Strange Animal Facts

Discussion in 'Pets & Critters' started by Ken Anderson, Mar 16, 2018.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    These can be facts about strange animal or strange facts about regular animals.
    • Polar bears are not actually white. They appear white because their fur is comprised of hollow, transparent, pigment-free hairs, which scatter and reflect light, similarly to the way that snow crystals do. Beneath the fur, a polar bear's skin is black, which is how the animal appears when photographed with a film that is sensitive to ultraviolet light.
    • The purpose of camouflage is not always to hide from predators. Sometimes the best defense is to appear as unappetizing as possible. For this reason, the caterpillars of several species of moths have evolved to look like bird droppings.
    • Some hole-nesting birds, such as the European blue tit, will hiss like a snake if disturbed while they incubate eggs and care for their young. A dormouse is capable of doing the same thing if something encroaches on its space.
    • When threatened, a hognose snake may flatten its head like a cobra, raising it in the same manner. If this does not deter the would-be predator, it might roll over and play dead, even going so far as to let its tongue hang out of its mouth while emitting a foul odor that simulates the smell of a rotting corpse.
     
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  2. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    As a kid, my folks got me a kitten from my Dad's kid-brother's in-laws. While there, several revealing and memorable things were said (I've remembered this, after all, for 65 years now!). They also had a female dog, which was known to have eaten some of it's own pups. My Dad countered that remark by stating that the cleanliness and fastidiousness of cats is hard to beat. After giving birth, a momma cat severs the umbilical cords carefully with her teeth, and proceeds to EAT the cords and placenta.

    Is that true? Frank
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I think a lot of animals do that. In all fairness, there are people who do that too.
     
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  4. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Ken Anderson
    Jeez, I'm not sure what to say.
     
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  5. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    I said 'UGH' !
     
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  6. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Almost all "prey" animals eat the placenta and other remnants of birth to avoid attracting predators. Even most domestic animals--goats, cattle and sheep do it as instinct. I remember "introducing" my wife to hognose snakes before we were married. She grew up in small-town Iowa, had spent very little time in the woods, and was raised by a parents who detested snakes. When we were hiking one day, I came across a hognose sunning itself on the path. I picked up a stick and poked it to get it to move so my lady could pass. It reared up, flared its neck, and rattled its tail in the leaves. My fiancée screamed and thought we had come across a rattlesnake-cobra cross in the Illinois woods. I found it hilarious!
     
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  7. Aniri Ciocan

    Aniri Ciocan Veteran Member
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    I got some strange facts too:
    1. The only mammals to undergo menopause are elephants, humpback whales and human females.
    2. A tarantula spider can survive without food for more than 2 years.
    3. Horses use facial expressions to communicate with each other.
    4. Reindeer eyeballs turn blue in winter to help them see at lower light levels.
    5. A single strand of spider silk is thinner than a human hair, but also five times stronger than steel of the same width. A rope just 2 inches thick could reportedly stop a Boeing 747.
    6. Only the males are called Peacocks. Females are called Peahens.
    7. Baby elephants suck their trucks for comfort. (that is so cute)
    8. Animals behaviorists have concluded that cats don't meow as a way to communicate with each other. It's a method they use for getting attention from humans.
     
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  8. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    Spiders' silk has never been farmed commercially because the small quantities produced by spiders, combined with their tendency to eat one another, makes this impractical. However, small quantities of spider silk have been used for fishing lines, the cross-hairs of optical instruments and even violin strings.
     
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  9. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    And now they have GMO goats that produce spider's silk.
     
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  10. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    Watched the View this morning- and Joy, has an uncanny knowledge of many animals and their sexual habits. it was funny and
    informative at the same time. There were to many for me to remember ...oh it wa a hoot of a show !
     
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  11. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    You're pulling our leg, right?
     
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  12. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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  13. Aniri Ciocan

    Aniri Ciocan Veteran Member
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    Male-ring tailed lemurs will "stink fight" by wafting scent at each-other.
    Rats are ticklish.- So are orangutans :D
     
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