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Elephants will cover a dead member of their herd with leaves and grass. They'll also carefully examine any elephant bones they come across, although they don't actually have "elephant graveyards."
Male dolphins will engage in penis fencing. Yep, just what it sounds like.
Chameleons don't change color to camoflauge themselves, their coloring actually corresponds to their mood.
Some dolphins make themselves "noseguards" out of sponges to protect their noses from getting scraped when they dive for food. It's not an instinct, but is taught to the younger dolphins by the older dolphins (usually passed down from mother to daughter.)
Orcas hunt in packs and will sometimes attack large whales. In one documented case the pack not only wounded a huge whale, but also several orcas draped themselves across its back like shawls to make it harder for it to surface for air and to slow it down.
Male dolphins sometimes form close bonds with each other. Sometimes a pair of males will forcibly separate a female dolphin from her herd. The logical assumption would be that they'd do this to mate with her, right? Except they do it with obviously pregnant females too!
Queen ants can live up to 20 years (which I kind of resent since my dog only lived 14 years.)
Orcas hunt in packs and will sometimes attack large whales. In one documented case the pack not only wounded a huge whale, but also several orcas draped themselves across its back like shawls to make it harder for it to surface for air and to slow it down.
They also play with their food. There's a section of Blue Planet that shows them hunting baby seals. When they finally caught one, they left it alive but tossed it around over the water. It was essentially torturing the thing, the whole time it was trying to escape, but the orcas had it completely within their control. It seemed like it was a social thing, a bonding thing for them.
Wonder_Hippie on
0
FandyienBut Otto, what about us? Registered Userregular
edited September 2007
Sea Cucumbers, if I remember correctly, also participate in penis fencing. They're asexual, so two of them will literally engage in a long penis-battle until someone is penetrated. The penetratee retracts the penis and is fertilized.
Also, I have no idea what animal this is, but it's from a webpage I found with a bunch of pictures of strange, deep-sea fishes-
There are awesome animals out there. The Emerald Cockroach Wasp is one of them. It will find a cockroach and sting it twice in the head, targeting specific ganglia. This removes the roach's escape reflex. The wasp will then lead the cockroach along by its antennae and the cockroach passively follows along. The wasp leads it to the lair, lays eggs on it, and seals the burrow, where the cockroach just chills. The larvae burrows into the abdomen of the roach and lives inside it, eating organs in a specific order to make sure the roach stays alive until it becomes a pupa, cocoons inside the roach, and four weeks later, bursts forth, facehugger-style.
Echidnas have two tails and can spin them rapidly to attain flight.
not really
That's FOXES, you dolt! ;-)
Oh right. Echindas are the ones that can glide for long distances, yeah?
Also, female dolphins can do some of the cool tricks their male counterparts can. They have very strong vaginas and are capable of manipulating objects, or grabbing your leg, for instance.
Some dolphins make themselves "noseguards" out of sponges to protect their noses from getting scraped when they dive for food. It's not an instinct, but is taught to the younger dolphins by the older dolphins (usually passed down from mother to daughter.)
I've always found leafcutter ants to be pretty amazing.
They harvest leaves, chew them up, and then feed them fungus, which they keep small farms of. They keep the fungus well-fed and free of pests until it is mature, and then eat it.
The platypus looks like it was made by a Dungeons and Dragons fan who just started pulling physical attributes from various animals and threw them together into one conglomerate beast. It wouldn't surprise me if the thing had Spell Resistance.
Well there are platypuses in Dungeons & Dragons: The dreaded thought eater, which looks like a skeletal platypus that saps mental energy.
Platypuses are neat. Not only are the males poisonous and they're adorable as hell and find prey through electrolocation but their very genes are all fucked up:
Because of the early divergence from the therian mammals and the low numbers of extant monotreme species, it is a frequent subject of research in evolutionary biology. In 2004, researchers at the Australian National University discovered the Platypus has ten sex chromosomes, compared to two (XY) found in most other mammals (for instance, a male Platypus is always XYXYXYXYXY). Furthermore, one of the Platypus' Y chromosomes shares genes with the ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes found in birds. This news further pronounced the individuality of the Platypus in the animal kingdom. However it lacks the mammalian sex-determining gene SRY, meaning that the process of sex determination in the Platypus remains unknown.
Ants also farm aphids and milk them for the fluid they secret by stroking their backs with their antennae.
Someone earlier mentioned cheetahs being the only big cat that can purr. That is close. They are the only big cat that can purr breathing both in and out. Most can only do it while exhaling. Cheetahs are also the only cats that cannot retract their claws. Their claws are more like dog claws.
Ring tailed lemurs will engage in stink duels, wherein they will rub their tales with the scent glands on their wrists, then flick their tales at each other until a winner is decided (somehow).
Manatees will have orgies and will mate happily with any other manatee, male or female.
Armadillos are one of the few animals that can contract and transmit leprosy to humans, partly due to their unusually low body temperature. The nine-banded armadillo has a tendency to jump straight up when startled, causing to often hit the bumper or undercarriage of cars that otherwise safely straddle them.
EDIT: Also that scallop thing is terrifying. I'm going to show it to my artist friend who loves to draw Lovecraftian monster and such.
There are a few species of fish that spend more time out of water than they do in it. One species has evolved so that its fins are similar to legs that drag it across mud. It also has special pouches that hold water, allowing it to breathe.
"A vampire squid from hell"? That's like an old 1950's horror film title. Badass.
More facts:
Elephants are known to have homosexual relationships.
Surprisingly enough, the largest predator on land isn't a bear, or a big cat. It's Mirounga leonina, known as Southern Elephant Seal. The record weight of these animals is FIVE TONS. That's one ton short of a elephant.
Orca (Also known as killer whale) is the largest currently living predator in the world. They hunt sharks like sharks hunt fishes. When scientists played Orca noises to captive sharks, they started to panic like crazy and were looking for an escape route.
"A vampire squid from hell"? That's like an old 1950's horror film title. Badass.
More facts:
Elephants are known to have homosexual relationships.
Surprisingly enough, the largest predator on land isn't a bear, or a big cat. It's Mirounga leonina, known as Southern Elephant Seal. The record weight of these animals is FIVE TONS. That's one ton short of a elephant.
Orca (Also known as killer whale) is the largest currently living predator in the world. They hunt sharks like sharks hunt fishes. When scientists played Orca noises to captive sharks, they started to panic like crazy and were looking for an escape route.
Elephants will cover a dead member of their herd with leaves and grass. They'll also carefully examine any elephant bones they come across, although they don't actually have "elephant graveyards."
I was watching a documentary on elephants recently; it showcased the travels one particular group go on every year. One of their number died, I can't remember what of, but they had to leave it. A year later, they passed on by that exact same spot, and found the remains. They lingered there far longer than was safe, because of the oncoming rains. They examined the bones and appeared to be crying - tears were leaking down the faces of the elephants examining the remains. They knew whose remains it was, because an elephant with tears running down it's face is displaying what it experiences as extreme emotion.
Elephants are awesome.
Rohan on
...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.
Elephants will cover a dead member of their herd with leaves and grass. They'll also carefully examine any elephant bones they come across, although they don't actually have "elephant graveyards."
I was watching a documentary on elephants recently; it showcased the travels one particular group go on every year. One of their number died, I can't remember what of, but they had to leave it. A year later, they passed on by that exact same spot, and found the remains. They lingered there far longer than was safe, because of the oncoming remains. They examined the bones and appeared to be crying - tears were leaking down the faces of the elephants examining the remains. They knew whose remains it was, because an elephant with tears running down it's face is displaying what it experiences as extreme emotion.
Elephants are awesome.
Elephants can sense underground water sources that are close to the surface, so they stopped to see if the water would spring up, and to memorize the spot for future use. The membranes in their ears are extremely sensitive to humidity. The dead elephant was just a marker. Remember this for future use: Dead Elephant = underwater well.
Not Kidding
ok, kidding.
Wedge Biggs on
I ain't never crossed a man who didn't deserve it. - Artis Ivey Jr.
"A vampire squid from hell"? That's like an old 1950's horror film title. Badass.
More facts:
Elephants are known to have homosexual relationships.
Surprisingly enough, the largest predator on land isn't a bear, or a big cat. It's Mirounga leonina, known as Southern Elephant Seal. The record weight of these animals is FIVE TONS. That's one ton short of a elephant.
Orca (Also known as killer whale) is the largest currently living predator in the world. They hunt sharks like sharks hunt fishes. When scientists played Orca noises to captive sharks, they started to panic like crazy and were looking for an escape route.
They emit sounds over great distances in frequencies that we can't hear. An elephant was recorded seemingly doing nothing, and then that elephant later died. The tape of that elephant seemingly just standing there and not making much noise was played to the rest of its herd. The herd had been with the elephant when it died, and when they heard the tape they became extremely agitated and fearful. They gathered around a baby elephant as if to ward off attackers. It was intrinsically 'wrong' for the elephants to hear the subsonic sounds of a dead elephant i guess, so they got reallllly weirded out.
Elephants will cover a dead member of their herd with leaves and grass. They'll also carefully examine any elephant bones they come across, although they don't actually have "elephant graveyards."
I was watching a documentary on elephants recently; it showcased the travels one particular group go on every year. One of their number died, I can't remember what of, but they had to leave it. A year later, they passed on by that exact same spot, and found the remains. They lingered there far longer than was safe, because of the oncoming remains. They examined the bones and appeared to be crying - tears were leaking down the faces of the elephants examining the remains. They knew whose remains it was, because an elephant with tears running down it's face is displaying what it experiences as extreme emotion.
Elephants are awesome.
Elephants can sense underground water sources that are close to the surface, so they stopped to see if the water would spring up, and to memorize the spot for future use. The membranes in their ears are extremely sensitive to humidity. The dead elephant was just a marker. Remember this for future use: Dead Elephant = underwater well.
Not Kidding
ok, kidding.
See now what if someone read that but missed the not kidding spoiler, then one day they find themselves stranded in africa, getting dehydrated and needing water they find a dead elepant. They will start digging for water getting themselves more thirsty and will die. Way to go. :P
Trap Jaw ants are capable of the fastest motion in the animal kingdom, even faster than the strikes of the mantis or pistol shrimp. They can strike at 145 miles an hour.
"They found that the jaws, used to capture prey and to defend the ant from harm, accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity, with each jaw generating forces exceeding 300 times the insect's body weight. The ants in this study had body masses ranging from 12.1 to 14.9 milligrams" http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/uoc--tah081506.php
Trap Jaw ants are capable of the fastest motion in the animal kingdom, even faster than the strikes of the mantis or pistol shrimp. They can strike at 145 miles an hour.
"They found that the jaws, used to capture prey and to defend the ant from harm, accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity, with each jaw generating forces exceeding 300 times the insect's body weight. The ants in this study had body masses ranging from 12.1 to 14.9 milligrams" http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/uoc--tah081506.php
That would be cool to be a pistol shrimp.
That would be way cool.
Hamsters have a special poo sack in which they form an extremely moist nugget. They need to consume this special-moist poo to maintain good digestion and overall health.
Elephants are catty bitches. This is a fact known by scientists.
Also, the most distressing image a conservationist has ever managed to describe for me, is the Kruger elephant culling. A whole herd would be driven into a clearly and then literally torn apart, mothers and daughters and sisters and aunts, over the space of a couple of minutes with automatic weaponry. The guy was nearly in tears as he talked about it.
Posts
Male dolphins will engage in penis fencing. Yep, just what it sounds like.
Chameleons don't change color to camoflauge themselves, their coloring actually corresponds to their mood.
Some dolphins make themselves "noseguards" out of sponges to protect their noses from getting scraped when they dive for food. It's not an instinct, but is taught to the younger dolphins by the older dolphins (usually passed down from mother to daughter.)
Orcas hunt in packs and will sometimes attack large whales. In one documented case the pack not only wounded a huge whale, but also several orcas draped themselves across its back like shawls to make it harder for it to surface for air and to slow it down.
Male dolphins sometimes form close bonds with each other. Sometimes a pair of males will forcibly separate a female dolphin from her herd. The logical assumption would be that they'd do this to mate with her, right? Except they do it with obviously pregnant females too!
Queen ants can live up to 20 years (which I kind of resent since my dog only lived 14 years.)
They also play with their food. There's a section of Blue Planet that shows them hunting baby seals. When they finally caught one, they left it alive but tossed it around over the water. It was essentially torturing the thing, the whole time it was trying to escape, but the orcas had it completely within their control. It seemed like it was a social thing, a bonding thing for them.
Also, I have no idea what animal this is, but it's from a webpage I found with a bunch of pictures of strange, deep-sea fishes-
And this-
Crabs are awesome.
Foxes fly with their helicopter tails.
That's FOXES, you dolt! ;-)
Here's a site I stumbled upon with neat animal facts.
Pics:
Oh right. Echindas are the ones that can glide for long distances, yeah?
Also, female dolphins can do some of the cool tricks their male counterparts can. They have very strong vaginas and are capable of manipulating objects, or grabbing your leg, for instance.
Sandswimmer Snake - Straight outta Tremor.
Is that crab an enemy or a friend?
Coolest!
That would be a long-nosed chimaera.
I only know this because it's on the first page of Google results for "weird fish". :P
They harvest leaves, chew them up, and then feed them fungus, which they keep small farms of. They keep the fungus well-fed and free of pests until it is mature, and then eat it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WuFyqzerHS8
That was already posted.
Here's a neat fact: Baby hoatzins (a type of bird native to the Amazon) have two claws on each wing.
Hoatzin aslo smell bad.
Well there are platypuses in Dungeons & Dragons: The dreaded thought eater, which looks like a skeletal platypus that saps mental energy.
Platypuses are neat. Not only are the males poisonous and they're adorable as hell and find prey through electrolocation but their very genes are all fucked up:
Because of the early divergence from the therian mammals and the low numbers of extant monotreme species, it is a frequent subject of research in evolutionary biology. In 2004, researchers at the Australian National University discovered the Platypus has ten sex chromosomes, compared to two (XY) found in most other mammals (for instance, a male Platypus is always XYXYXYXYXY). Furthermore, one of the Platypus' Y chromosomes shares genes with the ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes found in birds. This news further pronounced the individuality of the Platypus in the animal kingdom. However it lacks the mammalian sex-determining gene SRY, meaning that the process of sex determination in the Platypus remains unknown.
Someone earlier mentioned cheetahs being the only big cat that can purr. That is close. They are the only big cat that can purr breathing both in and out. Most can only do it while exhaling. Cheetahs are also the only cats that cannot retract their claws. Their claws are more like dog claws.
Ring tailed lemurs will engage in stink duels, wherein they will rub their tales with the scent glands on their wrists, then flick their tales at each other until a winner is decided (somehow).
Manatees will have orgies and will mate happily with any other manatee, male or female.
Armadillos are one of the few animals that can contract and transmit leprosy to humans, partly due to their unusually low body temperature. The nine-banded armadillo has a tendency to jump straight up when startled, causing to often hit the bumper or undercarriage of cars that otherwise safely straddle them.
EDIT: Also that scallop thing is terrifying. I'm going to show it to my artist friend who loves to draw Lovecraftian monster and such.
And so, it begins.
We are doom-ed!
Tell me about it.
"A vampire squid from hell"? That's like an old 1950's horror film title. Badass.
More facts:
Elephants are known to have homosexual relationships.
Surprisingly enough, the largest predator on land isn't a bear, or a big cat. It's Mirounga leonina, known as Southern Elephant Seal. The record weight of these animals is FIVE TONS. That's one ton short of a elephant.
Orca (Also known as killer whale) is the largest currently living predator in the world. They hunt sharks like sharks hunt fishes. When scientists played Orca noises to captive sharks, they started to panic like crazy and were looking for an escape route.
Recently there has been found a new chimpanzee species/entirely new Great Ape species. They are most likely chimpanzees, and they look like them...only that they are as big as gorillas.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0414_030314_strangeape.html
The oldest breed of dog is perhaps the Saluki, which were used as far as in ancient Egypt and even before then.
They are already vastly more physically stronger then us.
Once they get smarter...D:
I was watching a documentary on elephants recently; it showcased the travels one particular group go on every year. One of their number died, I can't remember what of, but they had to leave it. A year later, they passed on by that exact same spot, and found the remains. They lingered there far longer than was safe, because of the oncoming rains. They examined the bones and appeared to be crying - tears were leaking down the faces of the elephants examining the remains. They knew whose remains it was, because an elephant with tears running down it's face is displaying what it experiences as extreme emotion.
Elephants are awesome.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
Elephants can sense underground water sources that are close to the surface, so they stopped to see if the water would spring up, and to memorize the spot for future use. The membranes in their ears are extremely sensitive to humidity. The dead elephant was just a marker. Remember this for future use: Dead Elephant = underwater well.
...it is.
I don't understand how I missed it.
They emit sounds over great distances in frequencies that we can't hear. An elephant was recorded seemingly doing nothing, and then that elephant later died. The tape of that elephant seemingly just standing there and not making much noise was played to the rest of its herd. The herd had been with the elephant when it died, and when they heard the tape they became extremely agitated and fearful. They gathered around a baby elephant as if to ward off attackers. It was intrinsically 'wrong' for the elephants to hear the subsonic sounds of a dead elephant i guess, so they got reallllly weirded out.
Even elephants fear the undead.
See now what if someone read that but missed the not kidding spoiler, then one day they find themselves stranded in africa, getting dehydrated and needing water they find a dead elepant. They will start digging for water getting themselves more thirsty and will die. Way to go. :P
3DS: 2852-6809-9411
They become furious, six ton, tusked murderers and rapists, and it's all humanity's fault.
http://roguejeff.com/rogue-elephants-in-the-ny-times/
On a lighter note, here's one of my personal favorite, the snake necked turtle:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6174958363709328024&q=snake+necked+turtle&total=49&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Man, we are such pussies. Why couldn't our ancestors managed to have found enough food to support powerful muscles and huge noggins?
Jesus, read the thread as that is literally in the very first line of the OP.
Jesus, sorry.
Its ok though, because it can just grow new ones!
"They found that the jaws, used to capture prey and to defend the ant from harm, accelerate at 100,000 times the force of gravity, with each jaw generating forces exceeding 300 times the insect's body weight. The ants in this study had body masses ranging from 12.1 to 14.9 milligrams" http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/uoc--tah081506.php
When I'm alarmed I usually do that too.
It's terrible for acting. If I forget a line on stage I vomit up my organs and crawl away every time.
That would be cool to be a pistol shrimp.
That would be way cool.
Also, the most distressing image a conservationist has ever managed to describe for me, is the Kruger elephant culling. A whole herd would be driven into a clearly and then literally torn apart, mothers and daughters and sisters and aunts, over the space of a couple of minutes with automatic weaponry. The guy was nearly in tears as he talked about it.