Hey, you know what there's a lot of cool facts about? Animals. Like, there's so many of them and they have so many fascinating and interesting traits. Like, um...
Why don't we leave it to the people below to lighten our day with some outrageous facts?
Reddit user, u/brandork__135, wanted to know the cookiest and craziest animal deets when they asked:
What is the most obscure animal fact you know?
They Hold Them To A High Bird Standard
My favourite one is about the ravens at the Tower of London.
They can be (and have been) dishonorably discharged for poor behaviour. Such as Raven George, who was posted to the Welsh Mountain Zoo in 1983 due to "conduct unsatisfactory, service no longer required", after he fell in with a bad crowd and started attacking TV aerials.
There's quite a few more that have been discharged for "conduct unbecoming Tower residents", but Raven George is my absolute favourite <3
That Way They Can Rock Forever
Giphy
Lobsters are one of the few species on earth that do not naturally undergo the process known as senescence.
This means their body/cells do not deteriorate with age. Besides being captured or eaten, the only thing that can kill a lobster is the stress produced by shedding its exoskeleton.
Inner Protection On The Outside
The reason why marsupials have pouches.
It is because their bodies don't have a standard placenta like most mammals, offering no protection for embryos against the mothers immune system. So instead they are born super early, and the newborn marsupial will crawl into the mothers pouch, clamp down on a nipple in the pouch, and wait in there until they are properly developed.
The War of The Rats
There are two distinct species of rats in Manhattan. Rat colonies are very territorial and will fight off other rats looking to join the colony. The young rats will actually practice boxing with one another and rat colonies will go to war with one another
Also, there's a group called R.A.T.S. of folks in NYC with rat terriers who go out hunting rats and post hunt reports online.
Doesn't Matter Egg-Size, They're Still Terrifying
Ostrich eggs are both the largest and the smallest.
- They are the largest viable single cell that exists in the world today.
- They are the smallest bird egg in proportion to the size of the mother
Now For Some Sadness...
Female ferrets just die after two weeks of being in heat and not finding a mate
Kanga And Roo Only Head One Direction In The 100 Acre Wood
Kangaroos cannot hop backwards.
How Do You Humans Only Operate With One Heart?
When octopuses (and yes that is the correct pluralization) swim, they are at risk of one their three hearts stopping
Never Eat What You Can't
Horses and rabbits can't vomit.
If they eat something they shouldn't or get food poisoning it could be very bad.
Slowest Death Imaginable
Sloths have so many bacteria over their claws that if they hurt you with [them] you can die for infection if you do nothing
No One Can Hear You Scream
Giraffes does not have vocal chords.
They can't make sounds unlike other animals.
Sinister Cuddles
Pandas sometimes are unaware that they have given birth and in some locations roll over and suffocate the baby.
Neither A Grower Nor Shower
Gorilla's, despite being the largest primate have the smallest penis.
The average gorilla penis is only 1.5 inches long when fully erect.
That Took A Turn...
Otter mates hold hands while asleep to avoid drifting away
Males also rape baby seals to death
...what was that now?
At the end of mating season, some ducks penises will fall off and then regrow next season
Humans Didn't Do Everything First
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We are not the first to invent farming.
The leaf cutter ants do not cut the leaves for themselves to eat. They bring those cut pieces into their nests where they 'grow' fungus on them, tending to them very carefully, making sure they get just the right amount of moisture, ventilation, etc. Once the fungus is grown they eat the fungus.
Essentially, ants invented farming a good 50 million years before we did.
A Few For The Road
- The nasal passage of chimpanzees and other apes are connected directly to their lungs, completely separate from the esophagus. Thus, they cannot choke on food like we can. Our throats have developed an epiglottis, which is the flap that opens when we breathe and closes when we swallow. This and other features of the pharynx make possible many more variations of sound compared to other primates.
- Animals of the same species or genus tend to be bigger when they live in cold climates. For instance, white-tailed deer that live near the equator are smaller than the same deer in northern latitudes. The same has been observed of birds, raccoons, cougars, and elk to name a few. This is because larger bodies have a smaller surface-to-volume ratio than do smaller bodies, which helps keep an animal warm. In other words, there is less heat-loss per square inch of body surface.
- Owls's eyes are fixed in their skull, which explains their signature behavior of head turning and bobbing in an effort to improve focus and depth perception.
What's an obscure animal fact you know of? Share it with us!
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