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Hello world. After sharing random animals facts with my abo (dad), I realized I know so much weird shit so here is a thread of things I find amazing about animals;
1. Flamingos are not naturally pink. They are born w/ grey feathers but turn pink in the wild cos of a natural pink dye called canthaxanthin that they obtain from their diet of brine shrimp & blue-green algae. Yes. Flamingos signature pink is from consuming shrimp.
2. Turritopsis dohrnii are also known as the 'immortal jellyfish' because they continuously cheat death.
3. Dogs' sense of smell is about 100,000 times stronger than humans', but they have just one-sixth our number of taste buds.
4. Horses use facial expressions to communicate with each other.
5. Wild dolphins are able to call each other by name.
6. Reindeer eyeballs turn blue in winter to help them see at lower light levels.
7. Squirrels are unable to burp or vomit.
8. Owls don't have eyeballs. They have eye tubes.
9. Male gentoo & Adelie penguins "propose" to females by giving them a pebble.
10. Speaking of which, Barn owls are normally monogamous, but about 25 percent of mated pairs "divorce."
11. Elephant’s trunks are sensitive enough to pick up a blade of grass & strong enough to rip the branches off a tree. Also used for drinking, sometimes even up to 14 litres of water at a time.
12. The heart of a shrimp is located in its head.
13. Snails are able to sleep for three years. (I’m jealous.)
14. Rhinoceros' horns are made outta hair.
15. It takes a sloth two weeks to digest its food.
16. Nearly 3% percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.
17. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
18. Bats are the only mammals capable of flying.
19. A single strand of spider silk is thinner than a human hair but also five times stronger than steel of the same width.
20. Sea lions are the first nonhuman mammals with a proven ability to keep a beat.
21. The fingerprints of a koala bears are so indistinguishable from humans that they have on occasion been confused at a crime scene.
22. It is possible to hypnotize a frog by placing it on its back while gently stroking its stomach.
23. Giraffes have limited vocal chords due to low air capacity in their tracheas.
24. Around 50 percent of orangutans have fractured bones, due to falling out of trees on a regular basis.
25. Chevrotain are animals that look like a tiny deer with fangs.
26. White faced capuchin male monkeys pee on their hands to wash their feet & fur. (Also to signal they are ready for a mate)
27. There used to be a type of crocodile that was able to gallop.
28. Moray eels have a second set of jaws that extends from their throats.
29. Panda’s have the rare ability to sleep anywhere & everywhere. If they sleepy? They just knock out right there. I’m jealous.
30. The assassin bug is a morbid lil fucker who wears the dead bodies of ants to ward off & confuse predators.
31.the strike of an eagle can be 2x stronger than a rifle shot.
32. The colossal squid not only has one of the largest eyes in the world but can be as long as a bus.
33. The closest relative to a Tyrannosaurus Rex are chickens.
34. The Slow Loris is a really adorable animal that happens to have a venom in their saliva fatal to humans. Their secret weapon.
35. The Cymothoa exigua, also known as the tongue-eating louse, is a parasite that replaces the tongue of its hosts & eats their foods directly, starving them to death before moving on.
36. Hippos kill more people in Africa than lions, elephants, leopards, buffaloes, & rhinos combined.
37. This tiny & adorable golden poison dart frog has enough venom to kill 10 adults.
If galloping crocodiles didn’t make you lose your shit then wait until you hear about the fact flying snakes still exist. They're able to glide in air for up to 330 feet & can even make turns & change direction midair.
39. You’re more likely to be killed by a bee than a shark.
40. There are several species of the horned lizards who are able to squirt blood from their eyes in defense.
41. Vampire bats are 100% real & do in fact live on blood.
42. This is what the inside of a geeses mouth looks like. Rather than traditional teeth made of enamel, they have hard, spiky cartilage known as tomium. It looks & functions the same way as a row of teeth, but it's a growth made from the beak itself.
43. There is a small deep sea creature known as the dumbo octopuses for its signature of having a pair of fins located on their mantle above each eye.
44. A naked mole-rat can move each of its front teeth separately, like a pair of chopsticks.
