"Not My Animal" is an eight-year-old page on Instagram with just a little over 200k followers. After 2020, the creator(s) of the page came out with a photography book of the same name, featuring the pics that were shared by the account from 2017-2020.
It seems that the creator(s) of "Not My Animal" credit its beginnings to the tumultuous cultural landscape of 2016, especially in America. The Instagram page provided comic relief to people, a stress-free place from the constant barrage of bad news. The posts made people "laugh, cry, and question [their] human reality," highlighting how similar and imperfect both the audience and the animals were.
The page may contain loads of animals photographed from weird angles or captured in some compromising positions, but there are also pics of them acting weirder than we would expect. In fact, animals do some pretty strange things, and I'm not just talking about your dog giving you the side-eye.
For example, did you know that sloths, who spend most of their waking time up in the trees, go to relieve themselves on the ground? And how about the fact that owls can't move their eyes? Let's explore these and more interesting things that animals do that we might find at least a tad strange.
The fact that sloths go down to the ground to poop is strange for at least two reasons. First, there are more predators down there, so the trip to take a poop only can be quite dangerous. Second, sloths have very slow metabolisms and only eat leaves, so they use up a lot of energy by going down to the rainforest ground.
Some researchers have proposed an interesting idea that they do it for the benefit of the moths and algae that live in their fur. As they descend to poop, larvae hitch a ride on the sloth's back, bringing more nutrients from the pile and also as they live in the fur and pass away. This feeds the algae on the sloth's fur, which is a lipid-rich high-energy snack for the sloths.
We've all probably heard the saying about crocodile tears. But what's interesting is that crocodiles don't fake it; they do shed tears. Yet the reasons are hardly similar to why we do it. Scientists say it has to do more with the physical act of eating. Especially when they're on dry land, their eyes tear up, and with a movement of the head, the tears spill out.
Picking your nose is quite a normal thing for humans to do, especially children. But scientists noticed that some animals do it too, primarily primates. What's more, just like human children, they like to snack on it too. While it may seem like a harmless quirk, scientists are on a quest to find out the reasons behind the nose picking. Some theorize that it might strengthen teeth, while others say that nasal mucus strengthens the immune system because it contains immune proteins.
