Animal Facts That Will Amaze You

No matter how much of a nature-lover you are, it would be pretty hard to know everything there is to know about the countless creatures that walk, swim, and fly among us. You’re bound to be left with unanswered questions, like why do bats hang upside-down? How do snakes climb without limbs? And do sharks like to be petted? Let's answer these questions plus a whole lot more interesting facts about animals!

How Do Snakes Climb Without Limbs?

For creatures that have no arms or legs to speak of, snakes are pretty great climbers. If you don't believe it, check out this green serpent that shimmied up a powerline to chase birds in Malaysia:

Although you’d probably never expect it, snakes have even been known to cause power outages after climbing up electric posts and causing short circuits. In their natural habitats, plenty of snakes will climb trees, rockfaces and other obstacles with ease without the use of claws, feet or sticky toe pads like nature’s other climbers.

So, how do they do it? Specialist tree-climbers like brown tree snakes are lightweight and slender with long tails that are capable of coiling around branches, in comparison to terrestrial crawlers like boa constrictors that are on the heavier side with shorter tails.

All snakes climb by bending and flexing the entire length of their tubular bodies. They use a concertina-like motion to increase their friction to surfaces, folding and unfolding their bodies using their strong core muscles to propel themselves along. If they happen to be climbing a wall or rockface, they will also follow the pattern in the wall, like the grouting between bricks, to wedge themselves into gaps and crevices.

But research has shown that concertina locomotion is up to 7 times more energy-consuming than a snake’s normal sinuous movement. For that reason, snakes will tend to avoid shimmying up things like electric posts if they can help it. Or unless there’s a tasty tweety-bird hanging out on the line, by the looks of things! Can you image what snakes would look like if they suddenly grew arms and legs, like really long, thin lizards? It’s unlikely that’ll ever happen.

Elephants Can’t Jump

Elephants are some of the most majestic creatures to ever walk the Earth. Their general aura of majesty is so great, in fact, that you’ll never catch one doing something as frivolous as jumping because they literally can’t. The main reason why no one has ever seen an elephant jump, unless it was in a Saturday-morning cartoon, is simple: they don’t have to.

Think about it this way: most stereotypically “jumpy” animals like kangaroos, monkeys and frogs jump mostly to get away from predators. But when you’re as big and strong as an elephant, there are plenty of other ways to protect yourself, not to mention the fact that elephants travel in large, protective social groups called herds. Plus, it’s actually pretty hard to shift 4 to 7 tons of mammal off the ground at once. In fact, it’s nigh-on impossible.

According to John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College in London, animals that jump need really flexible ankles and strong Achilles tendons and calf muscles. Unfortunately, elephants have really wimpy lower-leg muscles and their ankles aren’t very flexible at all. So, trampolining is off the cards for them in the animal Olympics!

elephants can't trampoline in animal Olympics

Flamingos Aren’t Actually Pink

The word flamingo comes from the Latin word flamenco, meaning fire, which refers to the characteristically bright color of the birds feathers. But flamingos aren’t actually pink! Instead, flamingos are born grey or white and only turn pink over the first couple of years of their life. But why?

Have you ever heard the expression “you are what you eat”? It may not be exactly true for us humans, but it certainly is for flamingos! It turns out flamingos only get their reddish-pink color from special pigments known as beta-carotene which are found in high numbers in the algae and invertebrates they gorge themselves on.

Flamingos are filter feeders, meaning they take up water in their beaks and sieve out tiny brine shrimps from the water with their special beaks and tongue. In the digestive system, enzymes break down the carotenoids into pigments that are absorbed by fats in the liver and deposited into the feathers and the skin.

To actually color them physically, carotenoids must be ingested in very large amounts. But because a flamingos diet consists almost entirely of these carotenoid-filled snacks, the birds have no problem getting their pink on! On the other hand, a human would have to eat an enormous amount of carotene-rich carrots to turn a healthy shade of orange, which is why we don’t change color as we grow into adulthood like they do.

Frogs Can’t Vomit

Ever started feeling a little peaky after you made a risky decision to eat that lasagna that’s been sitting in the fridge for too long? Fortunately, you can get rid of the bad microbes by throwing it all up again. But if you’re a frog, you have no such option.

If a frog eats something toxic it can’t just vomit it up, it has to eject its entire stomach. And that's not only its stomach contents, they need to eject the actual stomach. The process is called full gastric eversion, and it’s basically works the same as dumping out your pockets.

Once it has thrown up its stomach, which is now hanging out of its mouth, the frog will use its front feet to wipe it clean and remove any stray bits of food. Then, it will pack the whole thing neatly back into its body where it will remain until the next time the frog makes a mistake and eats something it shouldn’t.

It might surprise you to learn that frogs aren’t the only animals that can’t vomit: horses, rabbits and rats can’t chuck-up either. But only a select few creatures can turn their tummies inside-out. Sharks are also capable of full gastric eversion, which helps them to avoid poison and evade predators. It’s impossible to know exactly how a frog feels before they chuck up their stomachs, but it’s safe to say a little green is a good guess.

Do Sharks Like to be Petted?

If you were to come across a ferocious shark while swimming in the ocean, the last thing you’d want to do is reach out and pet it like an oversized dog with gills, right? But according to one conservationist, these aquatic predators actually love nothing more than a nice head-rub from time to time.

Jim Abernathy has bonded with a number of these magnificent creatures by diving down into the waters of Tiger Beach in the Bahamas to help out his underwater friends. In his time beneath the waves, Abernathy has removed over 80 hooks from sharks mouths, inevitably saving their lives while bonding with them in the process!

Jim runs Jim Abernathy’s Scuba Adventures, an organization that is all about bringing people and sharks together. Tiger Beach, located off the West End of the Grand Bahamas Islands, is known for being a relatively safe environment and is the perfect location to bond with tiger sharks, great hammerheads, oceanic white tip, lemon and whale sharks.

During his dives, Jim is able to swim alongside the sharks and is even brave enough to reach out and touch them without worrying that they’ll bite his arm off! But instead of pulling away at the sensation of a human touch, the sharks do something remarkable. They swim around and approach him again, hoping to get more attention! We often think of them as bloodthirsty killers, but sharks are actually very laid back creatures and rarely attack without reason.

But Jim is also aware of the potential dangers of his underwater pursuits, and he learned the hard way that sharks can sometimes be unpredictable when he was bitten by a Caribbean reef shark during one of his expeditions in 2008, which almost cost him his arm! But as soon as he was healed, Jim was back in the water socializing with the animals again!

The chances of being bitten are actually incredibly low. According to TIME magazine, the annual number of worldwide shark bites is 10 times less than the number of people bitten by other people in New York. Now there’s some food for thought!

Crocodiles Can “Gallop”

By the word “gallop” you probably imagine a majestic stallion galloping through fields of green, and probably not a sluggish croc dragging its belly along the riverbank. But, believe it or not, crocodiles have been known to push themselves into a scaly strut called a “high walk” as well as being able to bound and even gallop!

In case you aren’t up to speed with your animal mechanics, a crocodilian “bound” is determined by the animals forelimbs hitting the ground simultaneously with the hindlimbs pushing off quickly after. Meanwhile, a “gallop” is a four-beat sequence whereby the fore and hindlimbs each touch off in turn.

Freshwater crocodiles from Australia were historically thought to be the only species capable of doing both, but recent research by veterinary scientists in Florida observed eight different species of crocodiles bounding and galloping. No matter what their size, almost every species studied was able to reach a speed of nearly 18 kilometers per hour.

Exactly why alligators can’t gallop remains uncertain. Some have theorized that galloping helps comparatively smaller crocs to make quick getaways from danger, but it seems like alligators and caiman just stand their ground rather than running away.

Other studies have also noted that crocodiles have bundles of muscle fibers that are longer and thinner than alligators’ which means they can cycle their limbs quicker and get a little more reach with each step. So, if you’re planning on riding a large reptile into the sunset anytime soon, choose a crocodile!

Why Do Bats Hang Upside Down?

Bats are iconic animals for many reasons, mostly due to their association with vampires, and one of their most well-known traits is their ability to sleep while hanging upside-down. But is there a reason why they choose to take 40 winks in such a bizarre way?

Unlike birds, most bat species, with the exception of the New Zealand short-tailed bat and the vampire bat, cannot launch their bodies into the air from the ground because their wings simply don’t produce enough lift to take off like a helicopter does.

While a running start might help them out, bats also suffer from having hind legs that are just too tiny to gain enough speed for lift-off. So, bats have no choice but to claw their way up to a high enough spot where they can let go and fall right into flight.

It’s actually pretty clever, because if a sleeping bat needs to make a quick escape they are already in a prime position to spread their wings and fly away. If humans were to hang upside down for a prolonged period of time, all the blood would rush to our heads, but bats have got that covered, too.

These crafty fanged-creatures have one-way valves in their arteries which stop them from getting dizzy like we would. The same one-way ‘venous valves’ us humans have in our legs that keep blood from pooling to our feet are reversed in bats, stopping blood from flowing backwards and rushing to their heads instead!

Plus, hanging upside-down is a pretty great way to hide from danger. During the hours when most predators, like birds of prey, are active, bats congregate cleverly where few animals would think to look, and most can’t reach. And considering other flying animals don’t have the ability to hang upside-down, there’s less competition in the roosting spots bats choose.

Cheetahs Are Socially Awkward

While you probably know that cheetah’s are the fastest animals on Earth, what you may not know is that they are also incredibly awkward beings. In fact, the big cats get so anxious when cared-for in captivity that they don’t know how to socialize with each other properly and get too stressed to procreate.

This can pose a major problem because cheetah’s are actually nearing extinction. But Zoo’s have come up with a clever solution: emotional support dogs. That’s right, it turns out cats and dogs do get along after all! According to Janet Rose-Hinostroza, animal training supervisor at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, “a dominant dog is very helpful because the African animals are quite shy instinctively, and you can’t breed that out of them.”

Cheetahs are inherently different from their cat cousins like lions and tigers, because they are wired for flight rather than fight. At heart, they’re nothing more than really fast scaredy cats! So, when you pair a cheetah cub with a guide dog, the cat naturally looks to the more outgoing and curious dog for cues and learns to model their behavior. By reading the loveable, happy-go-lucky vibe that pooches generally give off, the cheetah becomes calmer and more confident.

There Is an Uncrushable Beetle

When you find a bug in your home, your first instinct might be to squish it. It’s quick, effortless and painless for you, at least. But if you happen to be dealing with one of these bad-boys in the image below, you could be there forever.

diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus)

©Jesse Rorabaugh via Wikimedia Commons

Allow me to introduce you to the ironclad beetle. It may look like pretty much any other beetle on first glance, but you can smack it, stomp on it or even run it over with your car and this beetle will still escape completely uncrushed. But how does this otherwise ordinary beetle, which only measures around 0.6 to 1 inch in length, get its super-strength?

Scientists have discovered that the beetles’ outer wing cases, known as ‘elytra’, are so tough because they’re made up of a series of smoothly interlocking puzzle parts. These individual parts lock tightly together to increase the strength of the beetles armor.

Although their ancestors could fly, ironclad beetles lost their flight capabilities long ago and their elytra fused together, forming a "crush-resistant" shield. Entomologists have a particularly difficult relationship with the critters. Efforts to pin ironclad beetle specimens to boards for mounting have resulted in a bunch bent steel pins and one totally unpierced insect!

Entomologists can't pin ironclad beetles to boards

Researchers performed compression tests on the beetles to see just how much force their shields could withstand without cracking. They found that the “iron” beetles could resist continuous force of up to 149 newtons, which is about 33 pounds! For some perspective, that’s about 39,000 times the beetles’ average body weight, and more than twice as much as other species of terrestrial beetles can endure.

Ghost Crabs Growl Using Teeth in Their Stomachs

Plenty of animals growl and bare their teeth when they feel threatened but what happens when your teeth are located inside your stomach? Well, just ask a ghost crab! Although you probably had no idea, most crustaceans have tiny teeth in their stomachs for grinding up food, but the ghost crab is the first shown to use them to make sounds for communication.

When they need to deter intruders to their burrows, ghost crabs have been known to make sounds by flexing their claws and rubbing ridges near the joint together, but when an animal gets a little too close the crabs hold their claws upright in a position that prevents them from making such sounds. So, they resort to a bizarre back-up plan.

Jennifer Taylor from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California was the first to notice that, even in this position, the crabs still produced sounds loud enough to be heard unaided. To get to the bottom of this mystery, Taylor took a bunch of ghost crabs and X-Rayed them while they were approached by a series of threats like a plastic crab and a small robot. Check it out:

In this clip, you can see the crab grinding the teeth in its foreguts, known as gastric mills, to produce a threatening growl. Many other animals, from worms to birds, have mechanisms for grinding food in their gizzards, but not all have internal teeth. Some fish such as grunts use teeth in their throats to produce sounds, but the ghost grab is unique in its ability to use a similar technique to communicate. Can you imagine if humans had teeth in their stomach, rather than in our mouths?

What Is Skunk Spray?

Although most people have never encountered one, it’s pretty well-known that you should never get on the wrong side of a skunk, unless you wanna get a face-full of their potent butt-spray.

But what exactly is this noxious substance, and why do the North American mammals need it? Skunks are nocturnal creatures, and their predators rely heavily on scent to navigate in the dark. So, skunks developed a clever counterattack: a yellow liquid full of stinky chemicals from their anal glands, which they use to chase off predators.

The toxic oil is stored in the anal sacs and can be fired out of their butts up to 3 meters away! And if you happen to be in the path of an angry skunk, you could be in big trouble because skunk spray is so potent that it can knock out or even kill a human!

Skunk spray includes chemicals called ‘thiols’ which are sulphur-containing compounds that help give the liquid its awful stench. Once it has been ejected from the butt, skunk musk is highly effective as a way to avoid physical confrontation and for buying extra time to escape from predators.

Thankfully for us clumsy humans, skunks will only use their spray as a last resort. First and foremost, they rely on their black-and-white coloring as a way of sending a message that says, “don’t mess with me, fella!” They’ll also do a little defensive dance and rely on a series of hisses and foot stomps, like a toddler throwing a tantrum. But if all else fails, it’s time to bring out the big guns.

Biologists have noted that skunks rarely die from being killed by predators, so it seems to work! Then again, who’d wanna eat something that just farted in your face?

Birds Are Immune to Chili Peppers

Ever eaten a hot chili pepper and felt the need to reach for the nearest glass of water or milk right away? Well, if you had feathers and wings that wouldn’t be such a problem, because birds can totally take the heat!

In case you didn’t know, chili gets its fiery kick from capsaicin, a chemical that triggers pain receptors in our mouths, which is responsible for the “burning hot” sensation you experience. But why do chili peppers need to pack such a spicy punch? It turns out the plants’ natural heat is actually a chemical weapon used to deter hungry predators who are poor at spreading seeds.

Birds, who scatter seeds far afield in their poop, don’t have receptors for capsaicin and appear to be immune to chili’s fiery heat. But animals who are less efficient at seed-spreading find the taste unbearable. The seeds of wild peppers and chilies pass right through a birds gut undigested. Due to their flight range, the seeds are deposited in distant places where they can grow with less competition.

If the fruits were consumed by larger mammals, on the other hand, the seeds would either be digested or deposited much closer to the parent plant, which isn’t nearly as effective. Studies have shown that the seeds of wild peppers are almost exclusively dispersed by birds, so it seems to be working!

Can Pigs Really Make a Body Disappear?

In Autumn 2012, 69-year-old farmer Terry Vance Garner went to feed his hogs, as usual, only this time, he would never return. When his family went looking for him, all they found inside the pig enclosure were his dentures. It soon transpired that Garner had fallen and been overwhelmed by the 700-pound hogs, which then consumed him.

It sounds like the makings of a budget horror flick, but here’s a fun fact you probably never thought you’d hear: pigs eat people. In 2019, a Russian woman suffered an epileptic fit while feeding her hogs and was eaten alive. 6 years prior, a mob boss was fed to pigs by a rival family.

These are just a couple of instances where pigs eating humans have hit the headlines. But what people like those twisted mobsters really wanna know is: can pigs make a body disappear completely? The truth is that pigs will eat pretty much anything given the chance.

Swine are naturally omnivorous creatures, meaning they will eat meat if it’s put in front of them, even though their diet in the wild would mostly consist of leaves, roots, fruits and flowers. They have even been known to eat pork if they can find it.

Pigs cannot chew the larger bones of the human body, so they will break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. But there are other parts, like teeth, fingernails and hair, that simply aren’t digestible and will inevitably be left behind. That explains why Garner’s dentures led to the shocking truth, and why those who have tried to use hogs to cover up a heinous crime have always been caught. So, the answer is: almost.

I hope you were amazed at these weird and wonderful animal facts. If you want to find out more interesting facts, you might want to take a look at our whole fun facts series. Thanks for reading.