The lifestyles and peculiarities of most animals are often a lot weirder than we might expect, particularly if your main frame of reference is “a cat goes meow and a dog goes woof.” The natural world is full of wonders and surprises waiting to be discovered.
Someone asked “What is the weirdest animal fact you know?” and wildlife-savvy netizens from around the world answered. So get comfortable, imagine every answer being read in the voice of David Attenborough, and get to scrolling. Be sure to upvote the facts that were most surprising to you and comment your thoughts below.
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Slow And Steady Vibes
When a female sloth wants a mate she'll hang onto a tree branch and just scream.
I've sat on my couch and screamed, but no one came.
Eight Arms, No Chill
octopus punch other fish for no reason- so, for fun.
How do we know the fish didnt say somethin nasty in bubblease?(j/k) Like "your mother was a blowhole breather"
Octopus are very clever criatures, makes a lot of sense. They may talk a lot of languages I guess 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Load More Replies...So they pretty much punch the fish in the brain with one of their 9 brains.
Just a Territory Issue Humans Know Nothing About!! Stay Outta my Space!!!
Too Cute to Handle
cats have the mental capacity of a 2 year old which makes a lot of sense
I saw a documentary once that said that dogs behave like 4 year-olds, meaning they get attached to their owners just like toddlers to their parents, but cats behave like teens. They love their parents but they don't want to hang around them too much! 😅
I haven't got any teenagers around the houses but my cats are practically glued to me!
Load More Replies...I’d be curious as to the source of this, because I don’t think 2 year olds have the smugness capacity that cats do! 🤣
We are far smarter than some soft can-opener kitten. Now, throw my mousie toy for me, or I'm going to scream.
Dont even think of acting like a randy sloth!
Load More Replies...Bubble Trouble Ahead
Polar bear fur isn't white - it's translucent (for most frequencies of light). And they have black skin underneath.
So polar bear fur lets all the light through to their black skin to warm them - except for a few visible frequencies to keep them camouflaged as white.
The hairs on his skin aren't only translucent, they're hollow as well. This is an optimal adaptation to the cold. Sunlight can reach the skin through the hollow hairs. The black skin absorbs heat very well. The air in the hollow hairs is also heated by the sun. The polar bear is therefore well protected against the cold by the warm air layer around him.
My little mix breed dog I got from the humane society has white hair, and totally pink skin underneath. When I bathe him, he looks like a fat little piglet... :)
See previous BP post on hairless animals - https://www.boredpanda.com/hairless-bald-animals/
Also their translucent fur traps in air and the body heat warms it up and that helps them keep warm
Everything that's white is translucent. The whiteness comes from scattering incoming light from small transparent bodies. Polar bear furbis no different.
Silent Strolls and Snowfall
Contrary to popular belief, reindeer prefer raisins instead of carrots. So if you want to leave a treat for Santa's reindeer, leave raisins. I only know this because a friend of mine has a reindeer farm and they will push you for a whole box.
Good to know. Personally, I see raisins as the waste of a perfectly good grape. So, I'll eat the celery and peanut butter, and the reindeer can have the raisins.
I personally can't fathom how anyone willingly eat celery. But hey, to each their own
Load More Replies...I have a video of a reindeer peeing. For some reason animals at zoos pee when I'm around. Got a donkey peeing too. A Lion pooping. These were all different zoos.
The picture is not a reindeer. Caribou/reindeer have much larger hooves
I always thought they liked cotton candy, or at least one named Tony Tony does
Why would anyone feed reindeer carrots? They are not horses. Or rabbits. (although I didn't know they like raisins either).
You know that grape thing with dogs? Does it not apply to raisins? Or that the Brits call raisins saltanas?
Ocean’s Little Hideout
Argonauts are small octopuses that are too lazy to f**k. They detach their d***s and toss them into the open sea to mate with female argonauts.
Can you imagine where your just minding your business, then you see some guy at a distance and still minding your business swim away, then, BAM!! A d**k its you in your eye?!! Like WTF?!
It's a reproductive arm, not the penis. And males are rarely bigger than 2cm. And they only mate once in their lifetime.
Because what they use to mate has gone off on it's own never to return? Makes sense.
Load More Replies...I don't know I feel like some people in life would do that if they could. "Oh I don't feel like getting up, here my body part, now give me some desire."
Tossing it into space for intergalactic relations!!
Load More Replies...Low-Key But Fierce
Honey badgers can turn their a******s inside out and use the smell to deter attackers. Not sure what exactly has the guts to attack a honey badger, but if they have the courage to do so, the badger sure as hell isn’t gonna make it easy.
I saw a nature documentary that showed honey badgers to be quite intelligent. Solving problems the researchers put to them on a par with chimps.
Honey Badgers are the tankiest, most out of pocket, legendarily tough and stubborn, out of pocket, "who put this on the planet" animal to ever exist. Take the striking, slashing, biting, and fighting skills of a wolverine, give it a horrendous attitude, and of course, impenetrable fur.
There's a video that's popped up recently of three young leopards trying to attack a honey badger. They learn why that's a BAD idea.
Ocean’s Best Comedians
Dolphins will intentionally use puffer fish to get high.
I think that was less about love, and more about *really* wanting to mate.
Load More Replies...This is also false. There was one documentary made for the BBC that showed footage of young male dolphins playing with a puffer fish. They used this explanation for the behaviour without any scientific backing for their claims. Further research has not supported the hypothesis, and it does not appear to make any sense.
They can detect if you’re pregnant. Seeing them react is amazing. Yeah I know they’re the Vikings
Deep Sea Acrobatics
The Blanket Octopus exhibits the highest degree of sexual dimorphism known. Females: About 6 feet across. Males: About one inch.
Now I' trying to picture tiny octopus males with ridiculous goatees.
Load More Replies...At least the male octopus doesn't become a permanent part of her body the way a male angler fish does.
Load More Replies...Master of the Side Eye
An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain
Naw, he didn't even understand it. He just hates everything equally.
Load More Replies...That's part of why they won the war in Australia, they saw the Aussies coming from far away.
But as far as I know sheep are not dumb, which is why the most intelligent dogs are the kinds used for herding sheep. Other kinds of dogs are not smart enough to outwit the sheep.
Load More Replies...I know a lot of people whos mouth is bigger than their brain, does that count.
That's not true it's an urban legend. Try to f**k with an ostrich, or an emu that is not that big.....you will be hurt hard. Those birds are a really badasses
Load More Replies...Maybe but He uses His / Her Brain to its Fullest Extent Unlike So Many Humans Today!!
Woodpecker on a Brick Break
Woodpeckers' tongues wrap around their brains to cushion them from the vibrations of slamming their face into trees all day.
Fun Internet rabbit hole I just went down. It’s not so much that they conscientiously place their tongue there. The woodpecker tongue is so long to reach insects, and when not darting into the holes of trees they’ve made, it just kind of stores itself really far up: Woodpecker...ahashi.png
Nah - "Contrary to popular belief, woodpeckers don’t protect their brains when head banging trees" from Science magazine, July 2022.
I wish my tongue would wrap around my brain to protect it from every day that I am in work and feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall!
I am glad my tongue doesn't wrap like that because I would not want the ability to taste my own brain.
Load More Replies...Is This Otter Real?
Sea otters are the most densely furred animal with 600,000 to 1,000,000 hair follicles per square inch. Dogs have about 15,000 per square inch, humans on average are between 800 to 1,290 hairs per square inch
Daddy otters and mummy otters are mainly responsible for the global increase in ocean temperatures. Because when they get together they make the sea otter.
I crave myself some latin genes....*crying imogi*....i aint got enough hair on the reasonable parts of my body... You got them even on the unreasonable parts.... Oh! How lovely must you look!!!
Load More Replies...They also hold each others hands (paws) when sleeping so that they don't float away from each other.
Must have been a hazing task at college... They used it later for knowledge
Load More Replies...Silent Watcher Vibes
Owls have really long necks, but it's hard to notice that because their feathers are so fluffy
They also have really long legs and wings. But all the choose to do all day is look cute… until night comes
We went to the Pittsburgh National Aviary and did the owl expericene. They had an owl skeleton and we got to hold an owl. Very light for as big as they look. All feathers. My husband got squirted with dead mouse head juice when they fed the owl while he was holding it. Thanks for not doing that to me or my mom!
same goes for penguins, their necks are a lot longer than most people realise.
Penguins have really long legs, but it's hard to notice because they're hidden inside their feathers.
Once I saw an owl howling and I named it a wowl - that's short for wolf owl...🐺🦉... I don't train wolves and I don't fear owls. I am the »Owl Howlerer«.
Delicate Design Masterclass
Dragon flys have the highest kill rate out of any flying predator.
I think kill rate is a bit misleading here. Hunting quota might be more accurate. If a dragonfly set out to hunt its prey they have a success rate of (depending on the source) 70% up to 98%
Thank you for the clarification. I was definitely picturing swarms attacking.
Load More Replies...Dragonflies, not Dragon flys. They’re one of my all time favorite insects, so get it right.
Mosquitoes also kill a lot of people. Note: people (or some animals, maybe)
Mosquitoes kill because they are the vector for so many illnesses. But dragonflies actually kill to eat.
Load More Replies...They are Swift Mosquitoe Killers Right up there beside the Bats as Ecellent Hunters!!
Master of Moody Stares
Cats can get pregnant while being pregnant.
This is why kittens from the same litter can look so different. They might not all have the same father.
A pregnant cat adopted us. She was probably 6 months old. People warned us that some of the kittens might not survive. Nope. 5 healthy kitties! But obviously 2 or 3 different fathers! The first was huge! We kept him and he was a sweetheart black cat. Black cats are the best!
yep and that is why a cat can give birth to a litter of kittens, that do no all have the same farther.
They are predators, but also prey. Answer: have lots of babies! And bring on the genetic diversity!
Cats go back into heat about 3 weeks after a litter is born. Another good reason to spay your cat.
That's within the first week or so. Then they don't cycle until after birth.
Master of Chill Mode
Platypus glow blueish green under ultraviolet light. They also don’t have nipples, they just exude milk from glands under the skin and the baby’s lap it up.
It is also one of the only five mammals that lay eggs. I swear platypuses and octopuses are aliens on Earth...
The weirdest thing about the platypus (weirdest?) is the genetics of sex. Humans and most mammals have two sex chromosomes. Some mammals have only one sex chromosome. The platypus is unique in having ten sex chromosomes, five X chromosomes and five Y chromosomes.
And they have poisonous spikes at the end of their paws
Load More Replies...I can't imagine anyone with a beak trying to suckle.
Just wait til you find out that the bills aren't hard, they're soft and flexible.
Load More Replies...Prudes would still complain about feeding their young in public.
Load More Replies...They're sort of beta release mammals. 'Here, let's try these features and see what works.'
Curled Up and Curious
Armadillos always have offspring in quadruplets
They can also reproduce asexually, kind of. It's called parthenogenesis and it's too long to explain here, but it's very interesting if you like curious trivia.
Underwater Oddball
Male anglerfish are super teeny tiny compared to a female. When a male finally bumps into a female down in the deep deep dark, he attaches himself to her and slowly, over time, he becomes A PART OF HER
Say you do. (Sticks onto the bride) for better or for worse, death do us part now baby. I'm part of you now.
Load More Replies...And, while the males are obviously monogamous, the females are not and are often seen with two or more males attached.
Curiosity Wins Again
Does will eat their offsprings feces in order to keep predators from even recognizing there are babies around.
English is stupid and so am I. Took me a few reads to realise 'does will' was not asking if a will does something.
Tell me about it, I was reading it as if does (the verb like "do") will (is going to) eat... and it tied a knot in my brain 🤦♀️
Load More Replies...So explain my idiotic Shih Tzu. Does she eat her own poop to camouflage herself?
My baby brother also eats his poop and rolls around in it. I think he's just tired of all the attention.
Load More Replies...Their Fawns are Born without Any Odors to Them & that Leaves them when they Are About Two Weeks Old!!
Lines That Tell Stories
Humans have stripes. They are rarely visible but we all have them due to how our bodies developed in the womb. They're called Blaschko Lines
If a person has a mosaic skin condition or is a chimera, you may well be able to see these stripes. They can also be visible if a person has chicken pox or shingles.
Also under uv light. Have heard that cats can see them too but not sure how true that is.
Load More Replies...Just curious, what's represented in this picture?
Load More Replies...and women are especially stripey. It is hard to notice, but it is caused by a gene on the X-chromosone that codes for it, and as women have to X's they can have different areas of their body where either of them "rule" in that region. It is more pronounced in cats, where the genes can give rise to significant colour changes in the fur (and the skin underneath it), which is the reason why only female cats can be tricoloured. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD6h-wDj7bw
Yes! They are visible on a very few people. Really strange shaped stripes, quite different to those of a zebra or tabby.
This shows real ones. https://www.iflscience.com/you-have-invisible-zebra-stripes-and-theyre-called-lines-of-blaschko-68354
See Also:
Aquatic Grin Game
Killer Whales are actually dolphins.
Orcas (killer whales) are indeed dolphins, but dolphins are part of the larger family of whales. All dolphins are whales. https://www.ifaw.org/international/journal/are-dolphins-whales
Interestingly, they're more closely related to ocean-going dolphins than even porpoises and river dolphins are. Orcas belong to the group delphinidae, which includes all oceanic dolphins, the false killer whale and the pilot whale.
I donno bout that.. bottlenose and a few other types are also known to g@ngr@pe other female and some male dolphins.. also to pass around terrfied puffed up puffer fish like beach balls.. cept they also get h!gh on the toxins the puffer fish extrude. Google is a scary place sometimes."
Load More Replies...Yes they Are & can be Very Playful with Orange Balls or Fishing Floats too!!
Snap Judgment
Mantis Shrimp have 16 different sets of rods.
(Rods and cones are in your eyes. Cones see light, rods see color. Humans have 3 sets of rods, red blue yellow.)
Mantis Shrimp are seeing colors we can not.
That’s not even the strangest thing about them. They can also punch as fast as a .22 bullet which cause a cavitation bubble which can heat up to 8000 degrees or something.
Edit because it was late night: Cones see color! Rods see detail and light. And apparently it’s red blue green. Color is super strange anyway. It doesn’t really exist unless it’s perceived.
Humans see Red Green Blue (RGB) we actually don’t see yellow. And some types of green appear as different colors to us.
Well despite our RGB cones, humans DO see yellow, it's just that the experience of color is a product of the mind. Without the mind red, green and blue doesn't really exist either, it is all just arbitrarily different wavelenghts of the quanta of light. So yellow is as true of a color as red, the only difference is that both green and red cones are activated. But they are activated by the equivalence of yellow, and our mind correctly places it between red and green, which is where "yellow" wavelengths exist. The processes of visual perception is really complicated and exists on the border of consciousness itself, which we know very little about. So it's not as straight forward as "we only see RGB". Physics, huh? What a wild thing
Load More Replies...Sounds like a couple of you need to get your ish together
Nope. it is the other way round, rods see light intensity only, whereas tge cones can detect colour. The rods are more sensitive, which is why they get the primary role in making us see in low light conditions -which is the eplanation for why "in the darkness, all cats are grey".
I've always wondered if the red I see is the same as the red other people see. or is it colour subjective.
Compared with the three types of photoreceptor cell that humans possess in their eyes, the eyes of a mantis shrimp have between 12 and 16 types of photoreceptor cells. Furthermore, some of these shrimp can tune the sensitivity of their long-wavelength colour vision to adapt to their environment. Mantis shrimp - Wikipedia Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Mantis_shrimp
Some people also have yellow cones, but they are only active in females.
Umm no - rods are for movement and are not in the center of the eye - which is why we see movement better at about 45 degrees. Cones are for color and you regulate light by your pupils dilating and shrinking.
Ocean’s Gentle Giant
Blue whales are estimated to produce around 20 liters of semen each time they ejaculate
Really bp, you couldn't find 1 picture of a blue whale, and had to use a pic of a humpback? 🤦♀️
Should've used a picture of Joey drinking a gallon of milk for this one.
Somewhat surprised Japanese haven't turned it into a delicacy.....or did they and I am just ignorant
Photo is a humpback. Sorry to be that person, but someone had to say something!
Pocket-Sized Passenger
Kangaroos can’t hop backwards. So if you’re ever attacked by one, just step behind him. Thanks Snapple!
Stepping back would only help if it attacked you while you were standing behind it though......
You could also sneak up behind a kangaroo, cover its eyes and shout out »surprise«...🦘
Load More Replies...Male kangaroos have a bifurcated penis. Two tips, one base. Yeah and their penises are black.
I had to look that up. One website (not sure how reliable) says it's true, female kangaroos have two uteruses and some (but not all) males have two penises to impregnate both uteruses simultaneously.
Load More Replies...The Ultimate Hide-and-Seek Champion
Wombats poops in a square form.
I used to have a wombat. More cuboid than pure cube. Like a rounded cube. Wouldn't make great dice.
I am giggling, imagining what shape of poop you think WOULD make good dice.
Load More Replies...I was waiting for this one when my daughter was little she came home from school and filled me in on wombats!
Is it bad that I kind of want to get a couple to coat and make into dice?
Nest Level Wisdom
Yes the egg came before the chicken. As the division of sex came long before vertebrate life. However it's looking like sperm came slightly before the egg cell.
Bacteria and early multi cell lifeforms are WEIRD
"sperm came slightly before egg cell". I haven't heard that before but it does make sense. A key word is "opisthokonta", a group that includes all animals, fungi and some flagellate amoebas. The sperm is a flagellate cell. So sperm were around before the first animal.
The answer to, "which came first, the chicken or the egg," depend on what you're asking. Taken literally, the egg came first, as dinosaurs laid eggs. If you're asking, "which came first, the chicken or the chicken egg," then it depends on how you define a chicken egg. Is a chicken egg an egg laid by a chicken or an egg with a chicken in it? If you mean an egg laid by a chicken, obviously, the chicken came first. But if you mean an egg with a chicken in it, obviously the egg came first. But this ignores the fact that there really was no first chicken. Because evolution happens very, very slowly, there would never be a single animal that was not a chicken that laid an egg with a chicken in it, and there was never an animal that wasn't a chicken that would lay an egg with a chicken in it.
How can you have a spermcell without an egg for it to fertilise? What is the point of it then?
Also chicken eggs can be born female an male when they are in the egg
Mental Liberals, if this has been disproved by science then there must be a peer reviewed published journal article out there that you have read in your research. Care to share the link?
Load More Replies...Busy Without Breaks
When finding nectar bees swarms in random direction and when bee find the source of nectar the go back to their hive Bees communicate with other bees where the nectar is located by their special dance which indicates
1. Direction of nectar with respect to sun
2. Exact Distance of nectar from the hive
3. Time before sunset (this point is controversial as there is only one research paper available)
Try this: When bees are trying to source nectar they flying in random directions. When they find it, they report back to the hive, and communicate this information to their hive members in the form of 'the waggle dance'. They tell the hive the direction to fly, and how far away it it.
Load More Replies...Yes it Has Been Observed Many Times now as The Bee Does a Specific Waggle Dance telling all others of a Really Good Food Source!
Buzzing With Attitude
Some insects don't have a brain, instead using their whole nervous system to think. As a result, I recently saw a video of a decapitated wasp trying to eat its own head.
They have been quiet, along with Zara, for a while.
Load More Replies...Not true, all insects have some form of brain. But it's true they are sometimes not as centrally focused in one single area, like their brain stem can extend down their body. So some can lose their head for a while before dying. Insect brains are sometimes pretty advanced even compared to our brains, like they are faster and more effective than mammal brains, leading to surprisingly intelligent behaviors, in for example bees, with very few neurons.
Rats are ticklish, and they laugh! The noise is just so high-pitched that humans can't hear it without special equipment
Female Spotted Hyena's have a "pseudo-penis". They give birth from this. I cannot even imagine because it sounds traumatic.
Many don't survive the birth process because of the truama.
Load More Replies...Male stoats have a penile bone. Wolverines mark their food with urine and musk to prevent other animals from stealing it. Sea cucumbers vomit their intestines.
I really miss them all. They were fun to pounce.
They've started pruning threads down again, making posts that don't survive the cull unreachable. Amateurism, copy/paste faux "journalism", oh well.
Rats are ticklish, and they laugh! The noise is just so high-pitched that humans can't hear it without special equipment
Female Spotted Hyena's have a "pseudo-penis". They give birth from this. I cannot even imagine because it sounds traumatic.
Many don't survive the birth process because of the truama.
Load More Replies...Male stoats have a penile bone. Wolverines mark their food with urine and musk to prevent other animals from stealing it. Sea cucumbers vomit their intestines.
I really miss them all. They were fun to pounce.
They've started pruning threads down again, making posts that don't survive the cull unreachable. Amateurism, copy/paste faux "journalism", oh well.
