Here are a few of the strangest things that animals actually do!
9 - Exploding Toads Exploding toads?!
Yes.
We’re literally talking about toads that explode, not some punk band from Seattle.
Back in 2005, hundreds of toads were found to have exploded in Hamburg Germany.
And without Ace Ventura, pet detective to solve the case, Hamburg natives turned to
Frank Mutschmann, amphibian expert.
At first, scientists were completely baffled at how this phenomenon actually happened.
But Frank was able to get to the bottom of the case.
It took him several weeks to find the answer, but it was well worth it.
The reason that toads were exploding was because of the work of highly intelligent crows.
During his investigation, he studied toad species both alive and croaked, and found
that they all had these surgical like circles on their backs….about the size of a crow’s
beak.
Turns out, these clever birds figured out how to carve out a circle on the toads backs
with surgical like precision.
Their goal?
To eat the toad’s livers!
This particular species of toad had toxic skin.
So the crow couldn’t eat the whole toad.
That’s definitely to the advantage of the toad, except, somehow, the crows figured out
they could still eat toad liver and be fine.
However, only once the toad’s liver is actually gone does the toad realize that a predator
has been around.
It puffs itself up as a natural defense mechanism.
But since the toad doesn't have a diaphragm or ribs, without the liver, there wasn’t
anything to hold the rest of its organs in.
The lungs stretch out the toad’s body and yeah…..the explosion happens.
Seriously, how did the crows figure out they can still eat the liver though?!
8 - Game of Moles Mole rats seem harmless enough, right?
Well that depends on who you ask.
If you ask another mole and they can actually talk, they’ll probably give a very interesting
answer!
In fact, you’ll be surprised to know that the world of mole rat politics is actually
very cutthroat!
The reason why is because these rodents live in a hierarchical society, with one dominant
female reigning supreme.
Only the alpha female gets to breed in these societies while the other mole rats are tasked
with taking care of the queen’s offspring and serving the queen’s needs.
One example of this social dynamic is that lower ranked mole rats actually eat the queen’s
poo!
And amazingly enough, that’s because the queen’s poo is filled with hormones and
nutrients, and THAT’S actually how she communicates with the lower ranking mole rats.
There’s a lot more that goes on in the mole rat social hierarchy, but we’re not going
to get too deep into the details here.
So how do female mole rats get to be the queen?
Well, basically by being the biggest female mole rat.
Everyone serves her until she’s not the most dominant mole rat anymore.
The problem for the queen is that other female mole rats will actually plan a coup for another
female to become queen, when the time is right.
So the queen actually never gets to rest.
The way for a queen to assert her dominance is to reproduce over and over again…...something
that has to be super tiring!
7 - Stomping Grounds When we think of elephants, we think of their
trunks and their sheer size.
And maybe sometimes we’ll notice how big their ears are.
However, a lot of their communication isn’t used by those big floppy ears!
A 2001 study by Stanford University revealed a rather surprising nugget of information.
Elephants can actually communicate with their feet!
Which, when you consider that elephants weigh a solid six tons, it actually makes sense
that they use all that weight to their advantage.
Let’s check out an interesting elephant scenario.
A mama elephant charges at a would be predator to protect her young.That part is normal.
Lots of mama animals ferociously attack predators to protect their offspring.
But in the case of elephants, they’re also communicating to other elephants.
When they walk, they’re sending seismic waves that other elephants can detect.
Elephants apparently can detect these seismic signals some 20 miles away, through their
feet!
What scientists ultimately found was that Elephants communicate through a series of
acoustic rumbles and low frequency vocalizations.
So without getting knee deep into scientific jargon, all we need to know is that Elephants
can communicate and hear with their feet!
6 - Skin Shedding Gecko
There’s probably a Geico insurance joke in here somewhere, but we’ll leave it to
the professionals using Geckos to help people save a bunch of money on car insurance.
But Geckos do more than just help sell insurance!
Especially if they’re skin shedding fish Geckos.
This gecko species can shed its skin whenever it needs to.
This fish-scaled gecko isn’t the only lizard species that can shed its skin as a survival
tactic, a skill that’s already quite crazy.
What’s fascinating about this particular species is the size and thickness of the scales
it can shed.
Their transformation almost makes them seem as if they’re an X-Men character!
When a predator approaches, this fish-scaled gecko can shed their scales down to the MUSCLE
in a matter of seconds!
Of course, when they shed their skin, they go into hiding for a while to regenerate their
scales.
And that’s why it’s extremely rare to see these geckos in their almost raw chicken
like state.
Their scales regrow within a few weeks time, which is a small price to pay for not getting
eaten.
5 - One Direction
For the average person, there probably aren’t too many interesting things about dog poo.
However, there miiiight be one exception to that rule.
Did you guys know that dogs actually do number 2 in alignment with the earth’s magnetic
poles?!
Yes, basically, all dogs like to poo in one direction!
This is according to a 2014 study released by the journal Frontiers in Zoology.
Based on a sampling of a lot of various dog breeds and presumably a whole lot of dog poo,
the study found that dogs prefer to be aligned with the north-south axis when they’re doing
their business.
So at this point, the fairly obvious question is…..why do they do this?
Well, even the experts aren’t sure.
It’s essentially still a mystery to scientists why dogs align at all and whether they do
it consciously or subconsciously.
We don’t know whether dogs are like “Dude, I’m not going here unless I’m aligned
north-south bruh!”
Or if it’s a behavior that just happens to feel good for a dog.
We’re just wondering how many dog walking sessions did it take for a scientist to start
noticing his dog always went in the same direction?
4 - Sensing Danger
At this point we’ve established that crows are pretty clever creatures.
However, that’s not the ONLY trick they have up their sleeves!
Writing for National Geographic, Liz Langley outlined how crows actually hold funerals
for their homies.
That in and of itself is pretty mind blowing.
The reasons why, Langley explains….are actually much more interesting!
Crows aren’t the only birds that actually pour one out for their homies.
Jays and ravens have all been observed partaking in this ritual.
Just a while back we talked about how crows surgically remove the liver of a toad for
a snack.
The toads then explode.
So crows don’t seem to be all up in their feelings, and surprise surprise, they’re
not!
According to the journal Animal Behavior, crows hold these gatherings not to mourn the
passing of their fellow bird, but rather to assess the area for potential danger.
Apparently, crows will remember where a bird passed, and then approach that area with caution
from then on.
In fact, they took the study in a strange direction to test out the crows memories.
It basically involved people in masks and a group of very suspicious crows.
In a nutshell, the people in the masks represented danger, as they were holding passed away crows,
and the living crows responded by sounding the alarm to their fellow birds.
Weeks later, the people in the masks, who look a lot like characters from a typical
horror film, went back to the location, this time empty handed.
The crows still remembered them and still sounded the alarm warning other crows to be
careful.
And now we know that crows have really good memories.
They may not be all that sentimental, but at least they’re looking out for each other!
3 - Not a Snake
For many humans and animals alike, snakes are scary and dangerous.
And lethal.
And this amazingly, isn’t lost on some clever caterpillars who somehow have figured out
a way to disguise themselves as snakes!
The Hawk Moth Caterpillar is harmless.
No venom, no poison.
But they LOOK really dangerous.
Well, okay.
They can look really dangerous when they need to.
When they’re startled, the Hawk Moth Caterpillar can morph into what appears to be a venomous
snake!
They’ll even do jab at the air, threatening to do a fake bite if a predator gets too close!
As far as disguises go, looking like a snake when you already have the body for it is probably
the best way to go.
These caterpillars often fool birds that want to eat them for breakfast.
Filipe DeAndre, a filmmaker for National Geographic, was absolutely amazed the first time he saw
one in real life.
He watched one of these caterpillars transform into a fake snake right in front of him.
They typically live anywhere from 10 to 30 days, so seeing one in real life is a rare
sighting.
During that time, a small portion of it is spent molting, which is when they can morph
into a snake look-a-like at will.
2 - Rat King
Have you guys ever heard of a rat king?
And nope, it’s not a hip hop group from New York City!
A rat King is a collection of rats whose tails have become intertwined and bound together.
Pretty much like how we stuff phone cords in our bag, and they become tangled from whatever
sort of magic that happens.
But why does this happen to rats?!
This animal anomaly is pretty rare, yet somewhat well documented.
The first recorded instance was way back in 1564 in Germany.
The term “Rat King” or “Rattenkönig” as the Germans would have said, was derived
from the vernacular back in those days.
Back then, someone who lived off of other people apparently was called a rat king.
Anyway, rats have been found intertwined together at the tail throughout history, and the reasons
for this are as inconclusive as they are weird.
An article from Atlas Obscura has a theory that baby rats may have bound themselves together
in an effort to keep warm, and got stuck that way, all to their demise.
In some cases, the number of rats intertwined can get upwards of more than 30!
Today rat king remains can be found in museums, such as the Otago Museum in New Zealand.
And the reason they end up in museums is because it’s a really rare occurrence.
Rat kings are also present throughout human folklore….usually as a bad omen.
Who knows, maybe rat kings are actually all over the place in New York City….or Paris!
1 - 279 Pieces Have you guys ever heard of the Planarian
Flatworm?
This worm can do something that we humans can only dream about.
Essentially, this worm can regenerate itself over and over again!
If you were to cut a Planarian down the middle, you’d end up with two planarian worms.
That’s already pretty cool; each cut body section can essentially become a clone.
However, there’s more.
Their ability is possible thanks to stem cells known as neoblasts.
These worms can regenerate both its head and brain, and somewhat miraculously, the memories
stored inside its brain as well!
This seems to suggest that there’s cellular memory, the theory that data can be somehow
stored by cells that are outside of the brain.
Although that’s something scientists are still trying to figure out.
However, that’s not all.
It turns out, almost ANY small piece of the worm can regenerate back into a full worm,
brains and all!
Scientists have managed to regenerate 279 worms by separating one worm into 279 pieces!
If that’s not actual magic, then it’s mighty close!
Here’s what’s next!