Animal Facts that are surprising/amazing/weird

[WhitewaterWoman]

Yes, they do do that, but there's no such bird as a firehawk. Never has been, never will be, it's not a word that's in our vocabulary. I can't write the most common name for them in this forum, but it rhymes with hithawk.

Also, they're not hawks, they're Kites. Mostly the Whistling Kite and the Black Kite but a few other smaller species have been known to do the same thing.

View attachment 147586

We just talked about kites in the other non autistic forum I regularly post in. It was pointed out that the really down curved beak - you can see it better if you enlarge the photo - is characteristic of this group.

In Florida the Snail Kite feeds only on apple snails, a swamp dwelling creature. As the environment is degraded as to reduce the population of apple snails, so goes the snail kites.

Nice photo, Outdated.

 

[Outdated]

Nice photo, Outdated.

Thanks but not my photo. I do have a few nice pictures of them but I just grabbed one off the net instead of reducing the size of one of my own for the forum.

This one's mine:

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Thanks but not my photo. I do have a few nice pictures of them but I just grabbed one off the net instead of reducing the size of one of my own for the forum.

This one's mine:

View attachment 147588

I love it!!!

 

[Jeff T]

Horses surprise me with how smart they can be. I had one that could open the gate. He used his lips like an elephant uses its trunk to lift the lever on the gate and slide it back from the hole the lever was in when the gate was "securely" locked. He laughed at me, too, I swear.

Yes, my mare does this, the stall door opening. It's a complex latch requiring three differing steps to undo. It only stopped when I attached a carabiner spring latch. One time I found the mule locked in his stall- apparently the mare herded him in there, shoved the door closed and forced the latch bar over. Crazy. Only happened once.

 

[the_tortoise]

This doesn't surprise me or seem extraordinary to me but based on the discussions in another thread I suspect it will surprise a lot of people:

Non-human primates show pro-social disability accepting and accomodating behaviours...

Quote from the article linked to below, which discusses many research papers in a meta-analysis:

Seventy [out of 114 - this little comment is mine, not part of the quote] papers reported on ways that primates used behavioural flexibility and innovations to compensate for physical impairments, or provided examples of mothers who were able to support the needs of their physically impaired offspring. There were also some instances of other relatives and group members also providing support.

Overall, there was little evidence of social selection against disabled primates. There were also many examples of undifferentiated treatment for disabled individuals, and a few examples of disability-associated care behaviours.
Click to expand...

Defying expectations, disabled Japanese macaques survive by adjusting their behaviours and receiving support

___________

And so do other species:

‘Compassionate’ behavior toward the enfeebled and dying has now been reported in several non-primate mammals (e.g., wild African elephants and river otters)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1879981712000058

 

[the_tortoise]

Whales make nets out of bubbles

 

[tree]

Paratarsotomus macropalpis (a type of mite)

QUOTE has been recorded at a speed of 322 body lengths per second (0.225 m/s (0.50 mph)). This is far in excess of the previous record holder, the Australian tiger beetle Rivacindela hudsoni, the fastest insect in the world relative to body size, which has been recorded at 1.86 m/s (4.2 mph) or 171 body lengths per second. The cheetah, the fastest land animal, which has been clocked at a peak of 64 mph (103 km/h; 29 m/s),scores at only 16 body lengths per second.

High speed photography was used to record the speed of the mite, both in natural conditions and in the laboratory. The equivalent speed for a human running as fast as this mite would be 1,300 mph (2,100 km/h). END QUOTE

Paratarsotomus macropalpis - Wikipedia