Weird And Disturbing Animal Facts

Baby elephants suck their trunks for comfort just like human babies suck their dummies and thumbs. Whilst it is most common in baby elephants, Adult bull elephants suck their trunks at times when they feel nervous or unsure.

This penguin population has made a sanctuary on a minefield in the Falkland Islands. The penguins are light enough to go about their business without setting the mines off.

This beetle is a flesh eating beetle called Dermestids. These beetles will eat the flesh off carcasses but leave the skeleton clean. Wildlife law enforcement agents sometimes use these beetles when chemicals might damage evidence. Museums and taxidermists also use the bugs for research and displays.

Reindeer in Eastern Europe purposefully forage for the Amanita muscaria msuhroom (fly agaric) which is highly toxic and hallucinogenic. It makes the Reindeer high and act almost drunk like. Siberian natives would also feed the reindeers the toxic mushrooms so they could drink the Reindeers urine to get high, without any of the nasty side effects.

Spiders live on every continent except for Antarctica and it is estimated that there are 50,000 spiders per acre in green areas.

Also many spiders can be seen at night by shining a torch, you will see the eyes reflect a blue colour like little jewels.

Tigers have striped skin just like their fur and their patterns are unique like a fingerprint.

In 1924, a Labrador named Pep was sentenced to life in prison without parole in Pennsylvania for killing a cat owned by the Governor. The dog ended up doing about 10 years in Eastern state penitentiary.

On another note, a Labrador named Bosco won an election in 1981 for honorary mayor of Sunol, Calif and remained in that position until his death in 1994.

Bats give birth upside down, they have to be quick to catch the babies with their wings before they fall.

Koala's fingerprints are almost identical to humans. Even with careful analysis under a microscope it is difficult to distinguish the difference between the two.

Cats lack the taste buds to detect sweetness. Humans have about 9,000 taste buds yet cats only have about 480, which can differentiate the various tastes except for sweet as their taste receptors can't detect sugar.

Manatees have fart storage pouches that they use to control their buoyancy and balance. Storing or releasing gas helps them sink or float. Farting is extremely important to the Manatees coz if they don't they become constipated which means they are unable to dive properly and struggle to keep their balance.

The Greater Short Horned Lizard squirts blood from it’s eye when threatened. It is real blood that squirts like a water gun and can splatter up to 4 feet away.

It appears that Dolphins get high from Pufferfish. A BBC documentary shows a small pod of Dolphins passing around a pufferfish and behaving as they are in a trance like state.

Most Nine Banded Armadillos give birth to identical quadruplets. A single egg is produced but once fertilized it then splits into 4 genetically identical embryos attached to the same placenta.

Ring Tailed Lemurs have stink fights. When 2 male Lemurs face off whether it be for a mate, food and territory they secrete a strong short lived smell from their wrist glands and their shoulder glands produce a brown toothpaste like substance that has a long lasting smell.

The lemurs will then waft the smell in the direction of each other by waving about and using their tails until one of them gives up and backs off.

All clownfish are born male, they will turn female for mating but once they change they can't change back. Some even change as they are mating, the larger more dominant fish will become female.

They like to live in small groups, with the largest fish being the female leader. If that dominant female dies the dominant male will become a female to replace her and then the next largest fish of the group would become the next dominant male.

This creepy looking creature is called an Antarctic Scale worm (Eulagisca Gigantea) and is found in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. It can grow up to approx 20cms (8inches) in length.

What appears to be it's head is in fact a retractable throat that extends outwards of about 5cm (2inches) when it is feeding

Some species of Pearlfish often hide inside the Sea cucumbers anus. The Pearlfish propels itself into the anus and if the sea cucumber rejects the pearlfish it will clench it's anus. The problem with that is Sea cucumbers also breathe through their anus so clenching prevents them from breathing which gives the Pearlfish a great advantage.

Some Pearlfish are parasites and once they are inside the Sea Cucumber, it will eat it's gonads.

An Ostriches eye is bigger than any other land animal measuring at approx 5cm in diameter. The Ostriches eyes are even bigger than their brains.

A newborn Chinese water deer is so small it can almost fit in the palm of your hand. As they get older they develop fang like teeth like vampires. These tusks are moveable because they are loosely attached to the socket by a band of tissue from the gum looped around the tusk.