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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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#1
Crows recognize individual people even if they are wearing disguises and after many years. (The people are wearing disguises, not the crows.)
#2
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.
#3
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
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.
#4
Female dragonflies will fake being dead in order to stop unwanted male advances.
#5
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!
#6
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.
#7
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.
#8
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.
#9
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.
"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.
#10
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.
Jayne Kyra 2 years ago
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.
#11
Roosters deafen themselves temporarily every time they crow, so that they don’t damage their own hearing.
#12
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.
k1ddkanuck 2 years ago (edited)
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.
#13
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.
#14
Woodpecker tongues wrap around the back of their brains. This helps the brain stay protected during high speed pecking.
#16
The spines on a Tiger's tongue are sharp enough to lick skin clean off of muscle.
#17
All halibut are male until they reach 45 inches in length. They then all become female.
#18
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.
#19
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.
Aran Lindvail 2 years ago
They will also absolutely eat dead chickens. They are tiny dinosaurs, after all.
#20
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
#21
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.
Mozzarella 2 years ago
Ok I am now very creeped out and slightly depressed myself. Penguins being depressed makes me depressed.
#22
Platypus' glow teal under a UV light, so Perry the Platypus is actually the correct color.
#23
Snakes don't have eyelids. If you see a snake blink, that's a legless lizard.
#24
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.
#25
Sharks are older than Dinosaurs, Trees, and *the Rings of Saturn*.
Sharks are old as f**k.
#26
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.
#27
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
#28
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*.
#29
Penguins have a gland above their eye that converts saltwater into freshwater
#30
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.
#31
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.
DennyS (denzoren) 2 years ago
As someone on a tropical island...yes, coconuts are an ever present danger.
grey galah 2 years ago
...and that's why you never sleep under a coconut tree. Same goes for Eucalyptus trees too; their branches are designed to fall off.
Marion Friedl 2 years ago
I heard that before, that won´t ever happen to me because I won´t ever get into a tropical area in this life.
#32
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.”
#34
Pacu fish have teeth that look exactly like people’s. They evolved to chew nuts that fell into the water.
#35
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.
What do you think ?
Abby Harrison 2 years ago
im surprised, the square wombat poop isn't on here. best thing i ever learned from a TV show. Thx Seth McFarland
Chaotic-Pansexual (she/they) 2 years ago
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...
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
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!
Marion Friedl 2 years ago
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.
Mustavo Gaia 2 years ago
Next time, they should add a post about pirarucu tongue: https://youtu.be/YznKB8a1O7o
Jeralynn Masker 1 year ago
Humans have striped skin, we just can't see it. Although there is a medical condition in which some people's stripes are visible
Abby Harrison 2 years ago
im surprised, the square wombat poop isn't on here. best thing i ever learned from a TV show. Thx Seth McFarland
Chaotic-Pansexual (she/they) 2 years ago
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... Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
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!
Marion Friedl 2 years ago
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.
Mustavo Gaia 2 years ago
Next time, they should add a post about pirarucu tongue: https://youtu.be/YznKB8a1O7o
Jeralynn Masker 1 year ago
Humans have striped skin, we just can't see it. Although there is a medical condition in which some people's stripes are visible
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