Today I found out that female seahorses impregnating their male mates, rather than the other way around. The reproductive process of a seahorse begins when a male and a female meet up and “dance”. For several days prior to the actual act of mating, the two fish (yes, they are fish) will meet to intertwine their tails and swim together. […]
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There were many heroes who surfaced twelve years ago on September 11, helping people in need as the Twin Towers crumbled around them. Two you probably haven’t heard of were Salty and Roselle, guide dogs who despite the chaos, calmly led their blind owners to safety after the terrorist attacks. Salty, a yellow lab, was born in 1996 and trained […]
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The common wombat (AKA, Vombatus ursinus) is an Australian marsupial with a unique claim to fame. You see, the common wombat and its two cousins, the Northern hairy-nose wombat and the Southern hairy-nose wombat, all poop pellets more or less in the shape of cubes, producing over 100 cubic pellets per day. If your day hasn’t been made by the phrase, […]
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Anyone who’s been chased around the yard by a pissed off chicken knows these birds are neither purposeless nor fearful. Descended from some of the fiercest creatures ever to roam the planet, the blood of today’s Gallus domesticus carries all of the pride, courage, fury and viciousness of its ancestors. Harnessing these qualities by the simple expedient of sticking two […]
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Myth: Bumblebee’s shouldn’t be able to fly. There’s an oft repeated “fact” that the humble bumblebee defies all known laws of physics every time it flaps its tiny little bee wings and ascends to the sky. Now obviously this is false, since, well, bumblebees fly all the time and if every time a bee took off it was tearing physics […]
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In warm Pacific waters from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Guayaquil thrives a parasite that has a very twisted relationship with its host. The Tongue-Eating Louse A member of the family Cymothoidae, the tiny Cymothoa exigua, or tongue eating louse, enters its victim through the gills. Once inside, the female latches onto the base of the fish’s […]
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Hannah asks: Do elephants really “never forget”? It is obviously impossible to say that elephants never forget anything- and it seems likely they do forget things- but studies have shown that elephants do have exceptionally long memories for certain types of things. For instance, in 1999, an elephant named Jenny was living at The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. When […]
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It turns out it’s not just politicians that can live without brains, a chicken named Mike lived without his entire head for 18 months! Mike the Headless Chicken was a Wyandotte chicken that was beheaded for the sake of providing a chicken dinner for the mother-in-law of a Fruita, CO farmer, on April 1945. Fortunately for Mike (or unfortunately depending […]
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The dodo, or Raphus cucullatus if you want to get fancy, is an extinct species of flightless bird that was native to the tiny island nation of Mauritius before it sadly died out. But enough of the Discovery Channel stuff, you’re reading this to find out how this sucker went extinct. And the answer is, well, complicated. It’s commonly believed that […]
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F. Morse asks: What is the difference between a horse and a pony? Ponies and horses are both equines. In general, a horse is an equine that stands about 14.2 hands high or more and a pony is an equine that stands under that mark, give or take depending on region; for instance, in Australia the dividing line is 14 […]
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Today I found out dogs and cats are typically right pawed or left pawed. This is according to two studies, one done at the Ataturk University in Turkey (in 1991) and another at the University of Manchester in England (in 2006). According to the Ataturk University study, the majority of domestic cats are right pawed (50%), 10% of them are […]
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They’re coming. If you live on the Eastern seaboard of North America, prepare this summer for a large-scale invasion of a species of cicada (“cicada” being the Latin for “tree cricket”) that hasn’t happened in 17 years. You will probably hear them before you see them, as a male swarm of these insects can produce noise at over 100 dB. The […]
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Rachel asks: Why and how do cats purr? As any cat owner—or even someone who’s seen a cat—knows, cats often purr when they’re being petted or getting their chin scratched. They also purr when they want food and when they’re eating. Sometimes, they’ll purr as they drift off into sleep. Purring is most known to be a sign that cats […]
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Rhinos are lovable lummoxes, herbivores who roam grasslands and forests nibbling on foliage, fruit and grasses. When left alone, they can live for over 40 years in the wild. Able to reach speeds of up to 35 miles per hour, they are still not fast enough to outrun, or small enough to hide from, human hunters. As such, today there […]
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Today I found out the Australian Shepherd breed of dog was developed in the United States, not Australia. The Australian Shepherd is a popular breed throughout the United States, prized for its intelligence and good temperament. However, in spite of its name, the Australian Shepherd does not originate from Australia, but was developed on American soil. The breed was developed […]
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It is surely the stuff of science fiction: An extraordinary being arrives on Earth that can withstand a tortuous array of conditions: boiling, freezing, tremendous atmospheric pressure, near total dehydration, and exposure to massive amounts of ionizing radiation. While many joke that “cockroaches would be the only thing to survive an extreme global nuclear war”, in fact, cockroaches would not. […]
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As weird and whacky as some human mating practices can sometimes be, other animals’ reproductive habits can be even stranger at times. While one species gives birth through a penis, another’s testicles’ explode after sex. Further, post-coital cannibalism and V-shaped penises are not all that uncommon. We’ll start with the hyena. Depending on if you notice her udders, the female […]
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When one hears “Canary Islands” who doesn’t think of a colorful chorus of birds in the local pet shop or that bright yellow soul swinging in the living room? While most of us assume the group of islands off the African coast derive their name from the bird, it turns out it’s the other way around- the birds are named […]
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