Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share The Most Obscure Animal Facts They Know

People Share The Most Obscure Animal Facts They Know
Humberto Ramirez/Getty Images
Make us preferred on Google

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.

psychoflow

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.

Dwargen

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

zoolyne

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.

eugenesbluegenes

Doesn't Matter Egg-Size, They're Still Terrifying

Ostrich eggs are both the largest and the smallest.

  1. They are the largest viable single cell that exists in the world today.
  2. 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

hulkhogan304

Agent P, No!

That the fur of a platypus is poisonous

sharkbite138

Kanga And Roo Only Head One Direction In The 100 Acre Wood

Kangaroos cannot hop backwards.

zackmophobes

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

CyrusDaSquid

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.

whatshisfaceboy

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

iamlazyboy

No One Can Hear You Scream

Giraffes does not have vocal chords.

They can't make sounds unlike other animals.

BIZARRE_TOWN

Sinister Cuddles

Pandas sometimes are unaware that they have given birth and in some locations roll over and suffocate the baby.

WetBread_777

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.

net_traveller

That Took A Turn...

Otter mates hold hands while asleep to avoid drifting away

Males also rape baby seals to death

SSJRobbieRotten

...what was that now?

At the end of mating season, some ducks penises will fall off and then regrow next season

Rocksaltz-wid-a-z

Humans Didn't Do Everything First

Giphy

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.

whatissevenbysix

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!

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Professor Robert E. Kelly’s daughter interrupts his now-viral 2017 BBC News interview.
BBC News

Viral 'BBC Dad' Shows Off New Photos Of His Very Grown-Up Looking Kids—And Fans Are Stunned

Ah, 2017. We were younger. We were innocent. We thought accidentally announcing La La Land instead of Moonlight as Best Picture was about as chaotic as things could get.

Then “covfefe” happened. Salt Bae happened. And somewhere in Busan, South Korea, a 4-year-old girl confidently marched into her father’s live BBC interview and straight into internet history.

Keep Reading Show less
Olivia Colman shows off her signature pixie cut during the "Wicker" Premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Olivia Colman Just Showed Off Her New Long, Grey Curls On The Red Carpet—And Fans Are Obsessed

If there’s one hairstyle Olivia Colman has made her own over the years, it’s the pixie cut. So, naturally, her latest transformation had fans doing a double-take.

On Monday, September 28, the Oscar winner stepped onto the Wicker premiere carpet at the Zurich Film Festival sporting long, voluminous grey curls that fell past her shoulders. Colman paired the side-swept style with an all-white Celine ensemble as she posed alongside costar Alexander Skarsgård.

Keep Reading Show less
Anne Hathaway
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

People Can't Believe How Different Anne Hathaway's Voice Sounds During Her Pregnancy

Anne Hathaway has been creating a lot of buzz since announcing not just her third pregnancy, but her third pregnancy that's taking place in her forties.

While it's common knowledge that a person's body will go through changes while pregnant, some potential symptoms are lesser-known and at times surprising.

Keep Reading Show less
Dennis Haskins
Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

'Saved By The Bell' Cast Shares Poignant Tributes To Dennis Haskins After His Death At 75

Actor Dennis Button Haskins IV was best known for the role he played off and on for 28 years, from 1987 through 2015, which included a couple of memorable cameos culminating in a 2015 reunion sketch with most of the kids from the first hit series, Saved by the Bell, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The sketch featured Fallon alongside original cast members Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zack Morris, Mario Lopez as A.C. Slater, Elizabeth Berkley as Jessie Spano, Tiffani Thiessen as Kelly Kapowski, and Haskins as the befuddled but beloved Principal Richard Belding.

Keep Reading Show less
Donald Trump
Matthew Maxey/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Video Of Trump Getting Handsy With Handsome Male Golfer Has The Internet Weirded All The Way Out

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump served as the honorary chairman of the Presidents Cup international golf tournament at Medinah Country Club in Chicago.

It was Trump's first time in the Illinois city since his second term began in 2025. Chicago, its leadership, its people, and Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker have been frequent targets for ridicule and puerile insults from the POTUS.

Keep Reading Show less