Hello and welcome to natural world facts top 5 weird animal facts. In this episode, we’ll
explore strange animals from the eerie zombie sea star to the alien ocean sock.
Number 5: The plant that ‘eats’ bats
A scientific expedition to Borneo in 2014 was shocked when they captured these images
of bats, seemingly being eaten by the carnivorous pitcher plant, which usually consumes insects
that are attracted to its sweet, nectar fluid. Upon closer inspection, however, it seems
these plants provide a perfect, cool place for bats to rest during the heat of the day.
In return, the plant gets sustenance through the poo that the bats leave behind. Its a
perfect symbiotic relationship and not, as it seemed at first, the first bat-eating plant.
Number 4: Ocean sock?
This strange, luminescent tube had scientists stumped for ages. It lacked an organisms usual
characteristics of eyes or a mouth and looked simply like a giant floating sock. However
it was recently discovered that this was in fact living, but wasn’t just one organism.
This was a pyrosome, a mass of thousands of tiny animals called zooids, stuck together
like glue and trapping and eating plankton.
Number 3: Red crab swarm
For thousands of year, there has been a mass annual migration of tens of millions of red
crabs on Christmas island from the forests down to the shore to mate and for the females
to lay their eggs in the sea. But on recent migrations, thousands of these crabs had been
dying for unknown causes. It was soon discovered that the culprit was an invasive species to
the island, known as the yellow crazy ant. They immobilised the crabs by spraying formic
acid in their eyes eyes and leg joints, soon killing the crabs which would become food for the ants.
Number 2: Pilot whales mass beaching
In February 2017, hundreds of whales died after beaching themselves at a remote beach
in New Zealand; over 650 pilot whales have beached themselves on a 3 mile stretch of
Farewell Spit on the country's South Island. Over 330 of them died, 220 remain beached
and 100 have made it back to sea. But why are these creatures suddenly beaching themselves,
and all at the same time.
Pilot whales travel in pods following a matriarch out to sea. If the group navigator is dead
or injured it could explain why the group is repeatedly getting lost and stuck in shallow
water. There is also evidence that naval ships sonar’s could be driving them into these
waters. But the real reason remains unknown, however at least some science will also come
out of the tragedy that may help researchers understand and prevent future mass strandings.
Number 1: The ‘zombie’ sea stars
A very disturbing new behaviour was witnessed in sea stars on Americas west coast. They
were observed pulling off their own arms, which then appear to crawl away from the body
on their own. This behaviour was observed all along the pacific coast, from Alaska to
Mexico, with over 20 different species of sea stars tearing themselves apart. But what
had taken over these zombie starfish?
Well, on every single species, each of their limbs is identical, and contains their vital organs.
Much like lizards tails, sea stars can regrow their limbs if it is torn off by a predator. Some
species can regrow their entire body from a single arm, so long as a small part of the
central disc remains.
But this still doesn't explain why sea stars are simply losing their limbs with no sign
of danger nearby. This could be a way of reproducing; by splitting in two
and creating a new sea star. But in this case, the are disintegrating and dying, littering
the Pacific coast with bodies. Well, in 2014, scientists announced that they had in fact
found what was causing this devastation. It was a newly-discovered diseases called sea
star associated densovirus. Unfortunately, it remains unknown why it has suddenly caused
all this destruction now when it has actually existed since the 1940’s.
Thank you for watching, join me next time for more weird animal facts. Leave a suggestion
for the next episode and let me know how many of these you knew in the comments below.