# Shocking and Amusing Animal Facts
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 23, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573 "2005-02-23T18:52:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/61 "2005-02-25T17:55:18Z")
> [@Agrippina](#):
>
> Dolphins have been known to rape, and to bully weaker dolphins for fun.
Ducks do, too. Male ducks sometimes hold other male ducks under water and rape them, it’s a dominance thing.
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### Author:  [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/62 "2005-02-25T18:22:48Z")
Oooops, I forgot my other post.
[Horse Vomit](http://www.wonderquest.com/HorseVomit.htm)
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### Author:  [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/63 "2005-02-25T18:39:53Z")
> [@TwoTrouts](#):
>
> I actually had one of those monsters slap its tail. Imagine John Elway heaving a football with all his might straight into the water! Now picture me fishing a mountain pond at twilight, the canyon wrens whistling, soft breeze blowing, bats flying,… and this beaver goes off right behind me! I nearly jumped outta my skin!
I was fishing off the bank one night by lantern light. I heard something behind me (thought I was gonna be Shanghied!) and it was a big ol’ beaver. Just came waddling up. I thought I’d be friendly and scratch it’s back with a stick. Bad move! That sucker hissed at me and bared those big yellow teeth, then just cruised off.
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### Author:  [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/64 "2005-02-25T18:49:46Z")
> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> There’s a species of frog that gives live birth to fully formed frogs (instead of tadpoles). The female retains the eggs in her egg ducts, where they hatch into tadpoles. They live there, feeding off a substance the mother secretes from the inner surface of the duct. They don’t emerge until they’ve metamorphosed into their adult form.
>
> I want to say this frog only lives on one mountain in Africa, but I heard this on a David Attenborough documentary a few months, ago, and I might have gotten that fact wrong.
I belive you are referring to [_Nectophrynoides_](http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots/afromontane/biodiversity.xml).
Another weird frog is [_Rheobatrachus_](http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Rheobatrachus_silus.html), which broods its tadpoles in its stomach, giving birth to live little froggies - from its mouth.
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### Author:  [@hapaXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hapaXL)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/65 "2005-02-25T19:44:08Z")
Some biologists theorize that bigger brains evolve in animals mostly in relation with larger and more varied diets (man included).
The koala bear used to have a diverse diet, but at some recent point in its evolutionary history, it switched to a monotonous diet of eucalyptus leaves.
So the koala bear has a tiny brain floating around in a large brainpan. Forty percent of their heads is just fluid. They are the only mammal whose brain doesn’t fit its skull.
[Cite](http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2004/07/what_good_is_a.htm)
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/66 "2005-02-25T20:41:44Z")
> [@hapaXL](#):
>
> So the koala bear has a tiny brain floating around in a large brainpan. Forty percent of their heads is just fluid. They are the only mammal whose brain doesn’t fit its skull.
Aren’t they marsupials?
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### Author:  [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/67 "2005-02-25T21:48:42Z")
> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> Well, here I learned that bats purr - well, they don’t purr in exactly the same way a cat does, but they produce a similar sound.
>
> Also, I’m sure we’ve all read the classic Cecil column about the pigs?
I can confirm this from personal experience.
My brother’s GF owned a pet bat. It would indeed “purr” when stroked - its little body would vibrate, very much like a cat’s purr.
It was a lot of fun to play “toss the bat”. 😃 The bat appeared to enjoy this too.
They actually make very good pets. They spend most of their time sleeping, which can be an advantage.
The only problem was that bats can’t be house trained - and they would tend to crawl up under your clothes and then do their business. Blech.
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### Author:  [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/68 "2005-02-25T22:09:16Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#):
>
> Quote:
>
> > [@furthur](#):
> >
> > Rabbits are physically unable to vomit as well. They also produce 500 pellets of crap a day.
> >
> > Mrs. Furthur
>
> Which they eat again, to maximize nutrient absoprtion.
Boy, _that_ would really make me want to vomit!
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/69 "2005-02-25T22:58:09Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> Aren’t they marsupials?
Marsupials are mammals. So are monotremes.
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### Author:  [@Zelski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zelski)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/70 "2005-02-25T23:03:02Z")
> [@nocturnal\_tick](#):
>
> Dolphins are also the only animals, alongside humans, who engage in recreational sex.
I’m not sure about the definitions you are using, but I feel that humans might be the only animal that has sex for non-recreational reasons. All other animals have only recreational sex, that is, not for procreation. Other animals don’t “know” that offspring will occur, they are just having sex because at that moment, when thier hormones are raging, sex is pleasurable and relieving.
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### Author:  [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/71 "2005-02-26T00:06:32Z")
From the [News of the Weird](http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html):
"A landmine-detection outfit in Mozambique has upgraded from explosives-sniffing dogs to giant African Hamster rats, according to a December Agence France-Presse dispatch, because the lighter, more plentiful rats have noses that are just as sensitive and don’t suffer dogs’ need for affection and constant reassurances. "
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/72 "2005-02-26T02:52:36Z")
> [@Scarface Z](#):
>
> There are no insects that ever live in salt water.
However, some insects do live _on_ salt water (even as adults): [The pelagic Sea Skaters (_Halobates)_](http://entomology.unl.edu/lgh/marine_insects/halobateslife.html)
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### Author:  [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/73 "2005-02-26T02:54:29Z")
The American Bison has only one pleural cavity. (This is the cavity in the chest that contains the lungs) This makes them relatively easy for a hunter to kill. Human’s have two pleural cavities, one for each lung, and the two spaces do not communicate. If you punch a hole in one side of the chest the lung on that side will collapse but the other lung still functions fairly well. If you punch a hole in a bison’s chest both lungs will collapse and the animal can’t breathe.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/74 "2005-02-26T02:57:43Z")
> [@Darwin's Finch](#):
>
> Another weird frog is [_Rheobatrachus_](http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Rheobatrachus_silus.html), which broods its tadpoles in its stomach, giving birth to live little froggies - from its mouth.
Now, unfortunately, believed to be extinct.
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### Author:  [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/75 "2005-02-26T04:32:36Z")
> [@DrMemory](#):
>
> And, Marge,…Geckos Giggle. (Or make a sound _Like_ a giggle. Used to always have a few living with us, in Hawaii (Dey’s Good luck) \
Yes, as in “ **Good luck** getting all the gecko poop off your window sill.”
To me, it sounds more like chirping, but perhaps you had happier geckos. 😉
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/76 "2005-02-26T04:52:33Z")
Male lamas have a pair of sharp fang like teeth they use in fighting other males.
Mother prarie dogs regularly eat their pups when under any kind of stress.
Naked mole rats are the only eusocial mammal.
Giant 10 foot tall, half ton carnivorous birds that could bite a human in half were once the top predators in south america
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### Author:  [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/77 "2005-02-26T05:03:51Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> Do I have to be the one to say it?
>
> Cite? Cite? Cite? Cite?
> Cite? Cite? Cite? Cite?
> Cite? Cite? Cite? Cite?
> Cite? Cite? Cite? Cite?
> Cite? Cite? Cite? Cite?
>
> -To most of the posts in this thread.
>
> This the _Straight Dope_. You can’t just make up “facts” on the spot or post things you heard from your cousin’s neighbor Timmy Joe back on the farm in '74.
Sorry.
I have **personally witnessed** a gecko lose its tail as I was trying to catch it to put it out of the house. It released its tail. The tail wiggled about for several minutes afterward.
Oh, and [this.](http://petplace.compuserve.com/articles/artShow.asp?artID=4387)
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### Author:  [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/78 "2005-02-26T05:21:57Z")
[One of the strangest creatures I’ve ever seen.](http://www.livescience.com/imageoftheday/siod_050207.html)
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### Author:  [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/79 "2005-02-26T07:10:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> On land, the tail acts as a prop when the beaver is sitting or standing upright. It also serves as a counterbalance and support when the animal is walking on its hind legs while carrying building materials like mud, stones, or branches with its front paws.
From [here.](http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=82) Can you imagine being out in the woods at twilight and suddenly a twig snaps behind you and you turn around and there’s an 80 lb nipple-eatin’ beaver walking up behind you with a rock in its paws?
(You’re going to have to take Jeff Foxworthy’s word for the nipple-eating thing.)
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### Author:  [@nevermore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevermore)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2005, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shocking-and-amusing-animal-facts/291573/80 "2005-02-26T09:27:00Z")
hippos, according to [our very own Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_011.html), are “said to mark jungle trails by excreting a lethal mixture of urine and feces while twirling its tail like a propeller,” which “…may explain the historically sluggish market for pet hippopotamuses.” XD
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