Random animal facts you know

[NewDayNewLife]

There is a South American bird called the paradise tanager, Latin name Tangara chilensis. It's found in quite a few countries in South America... but not Chile.

Koalas also smell bad, just in case you want to cuddle with one, and their fur is incredibly wiry, not soft.

I can vouch for ratties liking to be tickled & laughing. We had four and Millie used to run up & lie on her back looking expectantly up at you. Then do a little huffing / squeaky noise. She once won a prize for 'kissiest rat'. ☺️

My usual go to - Horses can’t vomit - has already been posted!

When they’re born, foals’ hooves are covered by a membrane that looks like some kind of squid-like creature. They’re known as “fairy fingers” and are there to stop the foals’ hooves rupturing the amniotic sac in utero. They dry out and drop off shortly after birth.

Another moose fact - they’re feckin’ huge! I always assumed they were like a big deer, but no it’s more like “small elephant”! They’re on average 7-8ft tall at the shoulder and when you add on neck and head they’re more like 10ft

@CaveMum

My usual go to - Horses can’t vomit - has already been posted!

When they’re born, foals’ hooves are covered by a membrane that looks like some kind of squid-like creature. They’re known as “fairy fingers” and are there to stop the foals’ hooves rupturing the amniotic sac in utero. They dry out and drop off shortly after birth.

Another moose fact - they’re feckin’ huge! I always assumed they were like a big deer, but no it’s more like “small elephant”! They’re on average 7-8ft tall at the shoulder and when you add on neck and head they’re more like 10ft

We call them foal slippers, cutest thing ever!

@iklboo

I can vouch for ratties liking to be tickled & laughing. We had four and Millie used to run up & lie on her back looking expectantly up at you. Then do a little huffing / squeaky noise. She once won a prize for 'kissiest rat'. ☺️

So cute! I love rats. I know that in laboratories they tickle the rats as a form of 'enrichment' to try and give them the best life they can, given the circumstances.

Horses do not consciously breathe when they canter or gallop, it wastes too much energy. Instead, they rely on the sloshing about of their other internal organs to keep their lungs pumping.

@Soubriquet

An octopus once shorted out the lights in an aquarium.

When the aquarium closed for the day, the octopus was annoyed by the lights. So he shot a jet of water at them to short it out.

This kept happening and the staff couldn’t work out why the lights were breaking. CCTV showed Otto doing this

🤣 I love them even more now

Lyre birds, native to Australia, can mimic calls of 20 other bird species as well as human sounds like a camera shutter sound, car alarms and human voices. It's all in the name of impressing lady lyre birds! They can also live for up to 30 years.

@antisocialsocialclub one of my favourite Galician tapas was Octopus in olive oil with Paprika. I no longer eat a beast that's basically more intelligent than most people I know - including myself (would do retrospective shame emoji but don't know how).

male spiders build a web on which to lay sperm, collect it in organs at the end of their pedipalps which they use to insert the sperm into the females epigastric furrow- her eggs pass through the stored sperm as they are being laid

Some species of squid will mimic rocks when they are frightened.

This always makes me laugh when I see it

@antisocialsocialclub

Octopuses make little houses for themselves from rocks, they even make a door for themselves — they pull a rock into place once they’re safely tucked into their homes.

They also form opinions on other creatures, one octopus had a dislike for a certain zoo keeper and used to spray him with ink.

They can use tools, solve problems… they even use shells to decorate the ‘garden’ outside their little rock houses. 🥰

They’re amazing creatures and definitely my spirit animal 🐙

This has made me happier than I can say

One of my favourite videos is of an octopus deliberately punching a fish

@Mrsjayy

Moose are predated by Orca

OK so I read this as pre-dated and not predated that's why I was confused !

so did I! I was really confused! (i'm a numpty)

The incisors of a rat never stop growing, hence it's need to constantly gnaw, otherwise the teeth will grow into their jaws and mice have no control over their bladder.

[quote MrsCatE]@antisocialsocialclub one of my favourite Galician tapas was Octopus in olive oil with Paprika. I no longer eat a beast that's basically more intelligent than most people I know - including myself (would do retrospective shame emoji but don't know how).[/quote]
I did wonder where this post was going 😊

The more I read about them the more I love them. 🥰

One of my favourite videos is of an octopus deliberately punching a fish

😂 Sounds like it deserved it 🤣

mice have no control over their bladder.

I dated a guy with a similar problem after a few pints 😂.

An octopus mum, will stay with her clutch of up to 200,000 eggs, constantly protecting them and cleaning them.

She will stay with them until they hatch and will forget to eat during this time.

She will die of starvation after the eggs hatch.

The male will also die after mating. He will literally give the female his mating arm and then goes off and dies.

Researchers believe this is so there aren’t too many octopuses in the sea

@ThePug

Wombats' poo is square

I was also going to say that - I learnt that on Pottery Thrown Down when one of the contestants (Jenny) mentioned it.

@Soubriquet

The male will also die after mating. He will literally give the female his mating arm and then goes off and dies.

Researchers believe this is so there aren’t too many octopuses in the sea

😭

Wombats' poo is square

…I don’t want to be crude but isn’t the shape of poo determined by the orifice it comes out of? I’m…how?… 🤣

@antisocialsocialclub

Octopuses make little houses for themselves from rocks, they even make a door for themselves — they pull a rock into place once they’re safely tucked into their homes.

They also form opinions on other creatures, one octopus had a dislike for a certain zoo keeper and used to spray him with ink.

They can use tools, solve problems… they even use shells to decorate the ‘garden’ outside their little rock houses. 🥰

They’re amazing creatures and definitely my spirit animal 🐙

On a scuba diving trip we went on, the instructor told us of a dive he had been on. His dive buddy spotted an octopus hastily moving towards its cave and swam towards it. The octopus slipped into its cave but the diver got his knife out and tried to prise the animal out, so the octopus responded by instantly using two tentacles to pick up two rocks and smash them together into the diver's hand. The diver dropped his knife, the octopus dropped the rocks and slipped deeper into the cave.

The instructor was delighted by this, and so were we They are fantastic animals.

That’s amazing Noodles.

We could probably fill a thread just about octopuses

Loads, I was a zoo keeper once.