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When you think of scary animals, what comes to mind? Maybe lions, hippos or snakes? But you might be surprised to know that the world's deadliest animal is actually a lot tinier...
Mosquitoes cause around a million deaths every year, according to several sources. The blood-sucking creatures are among the many things lurking in the animal kingdom that we should not underestimate.
People have been sharing the most terrifying animal behaviors and facts in response to a viral TikTok video. And many might make a great horror scene. From bees making honey out of meat, to crows having the ability to hate people, Bored Panda has put together a list of the most spine-tingling stories about all God's creatures, great and small. Feel free to refer back to them before your next stroll in the woods or swim in the ocean!
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#1
Manatees don’t have a defense mechanism other than swimming away so don’t panic if you see one approaching you. It’s literally a water potato
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#2
This is finally getting more widespread: Dogs don't operate on an "alpha" or "dominance" model like wolves. Wolves don't even act like that. All of it was made up from one study done on one small wolf group in captivity.
#3
Crows can hate you. they remember and recognize faces and voices. they can also like or love you.
#4
Birds like ravens and crows can sound exactly like humans, I think story’s of skin walkers and voices in the forest could be birds mimicking their fav sounds
#6
Rats make amazing companions based on the fact they are affectionate, litter-trainable, intelligent, cuddly, caring, clean, and energetic. 🐁🐀 -Sincerely a rattie owner 💕
#7
Surprising no one with this but Polar bears hunt humans. They are ABOVE us on the food chain. And the reason you always see them so calm around humans is because they are actively hunting them. They will hunt people for days and weeks on end, even following different cars and stalking outside facilities. They don't care if you run because they KNOW they will eventually catch up.
#8
Bears can pause their pregnancy... if it has become time for hibernation and they have not stored enough fat but are pregnant, they pause the development of baby till next hibernation
#9
Crows will fiercely defend anyone who feeds and befriends them and that can be terrifying when they’re in a big flock. They also learn attack commands with surprising ease.
#10
Dolphins are intelligent enough to be capable of genuine malice and actual evil. Just like humans.
#11
Touching an animals/birds babies will not cause them to abandon them. it’s a myth to keep children from touching wild animals
#12
There’s a slime mold that’s so effective at navigating through mazes to find nutrients that it first grows randomly and then reorganizes itself to find the most efficient way to grow towards the nutrient in the maze. They designed a maze replicating the Tokyo subway system leaving nutrients within the maze that corresponds with major cities and let the mold grow. It ended up redesigning the subway system and showing the most efficient routes between the cities, the mold does not have a brain or any nervous system whatsoever, just cells with some sort of memory system somehow.
#13
Mantis shrimp has the fastest/strongest punch than any animal. So much force that it boils the water around it when it punches
#14
Sloth hands work opposite to ours. They have to exert energy to open their “fist” and relax to close it. This is how they can hang from trees while they’re sleeping and not fall off.
#15
Not particularly scary but my dog rapidly developed dementia and it was like a switch flipped & he became EXTREMELY aggressive towards us. We could not even walk in the house w/o getting viciously attacked. I had no idea it could happen to dogs
#16
It's not a surprising fact, but the ability that mountain lions have to sound like screaming women has gotten to me a few times. Being in the wilderness and hearing it was terrifying
#17
Orcas, whales, and dolphins have many different cultures and languages across different pods and geographic locations in the same way that humans do.
#19
When a butterfly or moth is in the cocoon/chrysalis they completely dissolve and reform. And they still have memory of being a caterpillar when they come out.
#20
We're not sure how big an anaconda can get. every time we've had an estimate it's around 3-4 years then we find one that's bigger than the estimate.
#21
A couple primates, elephants, a few whale species and biological female humans are the only mammals that experience menopause. That extends life up to ten years after our male counterparts, leaving us available to teach and support our younger females.
#22
Modern apes are still evolving. some chimpanzees in the wild have been seen using spears to hunt with, and orangutans have been seen using spears to fish with. there is an argument on whether they are going into a stone age timeline or not
#23
The "ugly" blobfish actually looks normal when it's in its natural environment near the ocean floor. The pressure change when its brought to the surface causes it to collapse from the inside out.
#25
Seagulls, vultures, crows and other carrion birds won't wait for you to die before they start eating you, they'll just wait until they think you can't move anymore, then they start with the soft parts like the eyes
#26
Vulture bees make honey from meat, rather than nectar. Their hives look like a mass of tumors.
#27
There are over 300 types of zombie fungus and due to global warming they are becoming more resilient to higher temperatures
#28
Many animals like some bird species, whale species, dolphins, can pass down hate genetically. Which is why we saw the rise in Orcas flipping boats!
#29
Humans used to just follow their prey for days until the prey died of exhaustion because humans have an amazing endurance and other animals need more rest.
#30
Not scary, but scientists claim that Elephants have the same reaction to us as we do puppies. They think we're cute! But you have to wonder if they get the cute aggression too?
#34
The T. Rex had amazing eyesight with binocular vision- meaning not only could it see for miles, but if it was looking at you, it’s looking AT you
#36
Animals can see our skin marks, we actually have tiger like patterns in our skin. imo this would explain why cats see us as giant cats
#37
Most cats are lactose intolerant so that whole thing about milk being their fav that we learned from old Disney movies and tom and jerry isn't true.
#38
There are more ants on Earth than any other animal. Estimated to be about 20 quadrillion ants.
#39
Corvids have been seen using tools. 🐦⬛ some as simple as placing rocks to raise water levels to using more complex like a branch as a fulcrum.
#40
RATS DIDNT CAUSE THE BLACK PLAUGE!!! The dang fleas and lice did. AND they are naturally very clean animals, despite popular belief to the contrary.
#41
There’s an isopod that severs the tongue of fish and effectively becomes the new tongue to the fish while feeding off of its blood and mucas
#42
We are one of the few groups of animal to lose our ability to synthesize our own vitamin C. our fruit-dependent primate ancestors didn't need to make their own, and it ended up being lost and deactivated in our genome. scurvy is the result of our ancestors reliance on fruit.
#43
Chipmunks feed on newborn rabbits. Squirrels will eat hatchlings and bird eggs. Deer eat grown nesting species hatchlings and will snack on birds caught in mist nets if researchers don’t get to the site fast enough. Disney lied.
#44
Worms don’t come to the surface when it rains because they love water, they come to the surface so they don’t drown as all the water pockets in the soil get filled with water
#45
Bats aren’t blind, hippos cant swim, peanuts aren't a nut, camels don’t store water in their humps
#46
Narwhals are REAL CREATURES. they're not like aquatic unicorns, those things are real and swimming in our oceans with their SEVENTEEN FOOT HORNS
#47
Fox cries can sound like a woman screaming or baby crying. Same with cats that are fighting.
#48
Some jellyfish can revert themselves back to babies. meaning some jellyfish can live indefinitely until something eats them.
#50
Komodo dragons dig up graves to eat human corpses. You’re also advised against visiting the island if you’re on your period or else they’ll track you down thanks to the smell
#53
There’s a parasite called the Guinea Worm that gets up to 800mm long and crawls its way out of your feet
#54
Chameleons don't actually camouflage into their environment like they do in media, but rather change different shades of green or sometimes yellow when stressed. (A bright green if happy!)
#55
Rats can grind their teeth so intensely it wiggles their eyeballs in their skull, it's called boggling and it means your rat is happy. and in some cases distressed, but mostly happy
#56
Woodpeckers have a naturally long tongue, so the back of it curls up around the skull protecting their brain while they work their 9-5s
#57
Out bodies are covered in tiny skin mites that eat majority of our dead skin and if we didn't have them we would all be really flakey. a symbiotic relationship if you will.
#58
Snail teeth (I think sea snails especially?) are considered the strongest natural material known, spider silk is second place. I didn't even know snail had teeth!
#59
There’s a fly that can smell a dead body from a mile away, in just three minutes of the person dying.
#61
That like 80-90% of the ocean is unexplored and there’s large species under there we have never, and will never see. But they’re there, and that’s why the ocean gives me the heebs
#63
lions scavenge more than hyenas do hyenas eat their prey alive after running after it until it collapses. they will tear at any soft tissue they can get to, including the rear. hyenas can bite straight through bone
#64
Frogs aren't capable of vomiting so if they eat something they shouldn't have they throw their stomach out of their mouths and wait for it to empty before swallowing it again
#65
Alligators are technically immortal and usually only die due to conflict, disease, and lack in food to support their ever-growing size
#66
horses sync their hearts. so if one senses danger it will sound their heart rate and warn the others
#67
Sometimes animals with Rabies will actually act overly friendly and timid. It’s called lethargic rabies I think
#68
Also don’t hold rats by the tail as they have the ability to “deglove” aka lose the skin of their tail as a desperate attempt to escape
#69
Humans don’t come from monkeys. We both come from the same ancestor who there’s hardly any information about and we took different paths
#70
The Tarantula Hawk Wasp immobilize Spiders with their sting and drag them to their Lair where they Lay a Egg that eats the spider Alive(it avoids the life preserving Organs. and the Spider is still feeling everything).
#71
Some moths drink tears of big animals (e.g. cows), and scientists are not sure what's the purpose of it, but the fact is that only MALE representatives of spieces do this. I find it very poetic and horrifying at the same time. It's called lachyrophagia.
#72
OMG YES! So. Hummingbirds don't have receptors to taste sweet like we do. They actually have a mutated umami (savory) receptor that responds to sugar. So nectar tastes like MEAT to them.
#74
clown fish were born male then turns female when there's no female is around so in finding nemo, Nemo's dad's purpose on finding nemo is to find nemo to mate with him since they're the only clownfish there and no females
#76
Horses can tell whether a human has good or bad intentions. That’s why even the “craziest” horses are usually so gentle with children, they can tell they mean no harm, that they’re fragile.
#77
When Penguins in the South Pole were discovered by people they behaved so terribly that researches wrote about them exclusively in Latin so the general public wouldn’t be able to find out that they were deviants.
#78
Butterflies don’t have the chemical receptors in their brain that would allow them to get “high”. This is the only insect that does not possess cannabinoid receptors. 😁 Love this one
#79
Snakes have legs! Well, old world snakes like pythons and boas do. They have vestigial hind legs that look like little claws or “spurs” near their cloaca.
#80
Bears don't actually sleep all winter long. Lemmings do not usually follow each other off of cliffs.
#81
Dragonflies stomachs are directly connected to their brains: making them the most efficient hunters on the planets with a 96% success rate. They are eating their prey before they have had the ability to process what’s going on.
#82
Cats are biologically programmed to forget who their families are. It's not "I'm cleaning my baby" to them it's just "ugh your dirty and you aren't insufferable."
#84
Scientists found that octopuses actually have really unique DNA, and one big theory they have for this is that their DNA could have been potentially brought here by an asteroid. Not very scary, but definitely interesting lol
#86
Our fat cells are more closely resemblant to marine mammals fat cells in comparison to land mammal fat cells. We're more closely related to salmon than a salmon is related to a tuna.
#87
Sharks have an organ to sense electricity so they always know where you are and can feel your heart rate to know if you’re scared
#88
Manatees go to the ocean to die alone because they don’t want to pass away in front of each other
#90
Parasitic Wasps Turn Caterpillars into Bodyguards. Some wasps lay eggs inside caterpillars. After the larvae hatch and crawl out, they don’t kill the host. Instead, the half dead caterpillar stays alive and acts like a zombie bodyguard.
#91
Recent bug was discovered called the bone collector caterpillar! It builds a nest out of a bunch of different bug corpses!
#93
The theory on how we can hiccup!! When our early ancestors were evolving out of water to live on land, we developed lungs as well as our existing gills. We later dropped our gills because we chose to stay on land, but a semblance of the ability to switch between gill breathing and lung breathing remains. So when the diaphragm contracts, we hiccup! my fav evolutionary tidbit ever!!
#94
Goldfish don’t “grow to the size of their tank,” the outside of their body will stop growing due to stress of being in too small of an environment, while their organs continue to grow.
#96
The inside of a pig and the inside of the human body look almost the same except for the acing of the intestines...
#97
The harpy eagle. the largest predatory bird on earth , more than likely hunted humans at one point. that's why in Greek mythos there are creatures such as the Stymphalian birds, a roc , harpies and sirens. ( sirens are two creatures of the same name. one looks like a mermaid the other a harpy ) there is always some truth to myths , whether we like it or not. otherwise myths would not exist. for example dinosaurs were once thought to be myth not fact. and look how that turned out.
#98
Eels have a second jaw that comes up out of the inside of their mouth to drag their pray down their throat
#99
Hyenas and other animals have been documented eating their own organs after severe injuries: The pain makes them delirious and they panic, destroying any chance of survival.
#101
When fishes hit a hard surface above land it’s extremely painful. Their whole life is spent on in the softness of water.
#102
Piranhas are actually a pray animal and only eat dead stuff. Hollywood made them seem like savages but there not
#103
Squirrels have the same amount of rods/cones in their eyes as we do - meaning - technically speaking they “see” the same as we do… Think about that next time one is staring at u & ur looking at it
#104
Grasshoppers turn into locusts when they’re starving, and they don’t just eat crops - they eat EACH OTHER.
#105
If your dog is very old and it runs away, it died. dogs will try to run away from their owners before they pass away so they don’t have to see their body
#106
Cows lay down before a big storm because the change in barometric pressure gives them a tummy ache 😭
#107
We do know where all the eels come from, but we do NOT have any fking idea why THERE, or HOW TF THEY REPRODUCE
#108
Axolotls live in groups and if they can’t find food they will eat each others limbs because they know they will regenerate the limb back
#109
Humboldt Squids. Every single thing I learn about them is TERRIFYING. Like, for example, they hunt in packs of up to 1000… They have so many human k*lls under their belt, it’s insane.
#110
Rams don't headbutt against a tree because they're shedding but because of a mental illness (don't know which, tho) they can't she'd like deers because their horns are pure bone and have no tissue on them
#111
Koalas have human fingerprints so when they’re near crime scenes, they don’t investigate. Which causes many cold cases.
#112
There's a slug(?) that takes over it's hosts brain and uses its body, basically possessed/zombie
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