies...How many other species did they test for reassembly after liquefying?
Load More Replies...That liquid sloshing you hear? That’s just my brain trying to leak out my ears.
Yeah, their stomach digests them, their dna shifts, and the soupy mess morphs into a butterfly. I can never look at a butterfly the way I did when I was little
Roosters deafen themselves temporarily every time they crow, so that they don’t damage their own hearing.
Oooh! So its ok for the twat to give me mini heart attacks every morning from my bedroom window while he casually uses his internal earplugs?!!
No, but he’s a mothercocker and does it anyway. Poultry has zero ducks to give about human comfort.
Load More Replies...They actually have a mechanism in their ear canal, and whenever they crow, their eardrum gets covered by a fleshy flap to protect them so they don't go deaf.
We all know an octopus has 8 legs.
It also has 3 hearts and 9 brains, and it can fit itself through a hole the size of a quarter.
Each tentacle contains grey (brain) matter. Each one literally thinks for itself, while the central brain does the legwork where it comes to coordination. They are basically aliens. And very smart ones. Be nice to octopuses.
..the central brain does the legwork. Bah dum tissh! 😁
Load More Replies...Also: Octopuses have blue blood. To survive in the deep ocean, octopuses evolved a copper rather than iron-based blood called hemocyanin, which turns its blood blue. This copper base is more efficient at transporting oxygen than hemoglobin when the water temperature is very low and not much oxygen is around.
I knew they had blue blood but not why so thank you for the additional info!
Load More Replies...Yes!! I watched this! It was unbelievable! I cried my eyes out!
Load More Replies...There's a great book called "The Soul of an Octopus," by a highly regarded science writer named Sy (Sylvia) Montgomery.
Some scientists have postulated they aren't native to this planet...that is how alien they are. Don't tell them I said that.
A sperm whale call is so loud the sound waves could kill a human if they swam close to the whale.
Apparently some divers said they could feel the water heat up from the energy of the sound.
I'm pretty sure that when provoked, my wife could kill a human with her voice.
Dude... Did you just call your wife a whale?! Don't let her see this comment!
Load More Replies...Check out this amazing GoPro footage where you can move the video around! You can hear the whale calf and see other whales sleeping vertically! https://youtu.be/qIXT-hzWhiw
Woodpecker tongues wrap around the back of their brains. This helps the brain stay protected during high speed pecking.
I have a male great spotted woodpecker called Mister Chips who comes by between 6am and 8am and 7pm to 9pm. You can set your clock by him. He cheeps his little heart out when he is on the feeders. He lives in a tree near by so I can hear him cheeping away. Also as he flies from his nest to the feeders he makes some noise too so you can hear him coming. I love Mister Chips <3
So if birds are dinosaur decendants, does that mean that a 10 ton woodpecker once roamed the land?
This has nothing to do with protecting the brain and everything to do with needing a long tongue to reach insect larvae. Their tongues are barbed. The shape and density of the skull is what protects their brains.
Neither did I, but that's why I'm here, to learn weird s**t about animals
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Hippos sweat is red.
I thought they use mud, like pigs or elephants???
Load More Replies...Bloodsweat. I've pet a hippo and that stuff is nasty. But it's worth it to pet a chonky amphibious cow.
Not exactly. Not sweat ...read more here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-hippopotamuses-actuall
That is just the red dripping into it. Hippo milk is white.
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The spines on a Tiger's tongue are sharp enough to lick skin clean off of muscle.
And if neutered their spikes will be thinner and shorter (same as the spikes on their ding dong)
Muscle off of bone. All cats have sandpapery like tongues for striping the meat off of the bones of their kills/meals
All halibut are male until they reach 45 inches in length. They then all become female.
It’s telling that this comment gets 80+ Upvotes gets “JP”’s comment “demoted” gets, currently 8, downvotes. I don’t have a particular point other than it’s an interesting look at the BP demographic.
Load More Replies...Yes. They hatch looking like normal fish hatchlings.
Load More Replies...Not the only fish that changes gender. Clown fish, too, and I bet there are many more.
Human reproductive organs are developed from the same basic structure. How they develop in the womb depends on the hormones that are produced. So it's not too crazy to imagine that some species would be able to change their reproductive organs when they start producing different hormones at a certain moment in life.
Load More Replies...I love it when their eyes begin to migrate to one side of their head! Creepy but entertaining!
There is a genus of frog called "Mini". There are only three frogs in the genus, and their scientific names are all puns: Mini mum, Mini ature and Mini scule.
I love scientists. So many funy and messed up names of things just because they felt like it 🤣 I found it I get to name it whatever I want
Yeah, or you develop it and name it, then. The right is well earned beyond doubt.
Load More Replies...At first I read that as “There is a genius frog” and I thought well good for him
Chickens will come say goodbye to each other when one is dying and they do soft clicks and will then leave and that chicken will normally die alone. Some chickens also will kill another chicken because they sense something’s wrong with the chicken, a disease for example. Hope u enjoyed these facts I found them in a book called How To Speak Chicken.
They will also absolutely eat dead chickens. They are tiny dinosaurs, after all.
And yet, I have one hen who is really not very well at all (vet can't work out what's wrong) and the others treat her with respect. They keep her warm at night and never harm her. So it doesn't always happen that hens will kill sick hens.
It is probably not contagious, so maybe the instinct doesn't kick in? But I don't know, I was just thinking this when I read it.
Load More Replies...I just love the commercials..."we feed a vegetarian diet to our chickens"... Uh, dude, chickens aren't vegetarians. First off, they eat bugs. Second, they love mice! Do those big farms not wonder why their barns are free of mice?
Imagine all the soft clicks of chicken in a slaughter house, saying goodbye to each other........ that breaks my heart
Reminds me of the scene in Galaxy Quest with the aliens. One of them was limping to get some water with a busted up leg. At first, the others were looking sympathetic, then they attacked and ate him.
Reading this I'm gonna say all politicians know How To Speak Chicken
Idk how obscure it is but the average lifespan for a squirrel is 16 years which is a lot longer than I would have ever thought
Imma come back as a squirrel. EDIT: Not because of this fact but because I like squirrels.
For that to be the average and considering how many squirrels don't make it nearly that long there must be some really old squirrels out there
And I've got a tribe of them eating my tulip bulbs every year....wish they'd move.
It is surprising to me too, since small animals have short lifespans as a generel rule, and a squirrel is certainly a small animal.
Every once in awhile, an emperor penguin will do something very strange. Most of them will never do this, but the ones who do have stumped scientists for awhile now.
Every once in awhile, a penguin will turn away from its colony and start heading for the interior of the continent (Antarctica). Away from the food, the water, the safety of the colony. Off alone towards certain death. Almost like zombies. In the past, scientists would try to stop them. Or take them back to the colony. At which point, they'd simply turn around and begin their journey again, in the same direction, toward the same end. Some would even get violent if they were met with intervention.
The prevailing thought is that this penguin is depressed and is committing suicide in a very non-altruistic manner. But nobody knows for sure. There are a lot of possible explanations for this (including the possibility of a fungal infection similar to the cordyceps infection that can cause some colony insects to behave in exactly the same way, potential signs of brain tumors or other medical conditions that the birds are exposed to) It's well known that birds can experience depression or anxiety, but they tend to respond to this in very immediate ways, such as by over-preening (pulling out their own feathers), screaming, or being unusually quiet, loss of appetite, etc. (Bird anorexia is a MAJOR thing) These activities are signs of redirecting stress, while wandering off into the abyss of an unforgiving frozen continent implies the ability to analyze and think ahead in a way that most birds really don't seem to be able to do. So the reason may not be as immediately obvious as you might think.
From what I know, no autopsies have been performed on these rogue penguins. Most likely because the conditions are too harsh to hunt their corpses down. But until one is performed, we really have zero idea why they do this. And yet they do. And the behaviour is common enough that it's been documented multiple times.
Ok I am now very creeped out and slightly depressed myself. Penguins being depressed makes me depressed.
And you being depressed that penguins can be depressed makes me depressed
Load More Replies...There was a Danish band called Nice Little Penguins.
Load More Replies...Interesting fact: autopsies performed on animals are called necropsies
Which makes you wonder what makes us so "auto"
Load More Replies...Well if it’s not depression maybe they realize they have a terminal disease or a contagious one and decide to isolate and die to keep the others safe. 🤷🏼♀️
Maybe they found whatever the Nazi's were looking for. Partying in some under ice city or somethin
Platypus' glow teal under a UV light, so Perry the Platypus is actually the correct color.
Because platypi are usually brown (except when under a UV light)
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Snakes don't have eyelids. If you see a snake blink, that's a legless lizard.
Technically they do have eyelids transformed into special type of transparent scales and their eyes are permanently sealed. Snake molt it's skin along with the eyelids. If you ever see a sheded snake skin notice that there are no holes in place of the eyes.
Totally correct! We find a number of shedded snakeskins around where we live every year, small ones around 30 cm to large ones around 240 cm and the head is always complete, inclusive the skin where the eyes are. What's also fun to know, is that shedded snakeskin is actually quite firm too, it doesn't rip easily.
Load More Replies...Hold up lemme take a closer look at this thing to see if it blinks. Lol.
Yes I was wondering which kind it was. I want to see more pictures of this beauty or others of its species.
Load More Replies...Neither do fish. That's why you have to turn your aquarium light off at night.
I knew this at age 7 my dad told me because he seen a snake and told me it was asleep but I said it eyes where open he said that how they sleep.it was a copperhead.
Vultures urinate on their legs and feet to cool off on hot days, a process called urohydrosis. Their urine also helps kill any bacteria or parasites they’ve picked up from walking through carcasses or perching on dead animals.
Everyone urinates on a vulture's legs? What sort of parties do you go to?
Load More Replies...Ok people, that does NOT mean start peeing on people when it's hot claiming to be doing a good service!
They will also regurgitate partially digested food at things they consider predatory.
So does this mean that if I see someone who is hot I can pee on them to cool them down? ;)
Doesn't work the other way around. The momentary warmth is not worth the nappy rash. Don't ask me how I know, I'll lie.
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Sharks are older than Dinosaurs, Trees, and *the Rings of Saturn*.
Sharks are old as f**k.
... I hate you so much! xD Whelp, time to have this in my head for the next two weeks again!
Load More Replies...And yet in such a short span of time we humans have almost completely annihilated them!
And yet, humans are doing a damned good job of wiping them out, cuz we are just a plague upon this Earth.
Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa shark doo doo do-doo
Not they are not! Their shark-like ancestors lived before dinosaurs.
Cannot be quite true. The Rings of Saturn are about the same age as the earth itself.
To cross a river Armadillos can either sink to the bottom and crawl across since they can hold their breath for 7 minutes or they can inflate their intestines and use them as a flotation device to float.
*Laurence Fishbourne reveals pills mysteriously*
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Mine are all whale related:
* Whale milk is so fatty that it has the consistency of toothpaste...
* ...this enables blue whale calves to grow at a rate of approximately 10lbs per hour
* Whales are the loudest animals on the planet - humpback whale songs can be heard 10,000 miles away
* Whales are the longest lived mammals on the planet - in 2007, a deadbowhead whale was found in Alaska with a 19th century harpoon embeddedin its flesh, making the animal at least 130 years old at the time ofits death
* The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever lived on earth - far larger than any prehistoric animal discovered to date
In 2010 the world oldest (so fare) recorded whale, strande in Denmark. A fimback whale nearly 140 years old. https://whalesandmarinefauna.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/vejle-whale-over-century-old-denmark/
Fourth isn't true. Greenlandsharks are the longest lived vertebrates with an estimated lifespan of 250-500 years.
I've seen a picture of a Blue Whale's heart - the damn thing was the size of a smartcar.
There are multiple dinosaurs estimated to be around 30 meters or more, which is bigger than a blue whale at 29.5.
The vast majority of Greenland sharks are blind thanks to a special parasite that eats their eyes and replaces them.
It is thought that this might actually be helpful because a) their eyesight was s**t anyway, b) the parasites wave like lures and may have an anglerfish-like effect, and c) the sharks are super slow so that might be one of the few ways for them to catch live prey.
Imagine something eating your eyeballs and it being an *upgrade*.
That's just as creepy as the parasitic creature that eats a fish's tongue then replaces it.
They do not need to see anything in that muddy water. I heard that before or read it in some animal magazine.
Penguins have a gland above their eye that converts saltwater into freshwater
Actually it excretes salt to ensure the penguin blood stays at the correct concentration.
Me too. Apparently, I am allergic to my own tears.
Load More Replies...also the word for penguin in an east-Asian language (not sure which one, sorry) is the words for 'business' and 'goose' next to each other. So penguin = business goose
We'd all have to live by the sea although this may be sooner rather than later for some.
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A kangaroo will mate again one to three days after giving birth. the newborn will latch onto a teat in the pouch and as long as it thrives, the kangaroo can put its newly fertilized embryo in a state of dormancy and have a back up baby ready to go. if the newborn grows out of the pouch or dies, the kangaroos hormones will send signals to start the development of the egg. so they can have an adolescent Joey, a nursing one, and one in stasis all at the same time.
And they can produce two different milks at the same time (one in each nipple) depending on the age of the young suckling
When they’re born they’re about the size of a jellybean. They then climb up their mothers fur and into the pouch.
to quote a dude on a site where there was a picture of all a woman's kids, none of which were more than a year older or younger than their closest siblings: 'just because you got ink doesnt mean you should print'
“Sheila, what’s that lump in your pocket?” “Oh, that’s just my backup baby.”
There are more people who die each year because a coconut fell on their head than people who die in shark attacks.
I love this fact.
As someone on a tropical island...yes, coconuts are an ever present danger.
...and that's why you never sleep under a coconut tree. Same goes for Eucalyptus trees too; their branches are designed to fall off.
A beaver's a*s smells like icecream.
Castoreum, the product of those anal glands, was once used as a flavor substitute for vanilla. It’s now only used in perfume and a style of Swedish schnapps called Bäverhojt, or “beaver shout.”
Worst job in history, milking beavers' a**l glands. Put that on your CV and confuse potential employers.
Along with ball squeezer at a Swiss yodeling school.
Load More Replies...pretty sure it can be used as a preservative somehow too and would just fall under "Natural Flavor" on the ingredients list
In German that scent is called "Bibergeil", it was one reason why beavers were hunted for hundreds of years, others were their fur and the fact that in the fasting time people declared them (and otters) as fish.
Turtles can breathe through their butts
That's a tortoise though...... but this process is called "cloacal respiration" ... turtles don't technically have Butts. They have a cloaca. Which is a singular hole that is attached to its urinary & digestive track. But cloacal respiration only happens when they're hibernating. It's also not technically breathing. And Not all turtles do this though. What happens is they actually take in water thru their cloaca & that is then pulled into a set of organs called the "bursae" & they function in the same way out lungs do. They actually filter out the oxygen from the water & they then rid themselves of the excess hydrogen. The oxygen is then filtered thru tissue & into the bloodstream where it is dispersed into the rest of the body. So this whole entry is just a mess. Lol. TL;DR That is not a turtle in the photo. Turtles don't have butts they have cloaca's. This process is called cloacal respiration. Not all turtles do this. They aren't technically breathing.
That's OK... there are a lot of people who talk out of theirs...
Pacu fish have teeth that look exactly like people’s. They evolved to chew nuts that fell into the water.
Well I know where my next pair of fake teeth are coming from! It’s a very cheap method too I wonder how no-one has thought of it before
i have commented this a number of times but check this out. Sheepshead, a North American fish that is disgusting to eat.
There was a River Monsters episode about these. I forget where the river was but there had been people bitten and the marks looked eerily like human teeth. It turned out that someone had released the pacu, which were not native, to try to provide food for the nearby communities. The pacu proceeded to eat all the vegetation in the river, destroying the local ecosystem, and then when the food ran out, they reverted to their piranha roots and became carnivores.
Pacu's are so awesome. We had one in our 1000 gallon tank. He would eat strawberries, kiwi and bananas! 💝💝
I never want to see this irl. Dolls with teeth creep me out enough
Rabbits don't have pads on their paws. Only fur.
So if you see a cartoon rabbit with pads on it's paw, completely wrong.
Yes say no to wire cage bottoms. I always made sure to use soft nesting materials and also would always have a nice old Terry cloth towel for a bunny bed. It helped a lot with my elderly buns when they started having mobility issues due to age. My last rabbit was almost 12 before he passed. If taken care of correctly rabbits can outlive your cat or dog potentially. They are great pets. I had one who acted like a lap dog and one who acted like a standoffish cat haha.
Axolotls are real life Frankenstein's monsters. Not only do they have the ability to regenerate tissue if it gets damaged much like a starfish can grow a limb, but if you cut off their arm and (oh I don't know) ATTACH IT TO IT'S BACK, their cells will form and fix between the back and the dismembered limb. After some time, the arm is completely attached and useful while attached to the back like some disgusting Mr Potato Head. Some people did a test where they completely severed the head of an Axolotl and just pasted it next to the head of a other one to see if a head could do the same thing. It worked. The brain started thinking again, ate food after their esophagus attached, and became a fully functioning 2 headed axolotl.
This is kind of cool. Multi limbed, filled axolotl. But dang that's cruel too.
Oh yeah, those little guys. I hope someone is studying them to find ways for humans to grow new limbs or organs. Axolotl-62...7d16e7.jpg
I think they already do. I remember some years back reading about a Chinese guy who had his nose severed, so they formed a new one from skin and tissue and grew it on top of his head until it was time to move it down in place. Also there was a guy growing a new penis on his arm. Couldn't wear short sleeves for a while.
Load More Replies...That's why they look like they're always smiling. "You can't kill me!" ^_^
They are very good at killing themselves, though. It's really common for them to choke on rocks.
Load More Replies...In the wild, axolotls only live in one place: Xochimilco, Mexico (a "suburb" of Mexico City). Unfortunately, due to habitat loss, they are critically endangered. :(
Basically a real terror if they take over the world behind those cute faces.
There's also a very weird story by Julio Cortázar called Axolotl. You can probably find an English translation.
The bearded vulture or bone-eating vulture, is a rare eur-asian vulture that only eats marrow, that looks rusty in color but is in fact white. This rusty color is because they actually paint themselves with red clay deposits to look attractive to their mates. They are really cool looking.
They have a little tuft of feathers below their beaks that looks like the beard of a dragon, so that is why they are called that.
Other cool fact: They can dissolve bone in the acid of their stomach in 24 hours. The PH of their stomachs is 1 which is VERY acidic. They are the only vulture species in the world that 90% of its diet is just bone.
Well, also human stomach acid is around 1-1,5, so this is nothing that special
I've just learned that the pH of human stomach acid is so low (much lower than most animals, including primates) because our ancestors were probably scavengers just like these vultures! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7684463/
Load More Replies...They are quite rare and I was really excited the 2 or 3 times in my whole life I got to see one in the sky. Too excited to take a proper picture, I'm afraid.
This makes me realize the crazy variety of foods that humans are able to eat. Does any other animal's diet look like ours?
I read somewhere that some species of bats practises oral sex. Apparently males of that species found out that if they satisfy the female enough, that than she will not go mate with another male thus securing their place as a father of the offspring.
Win-win situation here. I want to congratulate the female bats for educating their partners on good sexual practices.
It's usually the other way around actually with the females performing it on the males but in some bats it has been observed both ways. From what I've read scientists seem to think it's more of a way to either remove anything another competing male left behind or even to prevent germs.
The peacock mantis shrimp’s punch is so fast that the water around it cannot fill in the space left by the moving appendage, creating a vacuum known as a cavitation bubble. When this bubble collapses, a sonic boom and flash of light are produced.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee? C'mon, more like float like a butterfly, right hook 'em like a mantis shrimp.
Panthers are not actually a distinct species of big cat. It's the name given to melanistic Jaguars and Leopards.
Pronounced "painter" in some Appalachian areas. This can be a problem for you if you're expecting the home improvement guy but the other comes.
Cooooome kitty! You love your treats, huh? You love them, you're a sweet kitty, but, sadly, the neighbours ran out of children - no more treats, just a scratch on the belly, ok? You're one of those cats who're ok with that, aren't ... aren't you? Ah, whatever could happen anyway, I'm gonna find that out now...
Load More Replies...An octopuses neurons are spread out all throughout its body. When an arm is severed, intentionally or unintentionally, they will still search for and capture food, and then try to bring it back to a non existent mouth. Basically an octopus has a bit of its brain in each arm, and the arms move like normal after they’ve been severed, like how chickens run around without their heads.
Picture this: The chaos of a headless chicken with a severed octopus arm taped to its head.
There was a chicken once that lived without its head for quite a long time and was famous... the farmer chopped its head too high, and after seeing it continue to walk around and peck, he let it keep on living. he fed it with a medicine dropper thru its esophagus. It acted like a totally normal chicken. He kept it as pet, and it was an attraction as well. (Can't remember the chicken's name tho).
thats why the severed arm tries to bring food back to a mouth that isn't there anymore
Load More Replies...If a hog nose snake is threatened it will puff up and hiss. If this doesn't work, it will flip onto its back and play dead. If you flip him from his back onto his belly, he will flip back over again.
I say this a lot, but that sounds like some of my students!
Load More Replies...I had 1 once as a pet; they puff up their necks like a cobra, huff and hiss, and false strike (keep their mouth closed), and when that doesn't work, they will play dead. They also have rear fangs with mild venom for "popping" and eating toads, their preferred prey. It's incredibly hard to be bitten by one tho, as they only false strike when scared. You would literally have to sit and let it chew on your finger while it's hungry to "maybe" be invenomated, and even then it's more like a bee sting. Mine was so friendly tho, he never played dead.
Male giraffes will headbutt a female in the bladder until she urinates, then it tastes the pee to help it determine whether or not the female is ovulating
Speaking of urine, did you know that you can pee on a jellyfish sting? It won't make any difference, but you can do it if you want. Your life, your choices.
You can also urinate right next to it. And you can urinate in church, but it may be advisable to claim it being an accident.
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Baby Koalas nuzzles their mother's butt to releases a runnier, protein-rich substance, called pap which they then drink to get mom's gut bacteria, helpful in digesting eucalyptus leaves.
The Western Lowland Gorilla's scientific name is "gorilla gorilla gorilla"
Ladies and gentlemen going not once, not twice but THRICE
Load More Replies...And if you say it out lood like beetlejuice or bloody mary, does a gorilla appear ?
The European Lynx is 'Lynx lynx lynx'. Industrial hemp is 'Cannabis sativa sativa sativa'. I could go on but I don't want to keep repeating myself.
Technically 'Buffalo' can be used in many parts of speech. Idk what this means, but it is a proper sentence: Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
Horses are opportunistic carnivores and have been observed to kill and eat small animals.
Usually it's due to them requiring hard to find minerals. Usually they will just chew bones, but feral horses can be more aggressive. If you provide your horse with salt and mineral blocks (necessary as a good horse owner), they are unlikely to do this.
Watched my dad's paint horse stomp and eat a wild rabbit. Can confirm.
Deer will eat (previously dead) humans, too. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/deer-eating-human-forensics-decomposition
Male horses have residual canines. Their carnivorous ancestors might not be too far away in the past.
The female American opposum has 13 nipples. This is one of my favorite facts of life.
They only live for around 2 years. I just find that short span crazy. Some different kinds of opossum can live up to 4 years.
In Indiana we say there's no such thing as a live possum (because they're mostly seen when they're roadkill). I used to feed the stray cats around where I live, and there was a possum who ate, too. I could always tell when he was here because he crunched the cat food very loudly!
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Sea cucumbers spit out their insides to scare away predators.
They based a Pokémon on this animal (Pyukumku) and when it attacks, it's insides come out shaped like a fist. It's hilarious.
There's women on PornHub who do something similar - frightened the hell out of me for sure!
sharks have electro receptors in their face called the 'ampulla of lorenzini'. it helps them hunt. they can detect electric fields from the lil muscle movements of fishies and stuff. i always thought that was pretty nifty. sharks are so cool and misunderstood
These receptors are actually so sensitive that you can sort of knock a shark out for a brief moment by punching their nose, causing them sensation overload. A nosegasm, in other words.
Or if you want to be nice just touch it so they float away
Load More Replies...More people die from falling coconuts than shark attacks.
Load More Replies...They feed cows magnets so when cows eat nails/barbed wire/metal it stays in one stomach otherwise they'd get hardware disease and die.
The mighty Cowgneto!!! ... I'll see myself out '-'
Load More Replies...This led me to the best (and most confusing) caption I've ever found on Wikipedia: "A cow magnet, which can be used to prevent hardware disease".
Yeah it keeps the metal from going to their heart. They are very indiscriminate eaters.
Spiders are one of the only animals that stores some of its sensory processing functionality OUTSIDE OF ITS BODY. Studies have shown that a spiders reaction to a movement in its web, is less like a person responding to the floor moving, and more like a person responding to a nervous input from their leg. Spiders use their webs as a direct extension of their body instead of as a tool.
So, I am lobotomizing spiders when I walk through the webs they string across my path? I wonder if once they get it across they have second thoughts.
Not exactly obscure, but dolphins get high off of pufferfish venom. They also bully sharks.
When swimming with dolphins, you are not supposed to swim below a male dolphin, they take it as a sign you are sexually available.
The mammal that has the most teeth is the giant armadillo of South America, with 74 teeth. But that's nothing to snails. A common garden snail can have 14,000 teeth. Some snails grow 25,000 teeth in their lifetime. And the teeth grow on their tongue.
Was touching snails common practice for you before?
Load More Replies...Female ferrets die if they do not mate once they go into heat.
I found that out the hard way...adopted a female ferret from a friend who couldn't keep her anymore and a month later her genitals swelled. Thought there was an infection, took her to the vet and he told me that it was a huge problem with pet store ferrets where they should have been spayed but not. He tried to different things to try to make her better but she ended up losing all her fur. I made her some pants out of socks for whenever she was running around the house and kept her comfortable. She died about 3 months later surrounded by the kittens she helped raise and her bro puppers. ***RIP Miley Ferris***
Army Ants will create "balls" during high water floods. The ball will roll allowing every ant to get a breath.
Imagine the power that mankind would have if we all worked together like that.
It would certainly make the world a much better place, even for those already doing well! Sadly there would be people on the top of the ball believing that it was the bottom people's own fault for not getting themselves to the top of the ball, not ever appreciating the fact that they couldn't be on the top without everyone else holding them up (and certainly not appreciating any extra assist they themselves got in their climb). They'd also use all their power to cement the message in everyone's minds that you're just a loser if you're on the bottom and don't deserve any help. I realize this is depressing but we can't change it if we don't recognize it for what it is!
Load More Replies...Only sheep, whales, and humans go through menopause.
I heard that the sheep only do it because they are copying the whales and humans.
"Single White Female Sheep" not as thrilling as the regular Single White Female movie
Load More Replies...I really hate these kind of erroneous factoids. Someone saw an article about how inducing menopause in sheep by removing their ovaries produces the same "symptoms" found in menopausal humans, but didn't read past the title.
Load More Replies...Menopause is something (un)usual in the animal kingdom. Technically all animals should be able to reproduce until their death in order to make sure that genes spread and die as soon as you can't reproduce in order to allow fertile family members to take over hunting territory/food/sace. However, menopause happens only to few species and usually for the ones with a long life span. I heard of two theories (might be more out there, please let me know if you know any of them). 1. To create an intelligent brain takes a lot of time and energy so if should compensate with longer lifespan (longer than reproduction age). 2. The experience and skills of an old individual is valuable; and younger generations need help raising their young so even in the body is not capable of reproducing anymore, the older individual stays around to help out. Last one is more likely although what happens if it's a solitary animal?
The brazilian free tailed bat is the fastest animal in straight and level flight at 100mph. Some birds are faster, but only in a dive. Source: Audubon.
Butterfly taste with their feet. That will never leave my memory. I’ll be the old granny with dementia who says s**t like this but won’t remember what my kids look like
There are no male Mourning geckos. The entire species is female.
Parthenogenesis is the spontaneous development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell. The offspring will be identical to the parent. In Mourning geckos, it is possible, but rare, for infertile male offspring to be produced.
Parthenogenesis. The lizards lay eggs that are clones of themselves.
Load More Replies...i don’t know if it’s obscure but orcas will beat stingrays until they’re too weak to fight back so their young can practice killing prey, also orcas are known to kill for fun.
Boy, this ain't even HALF the horrendous sh*t the dolphin family gets up to. (And yeah, orcas are dolphins not whales)
The Inland Taipan (snake) has the strongest/potent venom on the planet, capable of killing around 290 humans with a single bite. Scaled to mice, a single bite could kill 250,000 mice.
That said, bites from the Inland Taipan to humans have been ***pretty rare*** as they usually stay underground and are not overly aggressive unless you jump all over their burrow. They also have a good number of predators who prey on them.
*checking number on my ticket* "291 yeah! Ha ha all you lot before me! Losers!"
Btw, the 2nd most venomous snake, the Eastern Brown is quite common in Australia and lived near human cities
Not that incredible but never heard it and was unexpected. Many common ants live for years. I definitely pictured them as short life spans, and definitely felt a bit bad about the crazy number I've killed. Not that I stopped.
Bears can make a sound similar to purring!
Turkey vultures projectile vomit as a means of defense!
10/10 would work on me. If something - turkey, human, cat, anything - projectile vomit at me I'd not be happy and very likely to leave, depends on the vomit projectile potency 🤷♀️
Load More Replies...I learned this in a very unfortunate way.... I didn't know they had a nest in my family's barn. The vomit that covered me had the worst, most pervasive smell I'd ever encountered. It was like orange jello fruit salad.... except it wasn't jello.... and the fruit..... wasn't fruit..... I smelled it for a week afterwards...
A narwhal's tusk is actually a large tooth that protrudes through their face. It is most often the left tooth. Also, they have nerve endings on the outside of the tusks.
Giraffes have 7 cervical vertebrae, just like you humans.
Whales are most closely related to a group of land animals called "artiodactyls," which includes hippos, pigs, and deer.
Crocodillians (gaters, caiman, and crocs) have a specialized liver and diaphragm which allows them to slowly rise and sink in the water. By pulling their diaphragm via the hepatic shunt, they can shift their center of gravity and float up or down.
They also stand with their back feet on the bottom when sticking only their eyes and snout above the water
The combined spider population of the world consumes anywhere between 400 million to 800 million metric tons of food per year.
The duck billed platypus has no nipples to feed their offspring. Instead, milk oozes from the skin.
They also have venomous barbs on their hind legs for defense! God really clicked 'Randomize Selection' when making those guys.
God: “Hmmmm. What am I going to do with all these spare parts? I hate to see them go to waste …”
The milk oozes from mammary glands under the skin. And only the males have venomous barbs.
And they lay eggs. To quote the late, great Robin Williams: "Does God have a sense of humor...ever see a platypus? I think so."
Butterflies will drink blood given the option.
There is serbian vampire film based and called "Leptirica"(serbian word for female butterfly) There is vampire in remote village and villagers try to kill it by piercing woodem stick though vampires closed coffin but butterfly somehow gets out of the vampires coffin and infect love interest of main caracter. It an old movie and maybe ridicolus for today standards but when I was kid it was scariest thing you can mention.
Load More Replies...The genome of humans and moths is about 70% identic.
I think you get comment of the day! Brilliant!!!
Load More Replies...While the blue whale has the largest penis in the animal kingdom (2.5-3m / ~8'-10') - but among mammals the Fossa has the largest penis to ratio of its body size (17-20cm / 7"-8") - at full maturity, their penis is approximately 1/6 of total body length (head to tip of tail) with a tail being about half that total length. Their penis extends past their front legs when fully erect. And the Echidna's penis has 4 heads, where only two operate at once. They work much like ovaries release eggs where every time he ejaculates, only half of them do, and then the next time, the other half. The female of the species has a two-pronged reproductive tract allowing the half of the penis that IS active to fit right in. Oh I should also add that not unlike themselves, or cats, they have spiky penises as well.
You sure know a lot about animal penises. I think you might have the wrong idea about what animal "husbandry" entails.
Fairly often it involves just that. How do you think the sperm is collected for insemination? Btw. Elephant juice is collected by a**l stimulation because their dong is too dangerous to handle
Load More Replies...There is a thriving population of wild hippos in the Amazon.
These 70 hippos are descendants of 4 hippos that belonged to Pablo Escobar. After his death, his private zoo was let free. These hippos are a big problem in Colombia now.
But aren't they bringing the ecosystem back to normal as they filled the gap left when the last mega fauna died out. Like their poop is supporting the entire food chain again, animal and plant.
Load More Replies...Boa constrictor is the only animal where its common name is also its Latin binomial.
Rabbits, INCLUDING DOMESTIC ONES, eat their poop every single day.
That's not poop they eat, its partially digested food they chew again like a cow chewing its cud.
Guinea pigs do the same thing. They are even different colors.
Load More Replies...And if they didn't, they'd get very sick. It's not "poop", it's called cecal pellets.
Cats can't taste sweet things.
One of my cats always tries to eat my cake, or anything with frosting on it. She hates ice cream. The other 2 will eat anything you put in front of them lol
Weird things my cat eats: watermelon (loves the juice, too), raw spinach, cucumbers, raw potatoes, cantaloupe, raw asparagus, raw broccoli and cauliflower, leaf lettuce, radishes, cabbage, and bok choy. He absolutely detests tuna, chicken, ham, eggs, and other small bits of meat. I swear he was vegan in his previous life! Oh, I tried to give him a bit of cream once when putting some in my coffee. The little sh¡t sniffed it and walked away. He does like Iams dog food, too, lol. He's so weird but I wouldn't take my fancy man any other way!
Load More Replies...This is true. They don't have the in the receptors in their mouths to taste sweet. If they want to eat your ice cream it may be because they CAN taste dairy (veterinarian here.) Another cool fact is cats being attracted to cat nip is a genetic thing- some cats just don't have the genes to make them love it like others do.
then what attracts them to anti freeze? cuz my neighbor poisoned 1 of mine, abt 6 yrs ago. loser lived in a trailer on a house property, that dosnt alow trailers, if there going to be occupied, and he still had the nerve to complain abt the neighborhood cats walking on his "roof" luckily he got arrested for for something else.
My cat loses her mind over rice milk. I put it in my cereal and she cries and paws at me until I’m done and let her lick the bowl.
wouldn't that lead to the assumption that they like it.? unless you are buying ice cream flavors you don't even like and that's why you're saying that
Load More Replies...im surprised, the square wombat poop isn't on here. best thing i ever learned from a TV show. Thx Seth McFarland
As do many animals with patterns, if you take a dog or cat with patterned fur and shave it, you’ll likely find that same pattern in their skin
Load More Replies...When rats are feeling very happy and relaxed, they rapidly grind their front teeth while their eyes bug in and out. It's called "bruxing" and "boggling" and is their equivalent of purring. You get a lot of new rat owners showing up on rat fanciers' pages saying "My rat's eyes are bugging out what's wrong with him?!" Nothing - he's just happy!
Very interesting post, I´d heard about some of the facts in TV animal docus before or had read about them in a monthly German animal magazine that I bought for many years, now I don´t get it anymore, I can´t get to the only store anymore that sells it here because I need a walker, and that store´s too far for me to walk there, I´d gotten there by bike before.
Next time, they should add a post about pirarucu tongue: https://youtu.be/YznKB8a1O7o
Humans have striped skin, we just can't see it. Although there is a medical condition in which some people's stripes are visible
im surprised, the square wombat poop isn't on here. best thing i ever learned from a TV show. Thx Seth McFarland
As do many animals with patterns, if you take a dog or cat with patterned fur and shave it, you’ll likely find that same pattern in their skin
Load More Replies...When rats are feeling very happy and relaxed, they rapidly grind their front teeth while their eyes bug in and out. It's called "bruxing" and "boggling" and is their equivalent of purring. You get a lot of new rat owners showing up on rat fanciers' pages saying "My rat's eyes are bugging out what's wrong with him?!" Nothing - he's just happy!
Very interesting post, I´d heard about some of the facts in TV animal docus before or had read about them in a monthly German animal magazine that I bought for many years, now I don´t get it anymore, I can´t get to the only store anymore that sells it here because I need a walker, and that store´s too far for me to walk there, I´d gotten there by bike before.
Next time, they should add a post about pirarucu tongue: https://youtu.be/YznKB8a1O7o
Humans have striped skin, we just can't see it. Although there is a medical condition in which some people's stripes are visible
