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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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#1

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know When a female sloth wants a mate she'll hang onto a tree branch and just scream.

Remarkable_Sink2542 , Roxanne Minnish Report

Final score:
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#2

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know octopus punch other fish for no reason- so, for fun.

Samanthalynn8915 , Serena Repice Lentini Report

Final score:
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Lavender Myst
Lavender Myst
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How do we know the fish didnt say somethin nasty in bubblease?(j/k) Like "your mother was a blowhole breather"

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#3

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know cats have the mental capacity of a 2 year old which makes a lot of sense

Alive_Ad823 , Peng Louis Report

Final score:
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troufaki13
troufaki13
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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! 😅

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#4

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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.

seedanrun , Pixabay Report

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#5

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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.

DaniGeek , Annika Thierfeld Report

Final score:
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Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#6

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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.

Schwarzes__Loch , Bernd Hofmann Report

Final score:
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#7

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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.

nonexistantauthor , Sumeet Moghe Report

Final score:
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#8

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Dolphins will intentionally use puffer fish to get high.

altkaldra , HAMID ELBAZ Report

Final score:
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#9

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know The Blanket Octopus exhibits the highest degree of sexual dimorphism known. Females: About 6 feet across. Males: About one inch.

Fabulous-Pause4154 , Isabel Galvez Report

Final score:
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Zoey Bear
Zoey Bear
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Do the males wear big belt buckles and drive oversized pick-up trucks?

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#10

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain

DMD612 , Adriaan Greyling Report

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#11

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Woodpeckers' tongues wrap around their brains to cushion them from the vibrations of slamming their face into trees all day.

we_made_yewww , Chris F Report

Final score:
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Shelli Aderman
Shelli Aderman
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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 Woodpecker-Tongue-Diagram-by-Denise-Takahashi.png

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#12

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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

atom1129 , Marshal Hedin Report

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XenoMurph
XenoMurph
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#13

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Owls have really long necks, but it's hard to notice that because their feathers are so fluffy

ergonaut , Fábio Scaletta Report

Final score:
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HelluvaHedgehogAlien
HelluvaHedgehogAlien
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They also have really long legs and wings. But all the choose to do all day is look cute… until night comes

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#14

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Dragon flys have the highest kill rate out of any flying predator.

Excellent_Priority_5 , Jude Infantini Report

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Floeckchen
Floeckchen
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11 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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%

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#15

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Cats can get pregnant while being pregnant.

Odd_Zombie_1 , Leonardo de Oliveira Report

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LuckyL
LuckyL
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We can also get pregnant while pregnant. The chances are just really low.

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#16

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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.

WakingOwl1 , Klaus Report

Final score:
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Gandalf the Pink
Gandalf the Pink
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It is also one of the only five mammals that lay eggs. I swear platypuses and octopuses are aliens on Earth...

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#17

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Armadillos always have offspring in quadruplets

Uncle_Bill , Dan RO Report

Final score:
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#18

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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

SuzannaEmberwolf , NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC Pascagoula Laboratory Report

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#19

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Does will eat their offsprings feces in order to keep predators from even recognizing there are babies around.

tunaonigiri , Siska Vrijburg Report

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Wubbleyew
Wubbleyew
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

English is stupid and so am I. Took me a few reads to realise 'does will' was not asking if a will does something.

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#20

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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

MaxximumB , Angela Roma Report

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arthbach
arthbach
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#21

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Killer Whales are actually dolphins.

IslandVibezJaylen , Pixabay Report

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arthbach
arthbach
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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

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#22

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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.

RigzDigz , Roy L. Caldwell Report

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Annymoose
Annymoose
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sigh....no they don't see colors we can't, their eyes just aren't as complex, hence the extra rods. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2014.14578

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#23

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Blue whales are estimated to produce around 20 liters of semen each time they ejaculate

tunaonigiri , Thomas Kelley Report

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#24

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Kangaroos can’t hop backwards. So if you’re ever attacked by one, just step behind him. Thanks Snapple!

Alarming-Ad9441 , Ondrej Machart Report

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#25

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know Wombats poops in a square form.

RSA_Hybrid , JJ Harrison Report

Final score:
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Fee
Fee
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to have a wombat. More cuboid than pure cube. Like a rounded cube. Wouldn't make great dice.

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#26

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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

altkaldra , Alison Burrell Report

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David Paterson
David Paterson
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"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.

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#27

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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)

Usual-Blueberry-8864 , Pixabay Report

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#28

28 People Share The Weirdest Animal Facts They Know 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.

MarcoYTVA , Pixabay Report

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