They are the national animal of China, the official symbol of the World Wildlife Federation, and downright adorable with the way they sit on their haunches, munching bamboo. But that’s just scratching the surface when it comes to telling the story of giant pandas. Are they real bears? What are their babies like? And what kind of sounds do they make? Read on to learn those answers and more about these iconic creatures.
Their Coloring May Aid With Camouflage and Communication
While giant pandas are known for their telltale black-and-white fur, the significance of this coloring has largely eluded scientists over the years. However, a recent study suggests that this pattern provides camouflage for contrasting environments, with the white helping the bears blend into snowy backgrounds and the black providing extra cover amid forest shadows. Furthermore, the black ears and eyes might be meant to make the animals look more ferocious. Plus, those black patches around the eyes — which vary in size and shape — may help pandas recognize one another in the wild.
The first giant panda to arrive safely in the U.S. came via New York dress designer and socialite Ruth Harkness in 1936. With help from Chinese American guide Quentin Young, Harkness trekked to the mountains of central China, found an abandoned baby panda, nursed it with powdered milk on the way back to Shanghai, and managed to get it classified as a dog for legal passage out of the country. Named Su Lin, the panda became a popular attraction at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo, and opened the door for other opportunity-seekers to venture to China to get their hands on one of these creatures. The Chinese government cracked down on such attempts by 1946, before beginning a trend the following decade of giving pandas as acts of strategic diplomacy.
Pandas Have Difficulty Digesting the Main Part of Their Diet
Giant pandas subsist almost entirely on bamboo, although they’ll occasionally dine on other plants and small animals. However, in a cruel twist of evolutionary fate, they lack the gut microbes needed to break down vegetation, so they can digest only about 17% of the food they regularly consume. That means pandas need to eat enormous quantities of bamboo — about 26 to 83 pounds daily — to get enough nutrients to fuel their systems. It also means they need to use the bathroom frequently, and may defecate around 40 times a day.
When it comes to chowing down on all that bamboo, giant pandas are aided by the presence of a “false thumb,” an elongated wrist bone that helps them grab and hold these vital shoots. Strangely, the examination of an ancestral panda’s fossil revealed that these predecessors possessed longer and straighter wrist bones, which would render the gripping task even easier. So why the seeming biological regression? Scientists believe that the bone’s current size and shape best serves the dual functions of the wrist, which also needs to support the weight of a 250-pound animal as it walks on all four legs.
In contrast with lumbering black-and-white adult pandas, baby pandas are hairless, pink, blind, and tiny; weighing between 3 and 5 ounces, they’re approximately the size of a stick of butter and 1/900 the size of their mothers. Because their newborns are so helpless, mothers will forgo food for the first few weeks to focus on nursing and warming their offspring. Young pandas finally start to seek out independence at around 5 months of age, and are ready to strike out on their own at about 1 1/2 to 2 years old.
Once common across south and eastern China and into Myanmar and northern Vietnam, wild giant pandas are now found solely in high-altitude areas of China’s Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces, their existence threatened by illegal hunting and low birth rates. Fortunately, conservation efforts have helped preserve the population of these beloved creatures, which saw their status upgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in September 2016. Recent estimates place the number of wild pandas at 1,864, with another 600 residing in zoos and breeding facilities.
Largely solitary and quiet in the wild, giant pandas have been recorded emitting 13 unique vocalizations while in captivity. One of their most distinctive noises is a bleat, which can come when they’re hungry, calling to neighbors, and especially when in heat. Females may also chirp like a bird when anxious about their babies, or bark when a stranger gets too close to the little ones. Other panda sounds include honks, hiccups, grunts, and squeaks.
Giant Pandas Are Not Closely Related to Red Pandas
They’re both native to China, eat a bamboo-heavy diet, and enjoy the use of that elongated wrist bone. Because of those overlapping characteristics, the giant panda was partly named after the red panda, which had been classified nearly a half-century earlier, in 1825. But while they share an extinct ancestor, red pandas are the only living members of the Ailuridae family. Giant pandas, on the other hand, belong to the Ursidae family, making them true bears.
Male giant pandas are known to hoist themselves into a handstand, an action sure to please witnesses until they realize that the bears are attempting to urinate and rub anal secretions on trees. Of course, there are important biological reasons for this behavior. These markings leave a scent, helping females find an appropriate mate during a short window for conception that lasts only about one to three days every year. Additionally, because they struggle to get enough nutrition from their bamboo diets, it’s believed that pandas use the scents to limit confrontation between competing males and thereby conserve energy.
Sarah Anne Lloyd
Writer
Sarah Anne Lloyd is a freelance writer whose work covers a bit of everything, including politics, design, the environment, and yoga. Her work has appeared in Curbed, the Seattle Times, the Stranger, the Verge, and others.
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They may have a reputation as disease-riddled pests, but rats are some of the most intelligent and adaptable creatures on the planet. While most people don’t want to find one in their home or crawling around a subway platform, rats offer tremendous value to society, and humans have made invaluable scientific advances thanks to these rodents. In addition to their place in research laboratories, rats have played a prominent role in history and culture — from Victorian-era urbanization to modern traditions at sporting events. Discover six fascinating facts about these remarkable rodents below.
New York City Rats Differ Genetically Based on Their Neighborhood
If you’ve ever seen a rat in New York City, chances are their ancestors have called that area home for decades. Thanks to DNA sequencing and rat tracking, researchers have learned that rats tend to remain quite close to where they were born, even over the course of several generations. These findings are the result of a 2017 study led by Matthew Combs, a former graduate student at Fordham University. Combs discovered two genetically distinct subpopulations of New York City rats — uptown and downtown — and even genetic differences among rats in adjacent neighborhoods such as the West and East Villages. Combs says that a mere 5% of rats stray from their home turf, meaning that the vast majority of rat families have remained close to where their ancestors settled upon first arriving in New York on transatlantic ships in the mid-18th century.
In addition to geography-based genetic differences, rats in New York City have adapted their diets to living in the concrete jungle. Certain mutations found in the city’s rats demonstrate that they are able to consume larger amounts of processed sugars and fats than their rural counterparts, due to their penchant for scavenging off human food waste. (This also helps explain why New York is the only place you can find Pizza Rat.)
Credit: Xavier ROSSI/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Rats Have Been Trained to Sniff Out Land Mines
Many of us are familiar with bomb-sniffing dogs, but what about land mine-sniffing rats? Such creatures are common in central Africa, where the Belgian nonprofit APOPO (the acronym stands for “Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development” in English) has trained African giant pouched rats to help clear fields of unexploded land mines from past conflicts. These rats weigh less than three pounds — light enough to avoid setting off the mines — and can clear swathes of land the size of a tennis court in just 30 minutes. For comparison, a human with a metal detector would take four days to accomplish the same job.
These rodent heroes have helped clear over 13,200 mines from fields scattered across Tanzania, Mozambique, and Angola since the nonprofit was founded in 1997. More recently, the creatures were introduced in Cambodia, where a rat named Magawa became particularly famous. Magawa spent five years sniffing out land mines across the country, helping to secure over 2.4 million square feet of land and finding 71 explosives, before retiring in 2021. Though Magawa passed away six months after his retirement, his legacy lives on: In 2020, he received a gold medal — the highest civilian award an animal can receive — from the British veterinary charity People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, becoming the first rat to earn such a distinction.
Alberta, Canada, Is the Largest Rat-Free Inhabited Area
Albertans have long sought to guard their borders against potential pests. The Agricultural Pests Act of Alberta of 1942 required every person and municipality to destroy any animal designated as a pest and likely to harm crops or livestock. In the 1920s, rats found their way to the neighboring province of Saskatchewan, and by 1950, they had migrated to the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. As a result, the provincial government established a 373-mile-long Rat Control Zone (RCZ) along the border to prevent the vermin from continuing farther into Alberta. Though there have been several scares since — including a group of rats that was released in Calgary in 2004 and subsequently extracted by a neighborhood posse — the 255,541 square miles of Alberta have remained almost entirely rat-free for decades, making it the world’s largest inhabited area without rats.
Scientists once believed that only humans and chimps succumbed to peer pressure. But thanks to a 2008 study of brown rats, researchers found that rats were heavily influenced by the behavior of the other members of their pack, which in turn had an impact on what each rat ate and how each rat acted. The study observed rats that had been trained to avoid cinnamon-flavored food pellets by injecting them with a nausea-inducing chemical, but researchers found that the creatures would still consume the pellets if they smelled a cinnamon odor emanating from the breath of other rats. They also observed that rats could experience the “bystander effect,” meaning they were less likely to help another member of their pack if they saw other rats also failing to act. Neurobiologists at the University of Chicago studied rats that had been helpful in one-on-one interactions, who then became less likely to lend a helpful hand in larger group settings.
Jack Black Was King of the Rat-Catchers in Victorian England
Not to be confused with the contemporary actor and musician of the same name, Jack Black was a Victorian-era showman with a different claim to fame: rat-catching. As Europe rapidly urbanized in the 19th century, rat populations in cities exploded, and governments began paying individuals to keep infestations under control. Black was one of the most famous of the so-called “rat-catchers,” reaching his peak popularity in the mid-19th century. His prowess in catching rodents was unmatched, and massive crowds would gather to see him in action. Black would set up a stage and let the many rats he captured run all over his body in an effort to add to the spectacle.
He was also something of a fashion icon. His trademark rat-catching outfit consisted of white leather pants, a scarlet waistcoat, a rat belt buckle, and a sash emblazoned with rat-shaped medallions (made from melting down his wife’s saucepan in the kitchen). Though Black promoted himself as Queen Victoria’s official rat-catcher, it’s unlikely he ever held a royal decree — but that didn’t make his rat-catching any less successful.
Florida Panthers Hockey Fans Throw Plastic Rats Onto the Ice to Celebrate “Rat Tricks”
In hockey, a hat trick occurs when a single player scores three goals in one game, and it’s common for fans to celebrate by hurling their hats onto the ice. But fans of the NHL’s Florida Panthers are better known for celebrating something called a “rat trick.” The tradition dates back to October 8, 1995, when a rat scurried through the Panthers’ locker room before a game against the Calgary Flames (an amusing coincidence, given that Alberta is so proud of being rat-free). After removing the rat, Panthers captain Scott Mellanby went on to score two goals, which teammate John Vanbiesbrouck dubbed a “rat trick.” The night following Mellanby’s feat, a fan hurled a plastic rat onto the ice, an act that has since become a larger Florida hockey tradition. During the playoffs, Panthers fans hurl thousands of plastic rats onto the ice in celebration of goals or victories — which then leads to minor delays while groups of 25 rat cleaners clear the ice so play can continue.
Bennett Kleinman
Staff Writer
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism Media, and previously contributed to television programs such as "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Impractical Jokers." Bennett is also a devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
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Did you know that rats giggle when tickled, or that Norway once knighted a penguin? Where can you find the world’s only egg-laying mammals? Read all about it with this compilation of the most intriguing animal facts from around our website, and learn more about the furry, feathered, and scaly friends we share our world with.
Koala Fingerprints Are Almost Indistinguishable From Those of Humans
Every fingerprint is unique, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to tell apart — especially since humans aren’t the only species that’s developed them. Chimpanzees and gorillas have fingerprints too, but it’s actually koalas — far more distant on the evolutionary tree from humans — whose prints are most similar to our own. This was first discovered by researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia in 1996, one of whom went so far as to joke that “although it’s extremely unlikely that koala prints would be found at the scene of a crime, police should at least be aware of the possibility.”
That discovery lent support to one of the primary theories in the centuries-long debate over the purpose of fingerprints and their swirly microscopic grooves: They help grasp. Koalas’ survival depends on their ability to climb small branches of eucalyptus trees and grab their leaves to eat, so the fact that they developed fingerprints — which assist in that action — independently of primates millions of years ago is likely no coincidence.
Anyone who’s ever serenaded their sweetheart has more in common with bats than they might think. In 2009, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M studied the vocalizations of Tadarida brasiliensis — the Brazilian free-tailed bat, more commonly known as the Mexican free-tailed bat — and found the tunes to be surprisingly nuanced love songs. Though difficult for humans to hear, the songs consist of unique syllables that combine to form three types of “phrases”: chirps, buzzes, and trills. The males combine these phrases in different ways to attract females — and to warn other males to stay away.
What makes this especially remarkable is that, until recently, bats weren’t thought to communicate with one another in such a structured way. But when the researchers listened to recordings of two free-tailed colonies in Austin and College Station, Texas, they discovered that they “use the same ‘words’ in their love phrases,” according to lead researcher Kirsten Bohn.
If you love cats but can’t have one of your own because you’re allergic, the feeling may be mutual. It isn’t common, but cats can be allergic to people. The condition is rare in part because we humans usually bathe regularly and thus don’t shed as much dead skin or hair as other animals (and it’s somewhat unclear how much of a problem human dander may be for felines). That said, cats are fairly sensitive to chemicals and sometimes have a negative reaction to certain perfumes, laundry detergents, and soaps. Cat allergic reactions look much the same as the ones humans get — they may manifest as sneezing, runny noses, rashes, hives, or other uncomfortable symptoms. In rare cases, cats can even be allergic to dogs. (Maybe that’s why some of them don’t get along.)
Not unlike human fingerprints, the pattern of every tiger’s stripes is one of a kind. And though those markings are invariably beautiful, they aren’t just for decoration. Biologists refer to tiger stripes as an example of disruptive coloration, as their vertical slashes help them hide in plain sight by breaking up their shape and size so they blend in with tall grass, trees, and other camouflage-friendly environments. Tigers are solitary hunters who ambush their prey, so the ability to remain undetected while on the hunt is key to their survival. Markings also differ among subspecies, with Sumatran tigers having the narrowest stripes and Siberian tigers having fewer than the rest of their big cat brethren.
Before he was a knight, Sir Nils Olav was a king — king penguin, that is. The flightless seabird was made both mascot and an honorary member of the Norwegian King’s Guard after the battalion visited the Edinburgh Zoo in 1972 and Major Nils Egelien had the idea to adopt a penguin. Sir Nils (he’s named for both Egelien and former King of Norway Olav V) quickly ascended through his country’s military ranks, receiving a promotion each time the King’s Guard returned to the zoo around performances for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The 2008 knighthood took place before 130 guardsmen and a crowd of several hundred people, during which King Harald V of Norway read out a citation describing Sir Nils as a penguin “in every way qualified to receive the honor and dignity of knighthood.” The penguin knighted in 2008 wasn’t the original Nils Olav, however. He was preceded by two others, inheriting their name and title when they went to the great penguin colony in the sky. (Penguins often live about 15 to 20 years, though some king penguins can live over 40 years in captivity.)
Ravens are smart — really smart. Studies have shown that they can use tools, remember human faces, and even plan for the future. This behavior cuts both ways for humans: Edgar Allan Poe’s favorite birds have demonstrated a tendency to both favor people who show them kindness and hold grudges against those who treat them poorly. These preferences aren’t fleeting, either — they may last for years.
Raven intelligence is comparable in some cases to that of chimpanzees, which are among the smartest members of the animal kingdom. What’s more, they aren’t the only ones upending the “bird brain” stereotype: Other members of the corvid family — namely crows, jays, and magpies — have displayed exceptional intelligence as well. So the next time you encounter a raven, be sure you get on its good side. You may make a new friend who won’t forget you anytime soon.
Reindeer Eyes Change Color — They’re Golden in Summer and Blue in Winter
Rudolph’s nose may have been red, but his eyes were blue — except in the summer, when they would have been golden. That’s because reindeer eyes change color depending on the time of year, which helps them see better in different light levels. Their blue eyes are approximately 1,000 times more sensitive to light than their golden counterparts, a crucial adaptation in the dark days of winter. Only one part changes color, however: the tapetum lucidum, a mirrored layer situated behind the retina. Cats have it, too — it’s why their eyes appear to glow in the dark. This part of the reindeer retina shines a different hue depending on the season.
There Is a Dedicated “Air Horse One” Airplane for Transporting Horses
Just because horses are fast doesn’t mean they’re easy to transport. Often weighing more than 1,000 pounds and not exactly quick to do things they aren’t inclined to, our equine friends nevertheless often need to be brought from point A to point B. Luckily, there’s a plane dedicated to ferrying horses, known as (what else?) Air Horse One. Owned and operated by Tex Sutton Equine Air Transportation, it’s a Boeing 727-200 cargo aircraft used for race horses, show horses, and other VIP clients. As such, tickets don’t run cheap — one-way trips can set you back $5,000.
It would appear to be worth it, however. Everything about the trip in general and the plane in particular is tailored to its passengers’ needs, from custom-built ramps and padded stalls to smooth rides that avoid steep ascents, descents, and adverse weather conditions. Air Horse One also focuses on direct flights to shorten travel times, since Appaloosas and Clydesdales dislike layovers as much as the rest of us. In lieu of carry-on bags, some horses even get to bring along “pets,” such as goats, to keep them company. We should all be so lucky.
There’s a good reason why both main characters in Finding Nemo are male, at least initially. All clownfish are born that way, and it’s only when a group’s dominant female dies or disappears that a male will develop into a female and become the new matriarch. All clownfish have the ability to turn female, and the change is permanent once it occurs. The transformation begins almost immediately after the dominant female leaves, and starts in the brain before manifesting itself in the sex organs. Had the beloved Pixar film been devoted to scientific accuracy, Nemo’s father, Marlin, might not have been just his sole caregiver after tragedy befell the boy’s mother — he might literally have become his mother.
Clownfish aren’t the only reef-dwellers that can change sex. Researchers have identified no fewer than 500 fish species capable of doing so; some, like the coral-dwelling species of gobies, can even switch back and forth. The process is believed to have reproductive benefits, as it allows a single fish to reproduce as both sexes throughout its life.
The World’s Only Egg-Laying Mammals Live in Australia and New Guinea
There are around 6,500 currently recognized species of mammals, and all but five of them give birth to live young. The five exceptions, known as monotremes, are found exclusively in Australia and New Guinea. The platypus is the best known of these, while four living species of echidna round out the list: short-beaked, western long-beaked, eastern long-beaked, and Sir David’s. Monotremes live fairly typical mammalian lives once they’ve hatched, including being nursed by their mothers’ milk.
Male Nightingales Advertise Their Skills as Fathers Through Song
If you know anything about nightingales, it’s probably that they sing. Written about by the likes of ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes and English poet John Keats, they’ve also inspired such composers as Beethoven and Stravinsky to pay homage to their melancholy warbling. But not all of their songs are mournful: In fact, male nightingales use some of them to advertise their skills as fathers. One of the many factors female nightingales consider when assessing prospective mates is their suitors’ paternal potential, and a 2015 study on the subject showed that better male nightingale singers are known to feed their children more often than their less-talented peers. “Better” here means singing in a more orderly fashion — repeating the same song types over and over — and varying their song choices, with plenty of buzzes, trills, and whistles.
Whereas it was previously thought that the size of a male’s repertoire was the sole criterion a female considered, in nightingales, the kind of song is crucial as well. Overall, male nightingales are known to be doting fathers — they visit their chicks’ nest as many as 16 times every hour, which is about as often as their mothers do.
The animal kingdom is full of incredible variety, thanks to evolution, but one thing most animals have in common is that they use a set of eyes to navigate the world around them. For mammals, one big factor determining the shape of a pupil is whether the creature is predator or prey. For example, a goat is a grazing prey animal that would be a pretty easy target for coyotes, bears, and other predators with sharp teeth. Yet evolution gave the goat a few tools to defend itself. The horns certainly help, but the biggest advantage is a goat’s horizontal rectangular pupils. These long, horizontal pupils create a panoramic view that lets the animal see more of the landscape, which makes it harder to sneak up on them. The pupils also enhance the image quality of objects (read: threats) all around the goats, and they cut down on glare from the sky by capturing less light from above and more from below. Cats and snakes, on the other hand, are ambush predators, whose vertical pupils help them hunt in the night and judge the distance between themselves and their next meal. But according to scientists, vertical pupils are reserved only for animals whose eyes are close to the ground. That’s why other cats that are higher up, like lions and tigers, have round pupils rather than vertical ones.
Colorblindness is relative. Just as we can perceive hues that dogs can’t, hummingbirds can see colors that humans can’t. Whereas the three types of color-sensitive cone cells in our eyes allow us to see red, green, and blue light, hummingbirds (and most other birds) have a fourth type of cone attuned to ultraviolet light. In addition to UV light, birds may even be able to see combination colors like ultraviolet+green and ultraviolet+red — something we mere humans can only imagine.
Being able to see this way is especially useful for hummingbirds, whose endless quest for sugar is aided by their ability to discern different-colored flowers — including “nonspectral” colors that combine hues from widely different parts of the color spectrum. Purple is the only nonspectral color we humans can perceive (it involves both blue and red, or both short and long wavelengths of light), but some birds might see as many as five: purple, ultraviolet+red, ultraviolet+green, ultraviolet+yellow, and ultraviolet+purple. That certainly sounds worth singing about.
Most rats live their lives entirely unseen by humans. As kings of the background, they often scurry through human environments just out of sight or after dark, looking for leftover morsels. But researchers believe rats might not just be picking up our food crumbs — they could also be picking up on the beats in our music. A study published in 2022 suggests rats may have a humanlike sense of rhythm, which they express by bopping their heads to the beat. Scientists once believed that few animals were beat-sensitive (aside from some birds), but rats exposed to music made microscopic head movements that were picked up by tiny, wireless motion detectors. The researchers hypothesized that rats would prefer faster jams thanks in part to their rapid heartbeats, though surprisingly, lab rats synced up best with music in the 120 to 140 beats-per-minute range — just like humans.
South Florida Is the Only Region Where Both Alligators and Crocodiles Coexist in the Wild
Alligators and crocodiles have a lot in common. They’re both beefy reptiles with a serious set of teeth and strong Triassic vibes. However, there are some big differences between them: Alligators usually have a more U-shaped snout, whereas crocodiles sport a more V-shaped schnoz; alligators stick to fresh water, while crocodiles live in salty environments; alligators are blacker, while crocs prefer earth tones like brown. However, the biggest difference is usually in the locations these two gargantuan reptiles call home. American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) can be found in Cuba, Jamaica, southern Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) mostly sticks to the southeastern U.S. You’ll likely never be tasked with differentiating the two creatures in the wild — that is, unless you find yourself in south Florida.
On the tip of the Florida peninsula lies the U.S.’s third-largest national park — the Everglades. It’s here that the southern extreme of the American alligator’s range overlaps with the northern extreme of the American crocodile’s range. The 7,800-square-mile expanse of wetlands has both brackish and saltwater environments that create a perfect home for crocs, while fresh water supplied by lakes, rivers, and rainfall provides the preferred habitat for alligators.
Monkeys Have Been Using Stone Tools for Thousands of Years
Humans are often thought of as the smartest animals, and one of the perks of our top-notch brains (with a little help from our opposable thumbs) is supposedly that we’re the only species that can use tools. That’s what we used to think, anyway. Archaeologists analyzing a site in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park discovered that capuchin monkeys had used rounded quartzite stones to smash open cashew husks against tree roots or stone “anvils.” After digging through layers of sediment in four phases of excavation, the scientists found stone tools that had been used by the capuchins dating back around 3,000 years.
The researchers also found signs that the monkeys’ tool use had changed over time — the creatures first used smaller stone tools, and then around 560 years ago, switched to larger ones, which may have meant they were eating harder foods, according to National Geographic. This evolution could have occurred due to different groups of capuchins moving into the area, or a change in the local plants. Either way, the study marked the first time such an evolution in tool use had been seen in a nonhuman species. Scientists suspect that further exploration of this site, and others like it, could give an unprecedented look at humanity’s own tool-use evolution, which began millions of years ago.
Autumn heralds the arrival of many things: pumpkin pie, crisp morning air, and, apparently, more intelligent rodents. Male squirrels get smarter in the fall due to their hippocampus (a part of the brain involved in memory) increasing in size during the caching season — the time of year when they gather even more nuts than usual. (In an especially adorable move, they stuff their snacks in their cheeks before moving their food to a more permanent storage spot.) Interestingly, female squirrel brains don’t show the same effect; researchers speculate that male squirrel brains may change in the fall to act more like the females’ brains already function all year long. The slightly bigger brains may help male squirrels remember exactly where they’ve stored their nuts, although scientists are still teasing out how.
It is sometimes said that there are two types of tickling: knismesis and gargalesis. The former is the “light, feather-like” kind, which doesn’t induce laughter, while the latter is more high-pressure and does cause laughter. And while you may think of humans as the only creatures susceptible to gargalesis, one of our much smaller counterparts is as well: the humble rat. Rats actually love being tickled, especially on their back and belly, and there’s even a specific term for the frolicking they do in between tickles: freudensprünge, or “joy jumps.” Sadly, rat giggles are too high for us to hear without special microphones that can reproduce the sound in a lower register. (That doesn’t make videos of rats being tickled any less adorable, however.)
The jaws of a crocodile are an amazing specimen of evolution. With a second jaw joint unlike anything found in mammals, a crocodile can spread the force of its tremendous bite throughout its mouth. In fact, crocodiles have the most powerful chomp in the animal kingdom, at 3,700 pounds per square inch for a saltwater crocodile — 30 times the force of a human bite. But that’s not the only interesting thing about a crocodile’s mouth: Their tongues are incapable of getting between those devastating jaws thanks to being permanently rooted to the floor of their mouths. Their tongues are also held in place by a membrane attached to the roof in the back of the mouth, which keeps the throat closed when the crocodile is submerged.
One of the strangest attributes of any eyeball on Earth belongs to the whale shark (Rhincodon typus). Because these gentle giants of the sea don’t have eyelids to protect their organs of sight, they’ve developed thousands of tiny teeth known as “dermal denticles” to fend off any potentially vision-damaging elements the ocean might throw at them, whether it’s items drifting in the sea or biochemical hazards. In 2020, scientists in Japan discovered the denticles when analyzing both dead and living sharks, and estimated that each eye could have as many as nearly 3,000 of these tiny teeth. When viewed under a microscope, the denticles resemble the shape of an oak leaf, but much smaller.
Dermal denticles are commonly found on many shark species’ skin, acting like scales that cut down on turbulence and drag when gliding through the water. However, the whale shark is the only species in whom these denticles congregate around the iris. This scale-like armor, combined with the whale shark’s unique ability to retract its eyes into its sockets, has scientists reexamining the importance of a whale shark’s vision. For years, scientists believed that whale sharks largely navigated the world through their sense of smell, but these two distinct evolutionary defenses could mean that vision is much more important to the species than previously thought.
In Switzerland, It Is Illegal to Own Just One Guinea Pig
The Swiss are known for their historic commitment to neutrality, but they’ve also taken a firm stand on one of the most important issues of our time: guinea pigs. Because guinea pigs are social creatures who grow lonesome without a friend, it’s illegal to own just one of them in Switzerland. The law was introduced in 2008 as part of a legislative effort to grant social rights to pets. Should one guinea pig depart this mortal coil and leave its companion alone — and its owner in potential legal trouble — rent-a-guinea-pig services have emerged as a temporary solution.
Guinea pigs aren’t the only pets afforded special status in Switzerland. Goldfish are also prohibited from being kept alone, cats must at least have access to a window where they can see their fellow felines prowling around, and, for a time, dog owners were required to take an obligatory training course with their pooch (although that law was repealed in 2016).
Evolution has devised a mind-boggling number of amazing methods for perpetuating life on Earth. But one of nature’s most impressive tricks is pumping the brakes on pregnancy with a process known as embryonic diapause. This isn’t a rare prenatal feat, either: An estimated 130 mammal species, such as mice and seals, can pause a pregnancy for anywhere from a few days to as many as 11 months, as is the case with the tammar wallaby (Notamacropus eugenii). The pause usually occurs during the blastocyst stage, when an embryo forms in the uterus but doesn’t embed into the uterine wall until conditions are right.
Scientists have identified two reasons why some mammals pause pregnancies. When animals are nursing, a rise in hormones prevents embryos from implanting, which gives the nursing young time to wean off their mother. The second reason is a bit more complicated, but certain animals can pause pregnancies when external conditions — such as a lack of food or harsh temperatures — are not ideal for raising a newborn. Scientists have known about this kind of diapause since at least the 1850s, but are only now beginning to understand its inner workings.
Dogs are man’s best friend, and the canine ability to understand human words has gone a long way to solidify that world-changing relationship. According to the American Psychological Association, the average dog can understand 165 words, and “super dogs” — those in the top 20% of canine intellect — can understand around 250 words. Dog intelligence can be divided into three main types: instinctive (what the dog is bred to do), adaptive (what a dog learns from its environment), and working/obedience (what a dog is trained to do). Research into the levels of working/obedience intelligence in various dog breeds shows that border collies displayed the highest levels, followed by poodles, German shepherds, and golden retrievers. With the ability to also understand simple math (1+1 = 2, for example), these “super dogs” have an estimated cognitive ability of 2- to 2.5-year-old humans.
The evolutionary philosophy of elephants might be described as “go big or go home.” Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, sport the largest ears of any living creature, and are all-around the strongest mammals by a long shot. But their most famous feature is their trunk, which can grow to 6 feet long. The trunk is central to the elephant’s survival, helping the beasts breathe, smell, eat, and drink, and it’s controlled by a network of 40,000 muscles. By comparison, the human body has only around 650 muscles total.
The animal kingdom is filled with amazing migrations. From the hordes of wildebeest stomping across the Serengeti to the lumbering blue whales along the Pacific Coast, seasonal journeys sometimes thousands of miles long can be found in just about every ecosystem on Earth. But one animal stands out among the rest of these impressive travelers: the little-known and criminally underrated bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica). Preferring summers in Alaska and winters in Australia or New Zealand, these large, noisy sandpipers make an epic voyage twice a year. While it’s not the longest migration in the world overall, the bar-tailed godwit flies between its two travel destinations nonstop in a journey that can last 11 days or perhaps even longer.
On October 13, 2022, a 4-month-old bar-tailed godwit with the rather uninspiring name “B6” took flight for Australia, likely after fattening up on crustaceans and mollusks at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in southwestern Alaska. Before the bird departed, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tagged B6 with a solar-powered satellite transmitter to better understand the flight characteristics of juvenile godwits. After 11 days of nonstop flying, B6 arrived in Tasmania, Australia, on October 24, having traveled 8,425 miles. The USGS confirmed that this is the longest recorded nonstop flight of any animal on Earth, beating out a record of 8,100 miles set the year before by 4BBRW, an adult bar-tailed godwit. To put the achievement in perspective, bar-tailed godwits can fly across the entire Pacific Ocean without stopping at an age when humans are barely capable of lifting their own heads. Let them be underrated no longer.
Feature image credit: Original photo by Ian Parker/ Unsplash
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It’s true: Chickens really are descendants of dinosaurs, walking the Earth as one of the closest living relatives to the Tyrannosaurus rex. But that’s not the only impressive thing about these fowl. Chickens are incredibly adaptive creatures found in nearly every part of the world — barring Antarctica and the Vatican City — and are able to fly short distances, swim, and even communicate with the outside world before hatching from their shells. Read on for six more facts about these curious, clucking egg-layers.
Some Early Chickens Were Considered Sacred Animals
Scientists aren’t exactly sure when humans first domesticated chickens. Some research had estimated that humans first became flock-keepers around 8,000 years ago or more, perhaps somewhere in China, India, or Southeast Asia. But more recent research shows the first clear evidence for domestic chickens in the archaeological record is only about 3,500 years ago, from a site in Thailand. And some archaeological evidence supports an idea that the earliest human-raised chickens may not have been eaten, but instead revered. Archaeologists have unearthed the bones of whole chickens at dig sites in Britain and Europe, which researchers have carbon dated to the Iron Age. None of the birds had been butchered, they were primarily older in age when they died, and one had a healed leg fracture, possibly from the help of a human caretaker. On occasion, the birds were buried alongside humans, possibly used as psychopomps, aka animals tasked with leading the deceased to the afterlife. Writings from Julius Caesar indicate the earliest Britons didn’t eat chickens, and instead raised the birds for “their own amusement or pleasure,” a practice that remained until Romans introduced eating the birds around 43 CE.
Like most birds, chickens are toothless, equipped instead with gizzards (muscles in the digestive tract) that help break down their food for digestion. Their omnivore diet first enters their crop, a pouch-like organ that stores and softens food, before it moves to their digestive system. From there, food moves to the gizzard. While this system allows chickens to forage and feast without chompers, scientists believe poultry of the past may have eaten differently — with teeth. That’s because the earliest known birds had teeth, though the feature began to disappear more than 100 million years ago in place of developing beaks. However, some researchers believe it’s still possible for chickens to grow teeth, since their DNA contains the genetic code (which stuck around to help modern chickens grow feathers). In 2006, scientists were able to make small genetic modifications that enabled chicken embryos to develop teeth, which looked similar to reptile teeth — though the chickens were ultimately prevented from hatching.
Chickens aren’t often considered to be especially bright animals, though there’s evidence they’re smarter than we once believed. Scientists have long studied chickens, with the first research into chicken intelligence emerging around the 1920s thanks to observation of their pecking order (aka how the birds establish social hierarchies in their flock). In the 100 years since, researchers have determined that chickens have a wide range of communication skills, able to produce 24 different vocalizations that alert their fellow fowl about predators, food, and an interest in mating. Chickens are also capable of differentiating between numbers and can identify patterns and shapes. Those memory skills help chickens recognize up to 30 other birds, a process that starts within 36 hours after hatching, when chicks imprint on their mother hen. Chickens can also recognize human faces, and even have preferences for who they find attractive — a 2002 study found that chickens preferred looking at humans with more symmetrical faces (just like humans do).
A Chicken Named Peanut Was in Guinness World Records
Backyard chickens are often considered food-producing pets, providing companionship and entertainment while also laying eggs. Most hens live for between six and eight years, and typically lay eggs for the first three to four years of their lives. Sometimes, they even become record holders, like Peanut, who was the world’s oldest living chicken until her death on Christmas Day, 2023. Born in southeastern Michigan in 2002, Peanut reached the verified age of 20 years and 304 days on March 1, 2023, and was 21 years and 238 days old when she passed. Initially believed to be a dud egg, Peanut was nearly abandoned as a chick before her owner heard the bird pipping from inside her shell; with some assistance, Peanut successfully hatched and became an inside-dwelling pet for the first few years of her life. Peanut laid eggs until age 8 — some of which produced her living grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who reside in the same backyard she roams. The world’s oldest known chicken ever was a bird named Muffy, who was born in 1989 and reached 23 years and 152 days old (she died in 2012).
Our planet is home to a lot of humans. There are more of us now than at any other point in known history, yet we’re still outnumbered by chickens. In November 2022, the global human population hit 8 billion, with projections showing there may be 9.7 billion of us by 2050. But even then, there will probably be more chickens, considering that at last count, in 2021, their population clocked in at 25.8 billion, largely thanks to commercial poultry farming. In some regions, the ratio is particularly evident; Delaware residents are reportedly outnumbered by 200 chickens to every one human.
A Rooster Once Crashed a President’s Inaugural Ball
Chicken is common fare at even the fanciest of dinners, though in 1973, a rooster who wasn’t on the menu still found its way into one of the country’s most upscale parties: the presidential inaugural ball. Following his successful reelection campaign, President Richard Nixon held an extravagant inaugural celebration at the Smithsonian’s Museum of History and Technology (now called the American History Museum). One of the gallery’s exhibits on farm life included real, living chickens — including a rooster who escaped from its pen and into the party. The bird caused a minor commotion as it mingled among guests, but was promptly captured and returned to its display by S. Dillion Ripley, an ornithologist (aka bird expert) who served as the Smithsonian’s eighth secretary.
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Humans may be considered the most intelligent animals on Earth, but other species are not far behind. Scientists measure animal intelligence by looking at an animal’s self-awareness, self-control, and memory, all of which influence how well a creature processes information and solves problems. Judging an animal’s smarts is still a gray area, however. It’s pretty difficult to get a large number of wild animals together for a controlled behavioral experiment, and sometimes the tests scientists devise to judge a species’ intelligence don’t jive with the way animals perceive things. But the species included here have consistently impressed us with their smarts.
African grays are the chattiest of all the parrots, but their skills go beyond mimicry. They can actually associate meaning with the human sounds they make; one bird named Alex could count to six in English, correctly identify five shapes and seven colors, and differentiate objects by material, color, and more. To top it all off, he’d correct other parrots in the lab in English as they tried to do the same — and loved commanding humans, too. Separate studies have found that African gray parrots have excellent deductive reasoning and teamwork skills.
Pigeons are wildly misunderstood birds, and they’ve only been considered a nuisance for the last century or so. The ordinary city pigeon is actually a feral descendant of domesticated pigeons that humans no longer had a use for, and the city birds eventually developed a reputation as unsanitary. But their navigational abilities are unparalleled — you’ve probably heard of a homing or messenger pigeon — and, like corvids, they can recognize faces. Recent research has shown that they learn in a method similar to an artificial intelligence model, and after some training are able to recognize patterns and make decisions.
Bonobos are similar to chimpanzees in that they’re both very closely related to humans and highly intelligent. While chimps are better at solving physical problems and using tools, bonobos are more socially intelligent and better at solving tasks that require theory of mind — a human developmental step that enables seeing things from another’s point of view. Bonobos are also notable for their generally peaceful societies that resolve conflicts more often through sex than violence.
Horses are great learners and can communicate with human beings through symbols. In one study, horses were able to express whether or not they wanted a blanket on by nudging a board with relevant icons. In another, they were able to determine whether or not a human attendant knew where a carrot was hidden — if they didn’t, they would attempt to guide the human toward it using visual and tactile signals, like touching them or lightly pushing them.
One famous horse, Clever Hans, probably couldn’t do arithmetic, read, or spell, as his owner claimed he could. But he did, inadvertently, demonstrate the ways that horses are smart — it turned out he appeared to have more advanced knowledge because he was picking up on subtle, possibly unconscious cues from his owner.
Unlike many species, raccoons have thrived as humans have expanded into their habitat. They’re both highly adaptable and extremely clever. One experiment showed that raccoons could use water displacement to gain access to a marshmallow that was floating too low for them to grab. Other research as far back as 1913 showed that raccoons were able to identify a specific light source even after getting distracted — something that rats and dogs in the same study could not.
In some Native American folklore, ravens are known as tricksters — a reputation that may stem from these birds’ intelligence. Ravens and their relatives in the family Corvidae, which include crows and jays, have the same brain-to-body-size ratio as apes, suggesting a high level of cognition. Ravens are known for their complex social behaviors, such as holding apparent grudges against people who cheat them (a sign of their memory) and enacting “funerals” over dead members of their species, from which they pick up social information. They even recognize human faces. Corvids also understand cause and effect, plan for the future, and make and use tools, like fashioning sticks to help them extract food from tight spaces.
Jane Goodall’s observations of chimpanzees using blades of grass to tease tasty termites out of their mound revolutionized our views of animal intelligence. And since her discovery in 1960, chimps have shown that their cognitive abilities rank pretty close to our own. In addition to the grass, chimps create special tools from leaves, twigs, and tree branches for different tasks. They also throw rocks at trees, perhaps to communicate to other chimps across a large area, and crack open nuts against anvil-like stones. Recently, scientists observed wild chimpanzees applying squashed insects to wounds as a form of self-medication. In addition, chimps interact with complex vocalizations and gestures and have even learned to “speak” with trainers in rudimentary pictorial or sign languages.
Pigs’ intelligence hasn’t been studied as thoroughly as that of primates, rodents, and birds, but analyses suggest that their performance on some psychological tests is on par with dolphins. A 2009 study found that seven out of eight pigs could process reflections of objects in a mirror and use the information to find food hidden behind a wall. Pigs can discern objects based on different characteristics and remember their choices over time, which demonstrates long-term memory. They can also prioritize which memories are important, like how to access desired food when presented with different options. Anecdotally, pigs have appeared to show empathy for humans, such as when naturalist Sy Montgomery’s normally active 750-pound porker, Christopher Hogwood, became quiet and docile while Montgomery grieved the loss of loved ones.
What octopuses lack in exoskeletons, they make up for in brains. These eight-armed cephalopods not only have the biggest brain-to-body-size ratio among invertebrates, but they also have multiple brains — a central neurological organ and one “mini-brain” in each arm. Octopuses can perceive and react to information quickly — by suddenly changing their color and pattern to camouflage themselves, for example — which suggests superior cognitive abilities. They’re famous for getting into and out of tight spaces, unscrewing jar lids, manipulating objects to solve puzzles, stealing crabs out of fishermen’s traps, and even escaping their aquarium tanks. A 2010 study of eight giant Pacific octopuses found that they could even recognize individual people.
Elephants are famed for their excellent long-term memory, a key indicator of animal intelligence. They can also solve practical problems. In a famous 2010 study, Kandula the Asian elephant figured out how to reach food on a high branch by pushing objects, like a large plastic cube, under the food and then using the cube as a step stool. Another well-known experiment found that elephants can grasp the need for cooperation and alter their behavior to achieve a shared goal. Observations of elephant social groups over decades have revealed tight relationships between different elephant generations, in which ecological knowledge is transferred from matriarchs to younger individuals.
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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a … flying tree snake? Yes, that’s correct. From flying fish to flying squirrels, there are plenty of unique aerodynamic animals around the world. Even more impressive, most of them don’t have wings. Using special fins, large toes, or extra membranes, several surprising creatures are able to glide through the air at astonishing lengths.
Although the concept of an airborne fish seems counterintuitive, there are at least 40 different flying fish species around the world. Primarily found in warmer climates in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, these ray-finned fish thrive in open waters, where they can use their large, rigid fins to “fly” through the air. After propelling themselves out of the water, their fins extend horizontally like wings, allowing them to glide up to 650 feet. Most researchers believe flying fish developed this ability in order to escape underwater predators who did not exhibit the same aerodynamic capabilities.
Found throughout Southeast Asia, the paradise tree snake is a unique reptilian predator. Sometimes referred to as the paradise flying snake, this species of serpent is both slim and agile. A highly capable climber, paradise tree snakes prefer to spend most of their time in coconut palm trees. When the flying snake wants to travel between treetops, it is able to flatten its ribcage until it becomes concave. At this point, the snake can propel itself out a tree and glide through the air, slithering in an S-shape as if on the ground.
Often called flying rays for their ability to leap out of the water, Mobula rays are a species of fish that are closely related to sharks. Shaped like a diamond, Mobula ray fins are useful both in and out of the water. With enough speed, the ray can launch six feet into the air, flapping its fins like wings before flopping back down. Often flying in groups, a school of Mobula rays is a spectacular sight to see. Scientists are unsure why flying rays exhibit this behavior, although it may be a form of communication between members of the species.
Credit: Joe McDonald/ The Image Bank via Getty Images
Flying Squirrel
Flying squirrels aren’t able to take flight like a bird, although they may give off this appearance as they soar through the air. The extra flap of skin that connects their front and hind legs serves as a parachute for these quirky land mammals. When a flying squirrel leaps into the air, they use this special membrane to glide from tree to tree, thereby avoiding any predators who may be on the ground. Not only can flying squirrels travel up to 150 feet in the air, but they can also change both their speed and direction in flight by steering with their legs and braking with their tails.
If they weren’t already frightening enough, many spiders have the ability to fly. This is thanks to a common arachnid technique called ballooning. Ballooning occurs when a spider releases its silk and rides the wind like a kite. In this way, spiders can travel long distances to join a new colony, find food, or search for prospective mates. Crab spiders, in particular, have been researched for this ability; one study completed at the Technical University of Berlin revealed that crab spiders are “careful, deliberate fliers,” who use their hairs on their legs to test wind conditions before take-off.
As the only mammals in the world born with the ability to fly — and the only animal on this list with wings — bats are some of the most intriguing fliers out there. Their ability to use echolocation to find objects in the dark, for example, has been researched for decades. As fliers, bats are maneuverable and nimble. In fact, the flexible skin and extra joints on a bat’s wings make them more efficient in the air than birds.
Sometimes referred to as parachute frogs, Wallace’s flying frogs live in tropical rainforests in Malaysia and Borneo. Named after 19th-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, the Wallace flying frog has a distinct appearance — gigantic webbed feet, boggling eyes, and an oversized mouth. When escaping a predator, this flying frog can glide up to 50 feet through the air, using its extra membranes as a parachute. Flying from tree to tree, the frog’s gigantic toe pads provide an adhesive cushioning that allows them to stick the landing with ease.
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When the weather warms in spring, animals begin stirring from hibernation. But they haven’t spent the previous few months just catching up on beauty sleep. Hibernation is a complex physiological state that helps animals survive seasons when resources are low. Here are a few facts on this unusual adaptation, and the critters that have mastered it.
Hibernation is a form of torpor — a dormant state in which an animal’s body temperature cools and its heart rate and metabolism slow to conserve energy. Torpor can last as little as a few hours: Hummingbirds in the Andes, for example, cool their internal temperature up to 33 degrees Celsius and enter torpor overnight, saving energy until the following morning. Hibernation is basically torpor that lasts several weeks to several months. The degree of hibernation among animals can vary from the practically dead (the Arctic ground squirrel can lower its body temperature below the freezing point of water) to relatively active (bears don’t lower their body temperatures as much and periodically wake up during hibernation).
Biologists used to think that cold weather was the signal for animals to start hibernating, since those in the temperate Northern Hemisphere disappeared into their dens when summer turned into fall and emerged when winter turned to spring. Then scientists discovered that numerous species in the tropics also hibernate, which suggested that hibernation was triggered by a seasonal lack of food instead of a change in temperature. These tropical species enter a hibernation-like state called estivation during hot and dry periods when water or food is scarce.
When animals hibernate, they’re not just sleeping for weeks on end. “Light” hibernators like bears cycle between periods of rest, when their body temperature and functions are dormant, and brief periods of wakefulness when they change position, urinate, or even get some actual sleep. Female bears and other mammals may give birth and raise their young during this time. Deep hibernators, like some species of groundhog, mice, and bats, may remain practically motionless for months.
Hibernating animals eventually wake up, signaled by the changing temperature of their environment or possibly by an internal “alarm clock.” The months spent in their cozy dens are actually not that relaxing: When animals emerge from torpor, they’re often underweight, tired, hungry, and thirsty. Their first post-hibernation acts are to drink water, hunt or forage for food, and size up potential mates.
Numerous species of warm-blooded animals experience some degree of torpor, but only a small percentage of them are considered true hibernators. A single species of bird, the common poorwill, and a single fish, an Antarctic cod (which isn’t warm-blooded, but does produce antifreeze-like proteins in its body), are known to hibernate. The practice is much more common among mammals; hibernating mammals include echidnas, insect-eating bats, at least one species of armadillo, the fat-tailed dwarf lemur, badgers, ground squirrels, marmots, jumping mice, dormice, and black and brown bears.
There Have Been a Few Cases of Human “Hibernation”
You may have noticed one mammal that doesn’t hibernate — us. But there are a handful of cases in which humans have endured a lethally low body temperature and lived, with no lasting effects. The most famous is the ordeal of Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, a 35-year-old Japanese civil servant, who slipped on a mountain trail and broke his hip in October 2006. He was rescued after 24 days suffering from extreme hypothermia “similar to hibernation,” his doctors said. After nearly two months in the hospital, he emerged with no residual injury. In 2012, a Swedish man was stranded in his snowed-in car for two months but survived, despite having severe hypothermia and no food, possibly due to having entered a torpor-like state.
Research into animal hibernation has the potential to help humans. Understanding why hibernators can withstand extremely low body temperatures and slowed metabolism without injury might give us clues for recovering from heart attacks, preserving human organs for transplant, or conducting complex surgeries. Scientists are even experimenting with “induced hibernation” as a way to conserve astronauts’ energy on long journeys through space, and to reduce the amount of resources needed on future missions to Mars.
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We all know about baby cats (known as kittens, of course) and baby dogs (puppies) — and while many other species use the conventional “kit” or “pup,” some baby animals have names that are a little more creative, and even absolutely adorable. In fact, one of nature’s weirdest babies shares a name with a goofy dog breed. How many of these baby animal names do you know?
In case you thought hedgehogs couldn’t get any more adorable: A baby hedgehog is called a hoglet. Speaking of other cute animals with quills, a baby porcupine is called a porcupette. When porcupettes are born, their quills are soft and don’t harm the mother — but the quills harden within minutes of being exposed to the air. Porcupettes also have long, reddish-brown hair that helps camouflage them in the tree canopy.
Scyphozoa, or “true jellyfish,” have a unique reproductive cycle: A fertilized egg becomes a polyp, which attaches to a coral reef. Eventually, the polyp forms buds that become juvenile jellyfish, called ephyra. In ancient Greece, Ephyra was both the name of a sea nymph and an old name for Corinth.
Newborn eels, meanwhile, are called elvers, a word that comes from “eel-fare,” or the journey that elvers make upriver.
A puggle can be a dog that’s a mix of a pug and a beagle, but it can be a baby platypus, too. The word originally referred to baby echidnas, the only other extant monotreme, or egg-laying mammal, but it is now used for both platypuses and echidnas. Some prefer “platypup” as a platypus-specific alternative.
As for other animals in and around Australia: Baby kangaroos are called joeys, and the term is also used for other baby marsupials like koalas, wallabies, and opossums. While some sources list the origin of this word as unknown, it may be a borrowed word from Australian Aboriginal peoples.
Fully grown female chickens are called hens; males are roosters. In their first year of life, they’re called pullets and cockerels, respectively.
Speaking of barnyard animals: You, and most other people, probably call a baby pig a piglet, but it can be called a shoat, especially after it’s been weaned. A litter of piglets is called a farrow.
Meanwhile, alpacas, llamas, and some of their lesser-known relatives all give birth to crias — borrowed from the Spanish word cría, which can mean “baby animal.”
When baby puffins, called pufflings, are ready to fly, the moon is supposed to guide them to the ocean. Now, city lights get in the way, so volunteers in Iceland’s Westman Islands gather them up off the streets and throw them off cliffs or toward the beach to send them in the right direction.
Meanwhile, despite what you may have heard in a certain childhood fable, baby swans, called cygnets, are extremely cute.
Sure, you could call a baby frog a tadpole, or you could use the fanciful “pollywog” instead. It probably came from the Middle English words for “poll” and “wiggle.”
A baby snake, meanwhile, is called a snakelet, and it can either be born live or hatch from an egg, depending on the species. (Speaking of other wriggling, legless babies: A newborn worm is similarly called a wormlet.)
During its first year of life, a hare is called a leveret. Middle English borrowed it from French; in modern French, a hare is called a lièvre.
The name “eyas” for a baby hawk had a funny journey that also involves Middle English. Centuries ago, Middle English speakers were confused about the term “neias,” which is from the Anglo-French word niais, or “fresh from the nest.” They heard “a neias” as “an eias,” and eventually the word just dropped the “n” at the start.
A peacock is just a male peafowl; the female peafowl is called, fittingly, a peahen. Their babies are called peachicks, which just continues the naming convention.
Monkeys, apes, and human beings are all primates — and all of their babies arecalledinfants.
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Sarah Anne Lloyd is a freelance writer whose work covers a bit of everything, including politics, design, the environment, and yoga. Her work has appeared in Curbed, the Seattle Times, the Stranger, the Verge, and others.
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The custom of relying on animals to bring us luck is shared by many cultures. While the roots of these practices often date back centuries, the superstitions have stuck around even into the 21st century. For example, some people in Britain and North America wake up on the first day of the month and mutter “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” believing that the phrase guarantees good luck for the rest of the month — a tradition some historians believe can be traced back to the Celts. It was even customary at one time to pocket a rabbit’s foot for luck, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt carried one during the 1932 election campaign. Curious to know the stories behind other lucky creatures around the world? Here are seven animals that are traditionally thought to bring good fortune.
The reason pigs are considered lucky in Germany has origins on the farms of the Middle Ages. Back then, owning a large number of pigs signified wealth and prosperity. While farmers might have wanted to hang on to a cow for its milk and a horse as transport, pigs weren’t too valuable to sacrifice to the dinner table. Therefore, if they had pigs, they’d never go hungry — something that could definitely be considered good fortune.
Centuries later, these farmyard animals are still a lucky symbol. The German expression “schwein gehabt” translates literally to “got pig,” though the phrase effectively means “got lucky.” If you want to wish someone in Germany good luck, it’s customary to send a marzipan pig to accompany your message, particularly to ring in the New Year.
Along with several other animals — both real and mythological (see: dragons) — tigers play an important role in traditional Chinese culture. One reason for this is that associations in China often relate to language. If the written symbol for one word appears similar to another character, you may find a parallel link embedded in cultural traditions and customs. With tigers, the Chinese character for “king” looks similar to the markings on a tiger’s forehead, so the animals are considered natural-born kings, a symbol of prowess, strength, and good fortune. In China, gifting a tiger charm is done to wish the bearer good luck. Newborn babies are given tiny shoes with tiger heads embroidered on them to secure a good start in life.
Credit: Godong/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images
South Asia: Elephants
In India and several other southern Asian nations, if you hope for good fortune, you’re likely to turn to an elephant. The animals often play a significant role in religion. Indians call upon the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh if they wish to summon wisdom, success, or good luck. Elephants often accompany Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of abundance, and Indra, god of thunder, rides a white elephant called Airavata.
Elephants are also important to Buddhists, to whom they represent protection and good fortune. Because Buddha’s mother dreamt about a white elephant before she gave birth, white elephants are particularly auspicious. The creatures figure largely into primarily Buddhist countries such as Thailand, where they are revered as a national symbol and signify royalty.
When traveling in southern Peru, you’re likely to spot a pair of ceramic bulls perched on the roofs of homes. Known as Toritos de Pucará, they are named for the town in which they’re made near Lake Titicaca, and they symbolize protection, happiness, and fertility. The introduction of these ceramic figures can be traced back to the colonial era, when Spaniards introduced el toro to the Americas and they featured in the traditional festivals in the region.
The two bulls represent the Andean belief in duality: Opposing pairs — whether it’s the sun and the moon, mother and father, or night and day — are depicted together. If one can achieve equilibrium between positive and negative energy, that person will enjoy good fortune and prosperity.
You may be familiar with these waving cat ornaments placed in shop windows and restaurants in Japan. Known as maneki-neko (which translates literally to “beckoning cat”), the figurines — and cats in general — have come to be associated with good luck in Japan. A few legends explain these origins. In one, a noble stood under a tree in a thunderstorm, and seeing a cat beckoning in a similar fashion as the ornaments, he walked toward it. As he did so, the cat saved his life as lightning struck the tree he had been standing under just moments before.
Whether the story is true or not, many Japanese people still believe that cats are lucky. Across the country, there are many shrines and temples dedicated to felines. Tashirojima, off the coast of northern Japan, is often referred to by its nickname, Cat Island, as the island’s population is reportedly made up of 25% humans and 75% cats. The island was once a center for silkworm production, so to get rid of unwanted pests on the island, cats were introduced. Their population has grown, and the island is now a popular tourist attraction.
Visit Sweden, and there’s a good chance you’ll come back with at least one Dala horse in your suitcase. These brightly painted wooden horses are a national symbol, but they shot to international fame when a supersized one appeared outside the Swedish Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. And when Swedish premier Göran Persson arrived in the United States on official business in 1996, he presented one to then-President Clinton.
Dala horses aren’t just a souvenir, however. They’re a reminder that for centuries, Swedes have considered horses to be lucky. As far back as the Viking era, they were a good luck charm — burying wooden horses in the graves of warriors would send them on their way to the next world. That wish for safe passage is no coincidence if you understand that Odin, the Norse god of war, rode an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir who could gallop on water and fly. These days, the Dala horse is a nod to that long-standing tradition, and Swedes place the talisman in a window to bring good luck to their homes.
Credit: Werner Forman/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Egypt: Beetles
The ancient Egyptians revered a number of creatures, one of which was the scarab beetle, a large dung beetle that was common in the region. Khepri, god of the morning sun and by extension the renewal of life, was depicted as a scarab beetle or a man with a scarab for a head. When the pharaohs were around, seals bore a scarab design. The beetles also featured in jewelry of the time. Decorative scarabs were painted in symbolic colors: red for the sun god, yellow for the desert, or blue for the Nile. Some amulets even made it into tombs among the treasures the pharaohs would take with them to enjoy in the afterlife. Scarab trinkets are still produced in Egypt today: Buy a souvenir from an Egyptian trader and you might find one wrapped up with your purchase to wish you good fortune.
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There are few creatures more majestic than the elephant. The African savanna elephant, also known as the African bush elephant, is the largest living land mammal in the world, weighing between 4 and 7 tons each and measuring up to 13 feet high. The other two species aren’t exactly tiny, either; African forest elephants and Asian elephants tend to be just a ton or so smaller.
Despite their mighty size, elephants are at risk — decades of poaching and ivory trading have taken a toll on their populations. But plenty of people have fallen in love with these highly social creatures and are working to save them.
Why are some elephants evolving at lightning speed? What itty-bitty creature absolutely terrifies them? Here are seven interesting facts about elephants you’ll never forget.
Human pregnancies, which last about 40 weeks, can seem like they last forever, but that’s nothing compared to elephant pregnancies. An African elephant has a single calf every four to five years after a gestation period of 22 months. Asian elephants have around one calf every three to eight years, and their pregnancies can be just as long. It’s a good thing the calves take so much time to develop, though — it gets them ready to keep up with the herd immediately after birth.
Elephants have the longest gestation period of any mammal, although some other kinds of animals have longer pregnancies; the frilled shark, which is found off the coasts of Chile and South Africa, has a gestation period of about 42 months.
Trumpeting isn’t the only sound that elephants make. Elephants have conversations with one another as low as 10 hertz — and human beings can’t hear anything below 20 hertz or so. While humans can’t hear these conversations, they’re low enough that we can feel them the way we can feel speakers with the bass turned way up. Scientists observing elephants have built a kind of elephant-to-human dictionary, pinpointing specific rumbles for greeting, looking for a mate, and searching for a child. The low frequency means that the conversations can travel greater distances (as far as 6 miles) through forests, which tend to dampen higher frequencies.
After elephants reach maturity, males set off on their own, but females stay close to the family. Savanna elephants have an especially robust social structure: The eldest female is in charge of a family group of about six to 12, which can include her offspring, her grandchildren, her sisters, and her sisters’ descendants. These elephant mothers, grandmothers, and aunts band together to raise their young, search for food, and defend the herd. Some elephants will even nurse other elephants’ young, like a wet nurse would. If an elephant family gets too big, a cousin might split off from the herd, but the new families keep in touch and continue to share resources.
Male elephants, meanwhile, kind of do their own thing — but that doesn’t mean they’re lonely. Researchers have observed male elephants having close friendships, and even mentoring younger elephants and forming their own hierarchical groups. Sometimes older elephants travel alone, but they’re still valuable resources for less-experienced males.
Elephants are a frequent target for poachers because of the ivory that makes up their tusks, and it’s been devastating to the population. In what’s now Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, the elephant population dropped 90% between 1977 and 1992. All that poaching had an interesting side effect: Fewer elephants were born with tusks.
All male African elephants have tusks, but it can go either way with female elephants, depending on their genetics. Before 1977, more than 80% of female elephants had tusks. After 1992, only about half of them did. Because so many elephants were killed for their tusks, tuskless female elephants were more likely to survive. Those surviving elephants had children, and about half of their daughters were tuskless, too. Around two-thirds of their children were also female. In other words, the poaching pressures have encouraged the birth of elephants without tusks. The tuskless trend is noticeable in other high-poaching areas, too.
Elephants that grow tusks get them when they’re around 2 years old, and they never stop growing. They can live to about 60 years old in the wild, so their tusks can get really, really long. Eventually, they reach or nearly reach the ground — elephants with tusks this long are called “tuskers,” or, once tusks get to be around 100 pounds each, “super tuskers.” These elephants are typically male, but not exclusively; one matriarch elephant with spectacular tusks believed to be 60 to 65 years old died in 2022.
Just like humans can be right-handed or left-handed, elephants can have a dominant tusk. Researchers can tell pretty easily by sight: The one that’s more worn down is the one they’re using most often. (Elephants use their tusks to dig, lift objects, gather food, fight, and more.) With older elephants, the preference can be really obvious since they’ve spent more time wearing one down as the other kept growing. In 2017, researchers surveyed nearly 700 elephant tusks and found that there are more righties than lefties, but not by much.
Elephants are massive and have pretty thick skin, about an inch deep. You’d think an insect smaller than a quarter, even one with a stinger, would be no big deal — but you’d be wrong. Elephants are so scared of bees that farmers use them as a natural, humane elephant deterrent. By hanging a beehive every 10 yards or so, researchers have been able to deter 80% of elephants.
African honeybees are small, but aggressive, and can sting areas that aren’t protected by thick elephant skin, like eyes and mouths. When bees start swarming, African elephants will start flapping their ears, kicking up dust, and yelling. Asian elephants react less dramatically, but they still get visibly nervous; they shrink away from bees, comfort one another, and sometimes slap their trunks on the ground.
Sarah Anne Lloyd
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Sarah Anne Lloyd is a freelance writer whose work covers a bit of everything, including politics, design, the environment, and yoga. Her work has appeared in Curbed, the Seattle Times, the Stranger, the Verge, and others.
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