Hey guys, it’s Chris!
Do you really swallow spiders in your sleep??
Can you get warts from touching frogs?
Listen closely and I’ll tell you about 10 things you shouldn’t believe about animals.
10.
EARWIGS LAY EGGS IN PEOPLE’S EARS.
Many people believe that earwigs burrow into your ear canal for a safe, warm place to lay
their eggs.
But they don’t.
Like many other superstitions, it’s hard to determine exactly how or why this one got
started.
The Columbia Encyclopedia speculates that the earwig’s nocturnal habits may have something
to do with the origins of this old wives’ tale; or, perhaps, that their abdominal secretions,
which have a waxy odor, may be partially to blame.
At the end of the day, though, nobody knows for certain the circumstances surrounding
the formation of this belief - or even why the earwig is called an “earwig.”
Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, which was written during the first century A.D.,
contained the first known mention of an earwig.
The text contained suggested remedies for handling an invasive earwig.
Over the next several hundred years, similar references were made in various texts.
One of the reasons this myth perpetuates is because every now and then, an earwig happens
to make its way into someone’s ear - just like any other insect.
However, there’s no scientific evidence pointing toward the human ear as a favored
place for the creepy insect to lay eggs, and earwigs are harmless.
9.
EVERYONE EATS SPIDERS IN THEIR SLEEP
Chances are, you’ve heard some version of this all-too-common tale, which generally
goes like this: on average, a person eats X amount of spiders in their sleep.
Every now and then, while you’re warm and cozy in bed, snoozing away with your mouth
open, a nearby spider decides to crawl right in.
Somehow, you end up swallowing it in your sleep.
Well, I have good news, especially for those of you who have a deadly fear of spiders:
this isn’t realistic, and for the most part, it isn’t true.
Is it impossible to eat a spider in your sleep?
Technically, no.
It could happen.
But it’s unlikely.
A spider probably isn’t going to see a reason to climb into your mouth, and I don’t blame
them - I mean, who wants to get eaten alive by a sleeping giant?
If you try telling someone that this spider-eating myth is just that - a myth - there’s a good
chance that they’ll need more convincing, since people tend to mistakenly associate
a myth’s popularity with its credibility.
Robert Crawford, the arachnid curator at Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture,
is no stranger to explaining to people why it isn’t true.
Spiders have no interest in people or in beds because neither typically hosts the type of
prey they’re after.
They are probably even scared of the movements of a sleeping human - if something thousands
of times your size was snoring, tossing, and turning, would you go near it?
I didn’t think so.
According to Crawford, spiders perceive vibrations and other movements as warning signs of danger.
In the event that a spider does get anywhere near a person’s face or mouth, the sensation
of it crawling around will probably wake them up before it can be ingested or swallowed.
8.
LEMMINGS COMMIT SUICIDE
Sometime during the 1530s, a geographer proposed that lemmings fell from the sky during storms.
That was just the beginning of the long-standing and legendary myth that the critters commit
suicide en mass when they migrate.
The rumor became even more popular in 1958 when Disney released an Academy award-winning
nature documentary called “White Wilderness,” which featured horrific footage of lemmings
hurling themselves off cliffs.
But these scenes were actually staged by filmmakers, who threw the lemmings off the cliffs to imitate
“real-life behavior” that they were unable to capture otherwise.
The lemming’s population trends also contribute to the myth that they commit suicide.
They migrate in large groups, and as a result, the lemming population drops to near-extinction
every three to four years, only to eventually spike again.
It’s also not unheard of for lemmings to jump off unfamiliar cliffs and into the water
while they’re migrating, and if the journey is arduous enough, it can result in exhaustion
or death.
But they do not commit suicide.
7.
TOADS CAN GIVE YOU WARTS Warts are caused by the human papillomavirus,
or HPV - a virus that is not carried by toads, thereby making it impossible for humans to
contract warts by touching a toad.
The bumps that some toads have are special glands that produce defensive toxins to deter
predators - this means that you still probably shouldn’t touch one, but you also won’t
grow warts if you do.
6.
IF YOU TOUCH A BABY BIRD, ITS MOM WILL REJECT IT
There is an upside to this myth - it keeps people, especially children, from disturbing
wildlife that is best left untouched and admired from a distance.
According to legend, if a person touches a baby bird, their scent rubs off on it and
its mother will reject it when she detects the unfamiliar aroma.
Birds don’t have a keen sense of smell, though - and, like most animals, they will
not abandon their beloved offspring over a strange or even bad odor.
Having their nest disturbed will cause a bird to flee, however, so it’s best to back away
slowly if you happen upon one.
When it comes to birds and most other animals, the default rule is not to touch.
Even if you see a baby bird on the ground, you should leave it alone.
Its mother is probably nearby and may even be waiting for you to go away so she can retrieve
her hatchling.
If you are ever seriously concerned about the welfare of a wild animal and don’t feel
right leaving it where you found it without making sure it’s going to be okay, you still
shouldn’t touch it.
Instead, call your local environmental authority.
They’ll know what to do.
5.
CAMELS STORE WATER IN THEIR HUMPS
While it’s true that camels can go seven days without drinking water, it is not true
that they store water in their humps.
Thanks mostly to their oval-shaped red blood cells, as opposed to the circular red blood
cells most animals have, camels are able to avoid fatal dehydration far longer than most
animals can.
Their humps don’t contain water, but they do provide a major advantage - camels’ humps
are mostly composed of fat and store the same amount of energy as about three weeks’ worth
of food.
A camel’s kidneys and intestines can be credited for their amazing ability to retain
water.
These organs are so efficient, a camel’s urine has the consistency of a thick syrup.
4.
AN OLD DOG CAN’T LEARN NEW TRICKS
Many people believe that there’s a narrow window of time during which a dog can be trained
- usually while they’re still a puppy.
Regardless of their age or their level of stubbornness, however, most dogs can, in fact,
pick up on new commands, with fifteen minutes of training daily for two weeks.
The saying that you “can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is more accurately reflected
among humans, who sometimes tend to become set in their ways and simply refuse to learn
new things.
The moral of the story?
Don’t let this myth deter you from adopting an adult or senior dog, and if you’re running
into some hurdles with training your puppy or dog, try to have some patience.
Chances are, they’ll get the hang of it eventually!
3.
BEES DIE AFTER STINGING SOMEONE ONCE
This is true, but only for honeybees.
A honeybee’s large stinger, which contains backward-facing barbs, gets lodged into its
prey and can’t be pulled out without causing a fatally ruptured abdomen.
In other words, the honeybee faces an almost-certain fate of being disemboweled when it stings
a human or any other mammal with thick skin.
On the other hand, several species are capable of stinging multiple times, including carpenter
bees, bumble bees, and wasps.
2.
CERTAIN RED FOOD DYES CONTAIN BUGS
Have you ever been sipping on a strawberry Frappuccino from Starbucks, only to be cautioned
by someone nearby about how your refreshing beverage was dyed using the smooshed-up corpses
of thousands of bugs?
Well, I have.
Before these nay-sayers get too excited, however, they should probably do some fact-checking.
While this was once the case, Starbucks stopped using dye with bugs in it in April 2012.
Before then, however, the coffee giant did, in fact, color their strawberry Frappuccinos
using red dye, or “carmine color,” which is made from ground-up insects.
The bugs that are used for this dye are called cochineal bugs, and are harvested and pulverized
by farmers in Central and South America to create a deep red ink.
Although Starbucks no longer uses “carmine color,” it continues to be a popular dye
for thousands of food and cosmetic products, including Nerds and lipstick.
1.
GOLDFISH HAVE A 3-SECOND MEMORY
It’s rumored that goldfish have an incredibly short short-term memory, lasting around three
seconds at most.
Science has proven otherwise, by a long-shot.
Goldfish are actually able to remember things for up to five months, and this was proven
by two different studies.
In one of the studies, goldfish learned that by pressing a lever in their tank at a certain
time each day, they’d receive food.
During the next study, fish were taught to associate a certain sound with the receipt
of food.
An astounding five months after the study ended and the fish had been released back
into the wild, they were tested with the sound and responded to it!
This newfound knowledge has the potential to be used for less than honorable purposes.
Fish farmers who are looking to save on the costs associated with raising goldfish could
possibly develop a way to train them to respond to sound, release them into the wild, and
“call” them back during harvest time.
The next time someone “warns” you about an animal or shares their “expertise”
with you, remember to always check your sources.
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I’ll see you next time!