With possibly many species out there, the Animalia is home to a number of the good , strangest, most mind-boggling individuals around. and every species has its own quirky behaviors that set it apart. Here's alittle sampling of a number of the stranger animal facts out there - and a reminder of how cool nature really is.
Butterflies drink turtle tears.
When all you eat are flowers, it are often hard to urge enough sodium in your diet. That's particularly true within the Amazon, which is particularly salt-deficient because it's stop from the ocean. So Amazon butterflies have turned to lachryphagy, or tear eating. Swarms of butterflies will descend on turtles, gently sipping the tears from their eyes to round out their diets. While they're hospitable drinking the tears of larger animals - even crocodiles - turtles are a favourite target because they're slow. The behavior's also been seen in bees and other insects.
Dung beetles navigate by the Milky Way.
A 2013 study showed that the small beetles use the celebs to orient themselves when traveling along on dark nights. Dung beetles will collect a ball of dung from a pile left behind by an animal, then roll it off somewhere where other beetles won't steal it. Since the insects wish to travel during a line , they use the Milky Way to direct themselves and keep from curving back. they will also use the sun and moon to navigate. While this behavior has been seen in animals like birds and seals, dung beetles are the primary insects confirmed to try to to so.
Dolphins don't sleep.
Well, that's kind of true. Rather, they are not unconscious once they sleep. Dolphins, orcas and other whales are conscious breathers, which mean they need to willingly take each breath and do not breathe automatically like humans do. So if they were to fall fully asleep, they might suffocate. Instead, dolphins and their cousins practice unihemispheric sleep - which suggests they close up one half their brain at a time and stay semi-conscious. It's why you do not see sleepy dolphins floating at the surface of the ocean nightly .
Squirrels use perfume.
While squirrels are quite scrappy, they'd rather avoid a fight. And what better to chase off a predator than a full-grown rattler? So when ground squirrels find sloughed-off rattlesnake skin, they'll chew thereon then lick it everywhere their little bodies. That way they smell like big scary snakes rather than tasty little squirrels, and predators are going to be scared off.
It's called self-anointing, andit isn't uncommon within the Animalia . Hedgehogs will sometimes kill toads in order that they can bite open their venom glands and smear it on their spikes.
It's called self-anointing, and
Crocodiles don't age.
When most animals reach the top of their lifetime , they begin to interrupt down and exhibit senescence, which we all know as aging: grey hair, tiredness, reduced appetite. Some animals, like crocodiles or tortoises, exhibit negligible senescence, or don't age - which suggests at 50 or 100 they're as perfectly fit as ever. As long as they need enough food, they will just continue to grow and growing. Of course, this does not make them immortal, as they will still fall prey to accidents or disease. But they stay fairly biologically young - which is why we get spry 112-year-old crocs and 183-year-old tortoises.
Owls keep pets.
While screech owl parents usually kill food before bringing it back to their babies, once they find blind snakes - which appear as if scaley worms - they'll drop them into the nest live. If the worm snake can make it past the hungry baby owlet beaks, he buries himself under the nest where he sets up a touch home of his own. There, he earns his keep by feasting on bug larvae, helping to stay the owl chicks safe from infestation. Like an edible little nanny.
Buffalo are democratic.
African buffalo travel in herds of up to 1,000 members, and it's no easy task to urge everyone to agree on where to travel next. in order that they vote thereon . together dedicated researcher observed, adult females will indicate their choice by standing up, gazing during a certain direction then lying backtrack - males aren't getting to vote. And if the choice is split? The herd will spend the night grazing in two different areas and meet within the morning.
Seagulls hunt whales.
A gull's diet usually consists of small fish, garbage, french-fried potatoes - the standard . But a gaggle of gulls - specifically, kelp gulls - off the coast of Argentina has found a stranger food source: 60-ton southern right whales. When the enormous whales surface to breathe, groups of gulls will descend on them, stripping off pieces of flesh and leaving them with gaping wounds up to eight inches long. They specifically target young calves and their mothers, knowing the babies are a neater meal - up to 99 percent of mom-baby pairs have lesions from the attacks, and therefore the feisty predators might be contributing to the high average calf deathrate within the area.
Octopus arms have their own brain.
Many animals have a central brain that dictates movements to the whole body. Octopuses have a central brain - but each tentacle has its own brain also . therefore the main brain needs only to send an easy message to at least one of the arms, where two-thirds of the octopus' neurons are located, and therefore the arm brain will figure it out from there. this suggests that if you cut off an octopus' arm (don't actually do this), the arm can still react love it would if it were attached to the octopus. And it looks like it's understanding well for them - octopuses are a number of the foremost startlingly intelligent animals out there.
Bedbug sex is violent.
Bedbugs are not any favorite of humans, because of their itchy bite marks and plague-like contamination abilities. But it seems they are not very nice to their ladies, either. rather than bothering together with his mate's reproductive tract, a male bedbug will take his sharp, pointy penis - and stab it right into her abdomen. Oh, but there must be some evolutionary advantage for the females, you say? Nah. Sometimes they die.
The brutal practice isn't unique to bedbugs. It are often found during a number of invertebrates, including a spider appropriately named H. sadistica.
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