Some fish have human teeth, some birds speak perfect English, and some primates go to war
just as hard as humans do.
These are the animals that will make you think, "we're not so different, you and I."
"Look, he thinks he's people."
The sheepshead fish is what's known as a sport fish.
That means that if you wanted to, you could go down to the Gulf of Mexico, catch one,
cook one, and serve it up with some lemon and garlic.
But first, you'd have to get over the way it's smiling at you.
The sheepshead fish is called that supposedly because it has a head like a sheep.
But really, all anyone cares about is that it has teeth like a human.
And this isn't exactly a million-dollar smile; if a person grinned at you like this, you'd
probably find it creepy.
When a fish does it, it's just insane.
The sheepshead's teeth are even structurally similar to a human's teeth, complete with
a yellowish enamel coating.
But why did this animal evolve such creepy human teeth?
Well, it uses them to break the shells of its prey, which includes things like crabs,
mussels, and barnacles.
Now just try not to imagine it wrapping those teeth around you.
Native to central Chile, the coruro is basically an oversized rat, or maybe an undersized capybara.
It has long, curved teeth like a sabre tooth tiger, glossy dark fur like a beaver, and
ears kind of like you.
If you disagree about the resemblance, keep in mind – mouse ears usually look a lot
more billowy, like this.
It's kind of a thing.
So why does the coruro have ears so different from most rodent varieties?
According to a study in the Journal of Comparative Physiology, the coruro has super sensitive
hearing and can detect sound at low frequencies, which is the opposite of how most rodents
hear.
This could be because coruros live in communal burrows, but tend to hang out aboveground,
so they need to be able to pick up the vocalizations of their buddies in both enclosed and open
environments.
But that still doesn't explain why their ears need to look like human ears, because compared
to a lot of animals, human hearing is actually pretty terrible.
In other words, they aren't copying us – it's just a weird coincidence.
The "uncanny valley" is a term some people use to describe how it feels to look at something
that's sort-of but not-quite human.
"You see, that's a scary smile she just gave there."
It's usually used to describe creepy, human-looking robots that don't quite do the right things
with their fake mouths, eyes, and whatnot.
But the term also applies to the feeling you get with a weirdly-human-looking animal.
Even when the resemblance is only a slight one, it can make you kind of feel like you've
ants crawling around in your skin.
With that in mind, meet the whitemargin unicornfish, the human-faced saltwater species that some
people enjoy putting in their own aquariums.
The species hails from the Indo-Pacific, living in small schools in outer and deep-water reefs,
so it can more effectively surround and horrify unsuspecting divers.
The "nose" of the fish, officially called a "horn," is often longer than most human
noses – but it's still more or less in the right spot on the fish's face to be upsetting.
If you don't think a bird could look like a human, then you've never seen a harpy eagle.
Granted, the human resemblance kind of vanishes as soon as this bird takes flight, but when
it's just sitting around, chilling, and staring at you, there's something about it that seems
all-too-familiar.
The weirdest thing about the harpy eagle is its size, with some being longer than adult
humans are tall.
With its square shoulders, broad chest, round face, and penetrating eyes, the eagle has
the uncanny look of a human dressed in a weird costume.
It even has thick feathers on its head that resemble a prominent brow ridge.
Primates are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, and they have many features
in common with us, from their hands and feet to their faces.
They also sometimes behave in ways that remind us of ourselves, so that "uncanny valley"
sensation is kind of familiar.
But some primates cross the line, with features you've never thought to associate with anything
but a human being – like mustaches.
The emperor tamarin is one example of a mustache-wielding monkey, and some of them have more impressive
facial hair than a lot of human beings.
In fact, the emperor tamarin is kind of like the monkey version of Hulk Hogan, only without
the wrestling chops.
According to Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, the emperor
tamarin may have been named for the German emperor Wilhelm II, who had a similarly glorious
mustache — though it actually pointed in the opposite direction.
We don't know exactly what the mustache is for, but there's been some speculation that
the monkeys might use it to identify each other.
After all, no matter how big the crowd is, it's never hard to pick out the guy with the
giant, white mustache.
Fish lips are a funny thing, and a great example of Mother Nature's sense of humor.
Haven't we all killed some time standing around in front of an aquarium, watching fish swim
around doing that thing with their mouths?
And who among us hasn't made a funny fish-lip face of our own?
Beyond the usual goofiness, most fish lips aren't that impressive.
But a few fish out there have impressively plump, full lips that wouldn't look out of
place on a runway model.
Meet the Mdoka white lips cichlid, which hails from Lake Malawi.
It looks just as silly as any other fish, just with the lips turned up 110%.
The size is one thing, but why the white lips?
According to aquarium fish experts at Imperial Tropicals, it's only the mature males that
have them, though no one really seems to have any theories for what exactly they're for.
Because they give the fish a sort of "come hither" look, maybe it's a mating thing.
We don't think it's sexy, but hey, maybe the other fish do.
"Guardians of the Galaxy" made raccoons cool and sort of badass creatures in the 21st century
– but deep down inside, they will still always be trash pandas.
"Is that better?"
"I don't know."
Look, we love animals, but raccoons can push some buttons.
Raccoons eat your cat's food, tip over your garbage can, and if they can get their hands
in your chicken coop, they will pull your hen through the wire in a million tiny pieces.
Also, their feet are strangely human-looking.
They've never answered for this.
According to the Center for Northern Woodlands Education, raccoons have hands that work almost
like human hands, but they lack opposable thumbs.
As a result, their hands don't look a lot like human hands, even though they use them
for many human tasks, like washing food, opening boxes, and kidnapping chickens.
If you think raccoon hands are strange, the raccoon's feet are even weirder.
From the bottom, they look shockingly similar to a human foot or hand.
Why?
Well, we don't know.
Raccoons are surprisingly adept at standing on their back legs, so maybe their feet are
shaped that way to help them blend in while they sneak into your garage to bite everything.
In a terrifying twist, raccoons can also rotate their back feet 180 degrees, which assists
them in climbing up and down vertical surfaces.
That's right – if these domestic menaces weren't already freaky enough, they also have
"Exorcist" powers in the palm of their… palms.
Red foxes don't look anything like people, and they certainly don't smell anything like
people, but they sometimes do sound like people.
And not in a "hiya, I sound like a person" kind of way, either — it's more like "oh,
no, someone is getting killed in our backyard."
"While seeing the fox during the day is one thing, hearing them scream at night is something
entirely different."
[Screams]
According to Live Science, red foxes scream bloody murder just like people do when they're
being, you know, bloodily murdered.
It's worth noting that this is not the only sound red foxes make — they actually have
around 20 different calls in total.
Most of them are identifiable as animal noises, like barks, yips, and growls.
But if you happen to be lying awake late one night while everyone else is asleep, and a
red fox makes that one other sound just outside your bedroom window — well, your first instinct
might be to call 911.
If you survived the heart attack, anyway.
[Screams]
What's even weirder is what red foxes use this particular call for.
Evidently it's usually the females that scream like banshees in the night, and they do it
for the sake of wooing nearby males.
Because nothing says "I want to be your girlfriend" like a horror movie shriek.
The point of the call is that it travels a long distance, which helps ensure that no
potential suitor within miles could possibly fail to take notice – and unfortunately,
that sometimes includes you.
Some monkeys have a sort of comical resemblance to human beings.
They have mustaches, faces like grumpy old men, or they look cute in a hat and vest.
For other monkeys, the resemblance kind of crosses a line.
It's obviously a monkey, but there's something in its eyes or the shape of its face that's
just a little too familiar, a little too not-monkey.
From a distance, the golden langur looks like an ordinary monkey.
It's dressed like an especially orange Elton John, but it's got long arms and legs like
any other tree-swinging primate.
Get a little closer, though, and its face starts to look uncannily human, though it's
hard to really pinpoint exactly why.
It might be the shape of the eyes or the placement of the nose, or the straight mouth.
None of the features are exactly person-like, but taken together they are close enough that
you feel like you're looking into the face of someone you've met before.
According to the New England Primate Conservancy, there are between 6,000 and 6,500 golden langurs
living along the border between India and Bhutan.
They weren't classified until 1956, and science still doesn't know much about them — including
why they have faces like people.
The animal kingdom has produced some fascinating creatures, but through selective breeding
practices, humans have too.
Dachshunds and hairless cats wouldn't last five minutes in the wild, because they're
supposed to be safe at home with us
Sometimes, animals are also bred to have qualities that are, well, sort of human – like the
hair of the Afghan hound.
According to Afghanistan Analysts, the breed's ancestors were prized for their excellent
eyesight, which made them valuable hunting dogs.
It was only after they were discovered by Europeans that breeders decided to take the
dogs off the hunt, and get their hair looking glamorous instead.
Everyone has a voice that plays in their head when they imagine what a parrot sounds like
– "Polly want a cracker," anyone?
Most people expect parrots to sound kind of gravely and shrill, which each sentence usually
including a nonsensical screech.
So it might surprise you to hear that an African grey parrot mimicking a human actually sounds
nothing like that parrot in "Pirates of the Caribbean."
In fact, the African grey parrot sounds so similar to a human being that if you were
blindfolded, you actually might not be able to tell the difference between the voice of
the parrot, and the voice of someone you know.
"Hi, my husband is a delivery driver.
He just called me saying that one of the doors he just knocked on, there was somebody saying
'help me' on the inside."
"Help me!"
According to Scientific American, African grey parrots evolved to mimic other birds,
and that talent also happens to carry over to mimicking human beings when they're living
in captivity.
This skill isn't unique to African greys, but they are especially good at it.
"How about an owl?"
[hoots]
"The pretty songbirds?"
[songbird chirps]
"How about a rooster?"
[rooster crow]
It's actually an advantage for birds to learn their calls versus having them genetically
programmed.
Groups of parrots can develop local dialects, which helps them distinguish family members
from strangers.
Good mimicry also requires skills like listening and memorizing, which in turn makes for a
smarter species.
So when these birds are kept as pets, they learn their "calls" from the people they live
with — and they're so good at it that they learn to sound not just like humans, but like
the specific people they've come to know best.
Rhesus monkeys don't look much like humans, at least not compared to other primates.
But they do have some similarities that are even more uncanny than mere physical features.
Rhesus monkeys have an advanced sense of morality, which until recently was something that scientists
thought was limited only to human beings.
While plenty of people would swear that their precious pets have hearts of gold, when it
comes to rhesus monkeys, science has actually confirmed it.
In a 2014 study published in Psychonomic Science, researchers confirmed that a hungry monkey
won't flip a switch that releases food if the action also delivers an electric shock
to another monkey.
Interestingly, not all monkeys in the study seemed to care if their friends got an electric
shock or not, which actually also parallels human behavior – some people are nicer than
others, after all.
Some humans would hold monkeys captive, shock them, and withhold food from for the sake
of science.
Other people would take a pass on that, and learn all about it from a video like this.
Another thing scientists used to think was a uniquely human quality is the concept of
tool-making.
Turns out, that's clearly not true.
Jane Goodall debunked this idea in 1960 when she observed chimpanzees stripping the leaves
off of sticks so they could be used as bug-catching devices.
Impressive as it may be, it's not super-surprising behavior for a chimpanzee, especially since
chimpanzees share like 96% of our DNA.
What is surprising is when this quality shows up in other animals, especially ones that
don't look anything like us.
In addition to having an advanced ability to problem solve, New Caledonian crows can
also manipulate objects in their environment to solve problems, and can even make tools.
And the crows that participated in the 2018 experiment that made this observation weren't
just stripping the leaves off of a stick, either.
Instead they were actively solving novel problems, combining tools they had at hand, and adjusting
their tactics to suit their needs.
Researchers gave the crows a locked puzzle box filled with food that could only be opened
with a long stick.
Unsurprisingly, the crows all figured out how to open the box with the long sticks the
researchers left lying around.
But when the researchers gave them only short sticks to use, half the crows figured out
how to put them together to create the longer stick they needed in order to unlock the boxes.
That's not even something most humans learn to do until around the age of 5, so… yeah.
Point goes to the crows on that one.
Prairie dogs are cute, but they're also rodents — and humans really don't like to imagine
that rodents can be smart.
You've seen "Planet of the Apes?"
Well, think "Planet of the Rats."
If you think it couldn't happen, consider this: Prairie dogs are no ordinary rodent.
They don't just squeak like a mouse or chatter like a squirrel.
Instead, they have an actual language.
According to biologist Con Slobodchikoff, a researcher who's been studying prairie dogs
for 30 years, the animals have different calls to tell other members of their colony about
different kinds of threats.
But it's not just basic threats, like "flying predator" or "ground predator."
They have calls that distinguish dogs from coyotes, calls that distinguish large dogs
from small dogs, and calls that distinguish black dogs from brown dogs.
Evidently, they can also describe the size and clothing color of a person, the speed
at which the person is moving, and they can also note whether or not the person is carrying
a weapon.
This discovery kind of slips into bonkers territory when Slobodchikoff suggests people
might one day be able to make a device that can translate animal sounds into human words,
much like the dog collars in the movie "Up."
"Speak!"
"Hi there."
"Did that dog just say 'hi there?'"
"Oh yes."
"Ah!"
Chimpanzees are our closest relatives, and there are a lot of things they do that are
eerily similar to the things humans do.
They have personalities, they can laugh, they walk upright, and they can get sick with many
of the same diseases that afflict human beings.
They can also start wars.
Like real, actual wars that drag on for years and have many casualties.
According to Discover, the most famous chimpanzee war happened during the 1970s in Gombe National
Park in Tanzania.
The war started when a group of chimpanzees broke away from the main group and tried to
establish their own territory.
For years, the two groups would send "war parties" into each other's territory, and
by 1974 it got bad enough that the northern chimps were regularly invading southern territory
for the sole purpose of killing rival males.
It was mostly a one-sided war, with northern apes killing southern apes, but it went on
for nearly eight years until all the southern males were dead.
The northern group then expanded their territory into the former range of their rivals, and
the war was over.
This is not the only documented chimpanzee war, either, which just goes to show you that
animals can sometimes look like us, behave like us, and be horrible to each other, just
like us.
It's almost comforting to think about.
Almost.
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