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Animal Facts that are surprising/amazing/weird

Judge said:
Me: "Ok, Mookie, let's do some tricks!"
My Yorkie: "Take it up with my union."


Holy Cow. :cool:
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At those shows, I find the running humans more interesting overall. Dogs act a lot smarter if there's real work to do, it needs their special abilities, and the owner knows it's really a partnership. One time, a runner in the wilderness broke her hip, and, after about a day, just told her city-raised dog to find help. It ran off, and was spotted by a rancher checking for wolves. Re-telling the story for TV, he said something I'd never expected to hear there - "Dogs know things." He readily understood the "Follow Me!" body language, and was led right to the patient.
 
1717275260476.png




Meet this 'walking' fish thriving in the depths Pacific Ocean
https://curlytales.com/a-rare-walki...on-also-found-over-100-new-aquatic-creatures/
 
If goldfish are kept in water that has a temperature in the 40s Fahrenheit, they will go into hibernation. They will barely move or breathe, staying at about the same depth in the water and can live that way for weeks.

Zebra fish can live in water over 100ºF.

Betta fish can breathe air.

Sea lions never need to be wet, they use the water to thermoregulate.

They have visible external ears, walk with their hind legs and can outrun a human. They also live in groups. Seals are the opposite in all these ways. Solitary lives, they have ear holes flush with their skin and they cannot walk with their hind quarters, they drag them.

Dogs do not have a sold ring of bone around their eyes.

The female Southern Blue whale is the largest animal we know of to have lived on earth and can be more than 100 feet long.

Orcas are the ocean's top predator, they hunt everything else, nothing hunts them. They like to eat Great White shark's livers and will kill them just for that. Killer whales can learn new hunting techniques and pass them on in one generation.

If you see a brown seagull, it is a juvenile. They do not become all white until adulthood.

Tropical glass fish are so completely clear, you can see their hearts beating.

Turtles live in water and land. Tortoises live only on land.

Alligators have tremendous crushing strength with their jaws, they have very little strength to open them. When touched on the nose instinct forces them to open their mouths.
 
Outdated said:
There has been very little evolution in Australia for a very long time. We have two mammals that lay eggs, the Echidna and the Platypus. The feed their young milk so they are mammals, but they lay eggs instead of giving live birth.
View attachment 97007
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G'day from WA! I love our monotremes. When the first platypus skins were received in England, biologists thought they were hoaxes made up of bits of this and that, and spent ages looking for the stitches
 
The Australian Woma python (and its larger cousin the black-headed python) are the only pythons in the world that don't have labial pits. Labial pits are the small 'holes' along the sides of the upper lip, which are lined with heat-sensitive nerves. They can detect temp differences of 0.1C, and help the snake to locate its prey in the dark. Biologists consider the Woma and Black-headed pythons to be 'primitive' because they lack these pits, but IMO they're obviously able to hunt successfully or they wouldn't exist!
https://herpetoculturenetwork.com/heat-pits-explained/Here's a Woma python.....
1717469008320.jpeg
 
Jeff T said:
Horses, at group level, apparently recognize themselves in mirrors.
A consideration regarding self awareness?
So far, some primates, dolphins, magpies, one elephant and a fish! have also passed this test.
Dogs and cats have not.
I wonder what other animals would pass the test? Pigs? Goats?

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-021-01502-7
https://theconversation.com/horses-can-recognise-themselves-in-a-mirror-new-study-158447
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I had cats years ago. One time I moved the furniture around in my room, including my free-standing tall mirror. One of my cats came in, saw his reflection in a new place, and attacked the intruder!
grommet said:
If goldfish are kept in water that has a temperature in the 40s Fahrenheit, they will go into hibernation. They will barely move or breathe, staying at about the same depth in the water and can live that way for weeks.

Zebra fish can live in water over 100ºF.

Betta fish can breathe air.

Sea lions never need to be wet, they use the water to thermoregulate.

They have visible external ears, walk with their hind legs and can outrun a human. They also live in groups. Seals are the opposite in all these ways. Solitary lives, they have ear holes flush with their skin and they cannot walk with their hind quarters, they drag them.

Dogs do not have a sold ring of bone around their eyes.

The female Southern Blue whale is the largest animal we know of to have lived on earth and can be more than 100 feet long.

Orcas are the ocean's top predator, they hunt everything else, nothing hunts them. They like to eat Great White shark's livers and will kill them just for that. Killer whales can learn new hunting techniques and pass them on in one generation.

If you see a brown seagull, it is a juvenile. They do not become all white until adulthood.

Tropical glass fish are so completely clear, you can see their hearts beating.

Turtles live in water and land. Tortoises live only on land.

Alligators have tremendous crushing strength with their jaws, they have very little strength to open them. When touched on the nose instinct forces them to open their mouths.
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Hope you don't mind the slight correction, but from a zoologist's point of view, true turtles are 100% aquatic (apart from when they come ashore to lay their eggs), live in the ocean, and have limbs shaped like flippers for swimming. They can't walk. Terrapins are semi aquatic, live in fresh water, and have webbed feet. Tortoises are 100% terrestrial and have solid feet. Unfortunately, many terrapins around the world have been mis-named as turtles, like the West Australian long-necked turtle, who's biologically a kind of terrapin. x
 
Cassandra65 said:
I had cats years ago. One time I moved the furniture around in my room, including my free-standing tall mirror. One of my cats came in, saw his reflection in a new place, and attacked the intruder!

Hope you don't mind the slight correction, but from a zoologist's point of view, true turtles are 100% aquatic (apart from when they come ashore to lay their eggs), live in the ocean, and have limbs shaped like flippers for swimming. They can't walk. Terrapins are semi aquatic, live in fresh water, and have webbed feet. Tortoises are 100% terrestrial and have solid feet. Unfortunately, many terrapins around the world have been mis-named as turtles, like the West Australian long-necked turtle, who's biologically a kind of terrapin. x
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Thank you for correcting me. I am happy to learn more. I did not know enough about turtles. When I worked in a pet store we sold Red Eared sliders, they seemed to spend almost all of their time in the water, I can't remember if I saw them come out of it. They would lift their heads up to take a breath.
 
grommet said:
Thank you for correcting me. I am happy to learn more. I did not know enough about turtles. When I worked in a pet store we sold Red Eared sliders, they seemed to spend almost all of their time in the water, I can't remember if I saw them come out of it. They would lift their heads up to take a breath.
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Red eared sliders are terrapins, but may hide more in the water in captivity if there's not much cover for them on their bit of 'land'. They don't like being exposed out of water - they're usually pretty slow movers and it's too easy for predators to get them. All of the animals we're discussing breathe air - even sea turtles have to come up for air, although they can stay underwater for extended periods (up to seven hours in cold water when they're sleeping!). An advantage of being what used to be called 'cold-blooded'.
Their feet are by far the easiest way to tell them all apart.
Here's a red-eared slider sunbathing near my dad's house in the UK (there are loads over there - so many idiots have 'set their pets free' in local waterways); s/he's safe from predators because he's quite big, and his place on the log is a fair bit away from the shore. You can see he's been using this fallen tree for a few years - look how much bark and wood he's eroded off the top of the tree with his bottom shell rubbing as he climbs on and off. He has webbed feet (which you can just about see in this pic) and long claws on his toes.
1717515314726.jpeg
 
Cassandra65 said:
Red eared sliders are terrapins, but may hide more in the water in captivity if there's not much cover for them on their bit of 'land'. They don't like being exposed out of water - they're usually pretty slow movers and it's too easy for predators to get them. All of the animals we're discussing breathe air - even sea turtles have to come up for air, although they can stay underwater for extended periods (up to seven hours in cold water when they're sleeping!). An advantage of being what used to be called 'cold-blooded'.
Their feet are by far the easiest way to tell them all apart.
Here's a red-eared slider sunbathing near my dad's house in the UK (there are loads over there - so many idiots have 'set their pets free' in local waterways); s/he's safe from predators because he's quite big, and his place on the log is a fair bit away from the shore. You can see he's been using this fallen tree for a few years - look how much bark and wood he's eroded off the top of the tree with his bottom shell rubbing as he climbs on and off. He has webbed feet (which you can just about see in this pic) and long claws on his toes.
View attachment 130705
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This is wonderful, like a nature special just for me. I think I remember seeing their webbed feet.

Do tortoises ever go in the water? I have a seen a story several times about the oldest one in the world that we know of, named by the British and more than 200 years old. I have also heard of tortoises in the United States with musket balls in their shells.
 
grommet said:
This is wonderful, like a nature special just for me. I think I remember seeing their webbed feet.

Do tortoises ever go in the water? I have a seen a story several times about the oldest one in the world that we know of, named by the British and more than 200 years old. I have also heard of tortoises in the United States with musket balls in their shells.
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Tortoises need to drink water, but I'm not aware of them deliberately going into it. All 'cold-blooded' animals tend live a lot longer than warm-blooded ones; I've heard of tortoises living to around 200, there was also a koi carp in Japan that lived to well over 200! My degree is in Zoology, and I've done a lot of wildlife care; always happy to share my knowledge and info x
 
Cassandra65 said:
Tortoises need to drink water, but I'm not aware of them deliberately going into it. All 'cold-blooded' animals tend live a lot longer than warm-blooded ones; I've heard of tortoises living to around 200, there was also a koi carp in Japan that lived to well over 200! My degree is in Zoology, and I've done a lot of wildlife care; always happy to share my knowledge and info x
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One of my favorite subjects so it is exciting to know you are a zoologist.
 
Cassandra65 said:
Hope you don't mind the slight correction, but from a zoologist's point of view, true turtles are 100% aquatic (apart from when they come ashore to lay their eggs), live in the ocean, and have limbs shaped like flippers for swimming. They can't walk. Terrapins are semi aquatic, live in fresh water, and have webbed feet. Tortoises are 100% terrestrial and have solid feet. Unfortunately, many terrapins around the world have been mis-named as turtles, like the West Australian long-necked turtle, who's biologically a kind of terrapin. x
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As a herpetologist, I can concur, but these delineation are pretty typical commonplace in the British Isles, as well.
 
The singing sound mosquitoes make is caused by their wings beating at a velocity of between 450 and 500 Herz. They are not animals ,but it is an interesting fact.
 
grommet said:
I think that is fascinating. It is too bad that that sound in my ear is the worst feeling.
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Hertz is a frequency, not a velocity. The distinctive mosquito sound is due to the flex in their wings. The frequency is distinctly higher after a meal, when the wing loading can double. If you let a bloody one get away, it will produce hundreds more hunters.
 
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