Misconceptions About 64 Different Animals

despite every cartoon of the massive bird you've ever seen ostriches do not bury their heads to avoid danger if they sense trouble and can't run to safety ostriches actually hit the ground and stay motionless so where did the myth come from ostriches dig holes into the sand for their nests and when they lower their head to turn the eggs in the nest it appears as if they're hiding their Noggin hi I'm Justin Dodd welcome to misconceptions today we're debunking one myth about dozens of animals large and small from the idea that cows have four stomachs to a lemming myth that got an assist from some highly unethical filmmaking let's get started oh toads give you warts toads may look like they need a good dermatologist but there's no need to worry they cannot pass any skin conditions to you warts are caused by the human papillomavirus keyword human Awards lumpy appearance is due to epidermal cells multiplying as a result of the virus warts can spread based on skin-to-skin contact but not toad skin while we're at it let's debunk another one frog or toad urine can't give you warts either Bulls can't see red call this one a meta misconception lots of websites will tell you that cattle are colorblind and therefore despite the common belief that red enrages bulls the choice of color for a matador's cape is actually arbitrary I can't speak to a bull's interior emotional state or the exact reasoning behind that Toreador tradition but I can tell you that part of this would be misconception gets the facts wrong a Scientific American put it perceptual measurements indicate that cattle can discriminate red from green and blue but not green and blue from each other and though Bulls were indeed shown to charge at all sorts of moving objects in one study they did so more forcefully when the object in question was a warm color the idea that bullfighters choose Crimson colored capes to better hide blood stains is unfortunately quite plausible but that doesn't mean that a red and blue Cape would be equivalent in the eyes of a bull armadillos curl up into balls and roll away from predators only two species of armadillo the Brazilian and Southern three banded armadillos are capable of rolling up into balls at all and they don't do it to escape Predators they do it so their armor protects their bodies their armor can even act as a trap to snap clothes on predator's Paws ironically as a paper in the Journal of mimology put it the rolling into a ball facilitates its capture by humans and increases the vulnerability of both species to hunting Lemmings engage in mass suicide Disney may be known for its heartwarming animal movies but in 1958 Disney filmmakers were quite heartless to Lemmings while shooting a documentary called White Wilderness filmmakers captured scenes of the tiny rodents leaping into the sea to their deaths it was supposedly a harrowing look at a phenomenon known as mass lemming suicide phenomenon didn't actually exist the crew brought Lemmings into a non-native habitat then threw them off a cliff into a river not the ocean to capture the scenes the truth is that Lemmings do sometimes move as a herd to find more food and when they cross bodies of water some don't make it but this dramatic tale which Disney didn't invent but certainly helped solidify with its unethical filmmaking is not an accurate representation of the adorable animals porcupines can shoot their quills if you happen to cross a porcupine don't freak out it's not going to impale you with razor-like quills from 10 feet away although it was once believed that the rodents could shoot out prickly projectiles we now know otherwise the quills detach easily when porcupines are threatened thus why dogs and other Predators sometimes Come Away with a snout full of needles after a close encounter but they don't go launching through the air dogs age 7 years for every human year we discussed this one in our video covering misconceptions about dogs but it's still probably the most common misconception about canines according to the AKC this formula has been around since the 1950s but it's not totally accurate there's some speculation that the rough estimate was created to help educate people on their pets lifespans people at the time realize that dogs generally made it to around 10 years old while humans live to about 70. and then they kind of over generalized these days there are better ways to calculate dog years but all of it depends on the size of the dog for example the first year of a medium-sized dog's life equals about 15 human years year two equals about nine years and every year after that is roughly five years sloths are lazy sloths are notoriously slow but don't mistake their sluggishness for laziness their speed is due to a low metabolic rate which means they need to conserve energy for survival not for kicks elephants are scared of mice research and experiments have consistently failed to show that elephants specifically find mice threatening when the gentle Giants come nose the nose with a mouse there's no big reaction it's true that just like humans they don't particularly love it when little things come scurrying out and take them by surprise but if you're looking for a little critter that sets elephants off you might want to set your sights on ants they seem to have a genuinely negative reaction to the insects perhaps because they don't want to get them up their trunks cows have four stomachs you've probably heard the myth that cows have four stomachs since you were a kid but it's not quite true there are four chambers in a cow's stomach that help it digest Mass amounts of grass and greens the rumen the reticulum the omasum and the abomasum why the extra Chambers well mostly it's because grass is really hard for mammals to get nutrients out of each part plays its own role in extracting sufficient nutrition from the not particularly nourishing diet but while the process is very different from how the human stomach works it does take place in a single stomach with some cud chewing along the way pigs sweat a lot you might want to rethink the phrase sweat like a pig before you say it again because pigs don't sweat that much it's part of the reason they roll around in the mud since they don't enjoy the cooling properties of perspiration Turtles don't feel their shells it should go without saying but humans shouldn't be carving or painting Turtles tough exteriors according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation turtles Turn up with spray painted shells on a fairly regular basis which can prevent them from getting the vitamins they need and even lead to chemicals seeping into their bloodstream the top layer of most turtle shells is made of keratin like our fingernails and just as we experience pain when something happens to our fingernails even the mere thought of bending one back too far makes me yeah so do turtles feel pain in their shells in fact because their shells are fused to their spines and rib cages Turtles experience even more sensation via the shell most moths eat clothes out of all the moth species out there only a handful eat fabric most of the time the culprit is either the case making clothes mop or the webbing clothes moth and even then it's not actually a case of adult moths fluttering in to snack on your sweaters it's their larvae moth babies love snacking on clothes made from animal products such as wool and leather Birds abandon their babies if you touch them birds are better parents and this myth gives them credit for they won't leave their young if a human touches the nest if you happen to find a baby bird specifically a nestling that has fallen the best thing you can do is place it back in the nest or if you can't find it in a safe shaded spot goats eat 10 cans the myth that goats will eat anything even tin cans probably has started because goats are such curious creatures in a way they're like toddlers they get into everything stick random objects in their mouths and climb on things they probably shouldn't but when it comes to food they're actually pretty picky eaters that seek out certain types of nutrition and that does not include metal flamingos are born pink these long-legged birds are instantly recognizable by their distinctive pink feathers but they aren't born that way when flamingos are very young they look like little gray balls of fluff and they would stay storm cloud colored if it wasn't for their diet high and beta-carotene the brine shrimp algae and brine fly larvae that make up a flamingo's diet are all chock full of the compound which is known for giving pigment to plants in the flamingo's case it turns their feathers various shades of pink and orange although some adults will never achieve the dazzling colors displayed by their lawn ornament counterparts we swallow eight spiders in our sleep every year this horrifying factoid has made the rounds for years but were happy really happy to debunk it for you spiders especially the ones that tend to live in houses are solitary creatures they do not seek out humans but if they did they wouldn't stick around while we were sleeping the vibrations we make while breathing and snoring would likely scare them off there's a very strong likelihood that we swallow exactly zero spiders in our sleep you're welcome each lion pride has a king despite what the movie tells you Lions don't really have a king Prides tend to be led by females and it's never a single Queen instead lionesses form a sort of Sisterhood having babies around the same time and raising them together hyenas love to laugh when hyenas make a noise that sounds like laughter to us it's not because they find something funny the high-pitched vocalizations they make are actually just the opposite they generally make it when they feel threatened or even frustrated of the three species of hyena only the spotted hyena makes the giggling sound another misconception is that hyenas are only scavengers making their meals from prey killed by bigger animals like lions in reality hyenas are very capable hunters and kill the vast majority of their own prey dodos were white and plump unfortunately we have almost no concrete knowledge of dodos because there is very little left to study dodos are estimated to have gone extinct sometime in the late 1600s and today only one complete skeleton has survived even that was collected as a fossil as Professor Leon claysons told the Atlantic the dodo remains that were collected while the bird was still alive would fit in a shoebox we do know that they were probably black gray or dark brown in color because we have first-hand accounts from Sailors journals but at some point in the 17th century a number of Dutch painters decided to represent them as white and that image kind of stuck dodos probably weren't as stocky as they're usually depicted either modern day scientists believe the birds that were Illustrated were probably captive dodos that were overfed not very physically active or in the case of taxidermied examples overstuffed and one more way we've been misjudging dodos for centuries they probably were not that dumb in recent years 3D modeling has shown that dodo brains were appropriately sized for their skull and probably had intelligence similar to that of a pigeon pigeons are stupid very few Birds embody the idea of bird-brained in the popular imagination more than a pigeon but that's not fair or accurate according to new scientists pigeons can remember over a hundred images and remember them two years later can think abstractly distinguished paintings and according to one report a better self-cognition than some three-year-old humans horses only sleep standing up horses are good at catching some z's while standing thanks to the fact that they're able to lock their limbs which prevents them from falling over but while horses may take like naps on all fours they aren't actually entering their REM sleep horses are prey animals so being able to nap while standing allows them to quickly take off if something attacks they'll lie down when it's time for a deeper rest and they don't need to stay on the groundberry lung horses spend between five to seven hours each day resting but they'll typically only lie down for a deep sleep when they're able to relax in a comfortable safe environment Ponies are baby horses horses and ponies are part of the same species but though Ponies are smaller Ponies are not baby horses as a general rule any member of the species that is below 14.2 hands or 58 inches for non-horse people is a pony no matter how old it is there are exceptions many horses are not really referred to as ponies even though they're small enough to qualify according to horse Illustrated absolutely my preferred source for everything this is because miniature horses look like full-size horses that have been simply shrunk down in scale while ponies have different proportions in other physical features it's an inexact classification system but there is General agreement in the world of equine experts the word for both the baby horse and a baby pony is full owls are wise look we aren't saying owls are stupid but they aren't necessarily wise well in 2013 study found that great gray owls repeatedly bombed what should have been a simple cognitive test that simply required pulling a string to receive a treat it's also hard to determine how wise an animal is based on human standards they are good Hunters which you could certainly say is a form of intelligence but it would be incorrect to think of them as some kind of avian intelligence outlier it's believed we view owls as wise because they were often associated with Athena the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom wolves kill for sport wolves have a reputation for being big bad Hunters who kill for fun but all their Surplus kills aren't really Surplus during particularly brutal Winters they do kill more animals than they can eat right away but they typically will return later to finish chowing down basically these so-called Surplus kills are the wolf equivalent of ordering a big meal with the intention of taking home some leftovers later and that's not the only misconception that dogs wolves confusing pun absolutely intended despite the popular saying there's no such thing as an alpha wolf who fights his way into Power instead most packs are just families with the parents being the top dogs of the group the so-called alpha male is simply the dad but Daddy wolf doesn't have quite the same ring to it foxes hunt cats foxes have a reputation for being sneaky but don't worry they aren't sneaking around your yard with the hopes of snatching a cat to snack on a full-grown cat is nearly as big as a fox an adult Fox usually weighs between between 7 to 15 pounds in the average house cat weighs 10 pounds so the kenneds wouldn't likely attempt to make a meal out of your pet now things might be different for kittens or elderly cats but in general if a healthy adult cat and a fox did get into a scuffle your furry friend might very well be able to defend itself cats don't really care about their people you watched our video of misconceptions about cats you'd know that the common myth that cats don't like people simply is not true pet cats have a bad reputation for being aloof and uncaring sure your cat may not greet you at the door with their tongue lolling and tail wagging but that doesn't mean it doesn't care about you cats actually do get attached to their owners and even view their humans as part of their family if your cat head butts you or starts kneading their paws on you before curling up in your lap rest assured it means you're loved snakes drink milk back in the day Farmers often saw snakes lurking around their Dairy Barns and came to the conclusion that the reptiles were stealing milk from their cows seems like a bit of a leap but I'm not here to judge the fact is snakes cannot digest milk the only thing they're interested in drinking is water the snakes were hanging around barns because they were hunting for rodents not fresh milk polar bears rest in winter weather Bears truly hibernate or enter torpor is a subject too controversial for us to get into here we can definitely say that polar bears in particular are active year round food availability doesn't vary as widely throughout the year for these big boys and girls so they don't have to preserve energy and fallow periods quite like they're brown bear cousins they actually do reduce their energy expenditure in summer when Food Supplies are a little harder to come by but it's a phenomenon that's been tellingly labeled walking hibernation there's really only one situation where polar bears will Hull up for months at a time and that's when a pregnant female digs her maternity Den to hunker down in preparation for labor squirrels are herbivores you've probably seen squirrels stashing acorns or snacking on bird seed but those aren't the only things that rodents like to eat squirrels are omnivores yes they eat a lot of seeds nuts fungi but they also eat meat squirrels are incredibly opportunistic they'll raid bird nests for eggs and baby birds scavenge bits of roadkill and eat insects and even small snakes if they can catch them hamsters only eat plants you shouldn't feed your hamster an entirely plant-based diet for Optimal Health they actually need to eat some non-vegetarian items too hamsters can and should eat insects such as crickets and mealworms and can have small bits of chicken every now and then if you ever forget that hamsters like meat just remember that some hamster moms will even devour their own babies now your memory is refreshed and you're horrified mission accomplished skunk spray can be deodorized by tomato juice skunk can spray a Target that's about 10 feet away so make sure you give these animals plenty of distance the spray smells so terrible because it contains sulfur compounds and the stink is so strong that it can be smelled from about a half a mile away if you find yourself on the wrong end of a skunk spray your first move might be to fill your bathtub with tomato juice and just hop in but this off touted remedy doesn't have any effect on the odor other than masking it so once you no longer smell like a bowl of marinara you'll start to notice the skunk stink again to actually neutralize the skunk smell use a mix of diluted hydrogen peroxide baking soda and dish soap Scottish Wildcats never ventured out of Scotland Scottish wild cats once had a larger range than just the country that gives them their names in fact they once roamed throughout present-day Great Britain but they've gone extinct due to human interference in all places except Scotland today only a small critically endangered population of The elusive Wildcats remain in the country bats are blind yes most bats use echolocation they are not blind though some bad species can even see Better Than People echolocation helps them navigate in super dark conditions like in caves around the open air at night it aids rather than replaces their Vision according to one study Vision was given more weight when deciding where to fly while echolocation was more dominant When approaching an obstacle Black Panthers are a distinct cat species black panthers obviously exist they're just not a different species they're actually a leopard or Jaguar with a mutation in the genes related to pigmentation for the leopard it's a recessive gene and for the Jaguar it's a dominant gene like the other big cats including tigers and lions leopards and Jaguars are part of the panthera genus cougars are universally considered big cats notice what I didn't mention cougars admittedly their classification varies depending on the source but I thought it was pretty interesting that though they're bigger than some big cats cougars are sometimes considered the largest of the small cats that distinction is often made because they're not part of the panthera genus raccoons only come out during the day when they're sick raccoons are most active at night it is true but that doesn't mean you should Panic if you see one out during the day it's a common misconception that a raccoon out on a daytime stroll must have rabies instead it could simply be just adjusting Its Behavior to take advantage of a food source if you for example put out food every morning for an outdoor cat a clever raccoon will adjust the schedule to take advantage of the easy meal female raccoons are also known to appear in broad daylight in search of extra food for their young if you do however see a raccoon that's exhibiting signs of rabies like foaming at the mouth making whimpering noises staggering around or otherwise acting erratically make sure you stay away and contact the appropriate authorities possums and opossums are the same thing the gray bodied pink nose bald-tailed marsupials Americans are familiar with are technically called opossums strictly Virginia opossums though most people drop the O and simply refer to them as possums but possum technically refers to an entirely different animal that was itself named after the American Critter true possums are also marsupials they're indigenous to Australia and a few nearby Islands unlike Virginia opossums they generally have fluffy Tails some smaller species of possum actually face the risk of being eaten by giant spiders something North American opossums don't really have to worry about wild orcas are known to attack and kill people so-called killer whales have a pretty intense reputation orcas are Keen Killers the greatest hunting prey like fish sharks seals and even other whales people are generally not on their radar though there aren't any definitive records of an orca killing a person out in the ocean and the one somewhat a tested case that happening involved a unique situation with trapped orcas that were likely on the brink of starvation the only orc is known to have killed people were kept in captivity a monarch butterfly that starts the migration from Mexico is the same one that finishes it monarch butterflies do have one of the longest migrations in the insect world but a single Monarch is not making the long journey from Mexico to Canada and the northern United States that long haul trip is a multi-generational effort the butterflies have several stopping points along the trip those who arrive at each stopping point breed and lay eggs those Offspring often continue on to other stopping points and continue the pattern for Eastern monarchs for example a butterfly that starts at Springtime journey in Mexico may only make it to these Southern States before passing the torch to its offspring that second generation will then head farther north to breed their offspring will then breed in the summer and that third generation's descendants will be the ones who begin the journey South to Mexico toward the end of the summer oddly enough many of those butterflies will complete the journey to Mexico but that's a story for another time honey badgers want to fight you yes honey badgers are tough if you've seen that viral YouTube video from 2011 then you know they also do not give a damn but they're also unlikely to actually fight you when threatened honey badgers will typically take a page from a skunk's book and you smell as a defense except rather than amid a smelly spray they drop a stink bomb from a gland near their tail that stores a foul-smelling liquid beavers live in dams fevers build dams but they don't live in them the dams and the pond-like bodies of water they create are meant to be defensive deterrents that keep Predators from where they actually live lodges built within the Damned off-site penguins live at the South Pole some penguin species do live in Antarctica but not actually at the South Pole the geographic South Pole is a specific place on the Antarctic continent it's the planet's southernmost point and has a latitude of exactly 90 degrees south the geographic South Pole is more than 800 miles from Antarctica's nearest Coast that's far too Inland for the Penguins who need water to hunt the birds don't live at the North Pole either in fact they don't live anywhere near the Arctic so all those cute wintry images of penguins and polar bears hanging out together are entirely inaccurate I'm so sorry narwhal tusks are horns hundreds of years ago European Royals used narwhal tusks as protection against poison thinking they were unicorn horns obviously the tusks were not from unicorns in fact they weren't even horns a narwhal's Tusk is actually a giant tooth narwhals tusks are highly sensitive and can grow up to nine feet long Coral is a plant or a rock Coral root to the ground like plants and appear to be as still as a rock but they're actually animals specifically invertebrates made of thousands of little polyps that eat by filtering zooplankton out of the water they're actually algae that live within the coral itself which turns sunlight into energy and nourish its host but the coral like any informed Muppets fan is team animal crane flies are giant mosquitoes crane flies look like the mother of all mosquitoes they have the same overall shape as the bloodsuckers just at a much larger scale in fact crane fly refers to any insect that's part of the tapula dye family don't worry unlike mosquitoes crane flies do not suck people's blood daddy long legs refers to one deadly spider species there are two glaring errors with this common misconception about daddy long legs first of all daddy long legs aren't always spiders people commonly refer to three species as daddy longlegs harvestmen crane flies and seller spiders and only seller spiders are actually spiders which of the three you picture when you hear Daddy Long Legs depends on a bunch of factors including where you grow up also despite an odd rumor that daddy longlegs are the most venomous spider species in the world no type of daddy long legs is venomous enough to kill a person harvestmen don't even have any sort of toxic substances to inject anyone with or any fangs to do the injecting Cellar spiders do have both Venom and fangs but experts haven't found any proof that their toxins are lethal enough to kill a human all bees are busy if you're someone who works hard or keeps a full schedule chances are you've been called a busy bee at some point it's true that some bees like honey bees and Bumblebees are indeed busy but not all species are a lot of male bees get to take it pretty easy while in the nest according to a 2014 study that literally glued RFID tags onto bees approximately 20 percent of the foraging Workforce accounted for 50 percent of the total flight activity when researchers remove those busy bees from the population the remaining subjects seem to compensate for their absence by becoming more productive a lesson perhaps for anyone who's used to doing all of the work in a group project cuckoo bees hardly work at all they lay their eggs in the nests of other bee species forcing them to feed their young we call that working smarter not harder goldfish have three second memories goldfish can remember things that happen more than just a few seconds ago studies from the 50s and 60s proved it and yet the myth that they only have three second memories persists we don't know exactly how long their memories last but it's thought to be months for certain types of information people have conducted several studies involving food such as feeding the fish on one side of their tanks having them perform certain behaviors to receive Food and having the fish navigate obstacles such as mazes in all of the tests goldfish were shown to remember what they needed to do to get the food oatmeal kills ants According to some old at home remedies oatmeal is a good way to get rid of ants it was thought that when ants ate the oatmeal the food would expand as it became wet in their stomach and eventually killed them but even a single piece of oatmeal is far too big for an ant to eat and many adult ants don't eat solid food at all horseshoe crabs are crabs we can chalk this one up to a confusing name horseshoe crabs are not crabs or even Crustaceans they're more closely related to arachnids such as spiders and scorpions true crabs have antennae and Jaws horseshoe crabs have neither the reputation as living fossils on the other hand is fairly accurate horseshoe crabs have been around for at least 445 million years which means they were roaming the planet long before dinosaurs arrived on the scene around 230 million years ago just because the species is super old doesn't mean horseshoe crabs don't live it up in fact the creatures even engage in group sex pill bugs are bugs here's another misconception that comes from a misleading name pill bugs also known as roly-polies and potato bugs are not bugs what constitutes a bug is a matter of debate amongst biologists but this particular case isn't particularly controversial they aren't even insects pill bugs are really Crustaceans they're actually fairly closely related to the giant isopods that live in the ocean sharks can smell a drop of blood from a mile away somehow cut yourself and start bleeding while you're in the ocean Do Not freak out it won't act like a beacon to all the sharks within a few miles the sharp tooth fish do have excellent senses of smell just how good their smell is depends on the specific species in general though it's thought sharks can only smell blood from around a quarter of a mile away besides sharks don't need to sniff blood to find their next meal thanks to their highly sensitive Electro sensory organs they can detect their preys heartbeat don't you feel better it's worth noting though unless you're a seal sharks likely have little interest in you if you are a seal watching this video I mean that's just awesome carrot only diet is good for rabbits this one is bad news for bugs bunny rabbits should not eat a lot of carrots think of the root veg as rabbit candy they can have them in moderation As a treat in the wild rabbits wouldn't ordinarily eat carrots and they have far too much sugar to be a healthy meal it's best for bunnies to stick with hay and grass leafy greens and dedicated rabbit pellets as their main source of food cockroaches are indestructible sure cockroaches are freakishly good at Staying Alive they can even regrow lost limbs but they aren't truly indestructible an average person can indeed kill a cockroach no exterminator required you'll need to make sure you're using a strong enough insecticide or crushing it with enough Force but still the job can be done in fact the average roach lives for only about 20 to 30 weeks bonobos never fight bonobos have been informally dubbed the hippie Apes owing to their free loving ways they're known to engage in different permutations of sexual activity including same-sex genital rubbing and group sex all this sex might very well play a role in group cohesion and cooperation which has led to a bit of a one-sided view of the primates as some sort of pacifistic Ideal in the animal kingdom instead of fighting this line of thinking goes two otherwise tens bonobos will simply get it on and avoid further conflict in fact bonobos have been known to fight one another like chimpanzees they sometimes even form coalitions to engage in group attacks interestingly the most common groups observed in one study were made up of all females those groups had an incredibly High rate of success against males for the record so while studying bonobos may still reveal unique insights into primate Behavior the idea that they exist in a Perpetual state of sex-induced Tranquility is a chimpanzees are monkeys neither bonobos nor chimpanzees are monkeys they're both considered Apes there are a number of differences between the two types of primates apes are generally bigger and smarter and only monkeys have tails as seems to always be the case with Biology there are tricky edge cases Barbary macaques are monkeys but they either have no tail at all or a vestigial tail bald eagles are named for a lack of feathers bald eagles obviously have feathers on their heads the Indian Condor for my money looks balder still you could imagine the United States national bird earning its name because the white feathers up top look bald compared to the darker feathers found below the neck etymologically though that's not quite right the best guess seems to be that their name is related to a different bald effectively meaning white or marked with white like piebald so the name probably comes from their white heads and not any resemblance to Vin Diesel white rhinos are white similar to Bald Eagles the name White Rhino is a bit misleading I mean just look at them they're clearly gray some sources say the name derives from a Dutch or Afrikaans word for wide but that explanation is dubious according to experts Black Rhinos incidentally aren't black they're gray too rays are a particularly dangerous type of fish tragedy that took Steve Irwin's life might have you believe rays are particularly lethal creatures this probably is not the case though first of all most of the hundreds of race species are stingrays at all the spiny butterfly Ray for example is considered harmless to humans if you if you step on it and it feels the need to defend itself the resulting injury might hurt but it won't be fatal and even the types of rays that can be dangerous don't seem to account for a large number of human casualties exact numbers are hard to come by but a textbook from several decades ago pegged the number of recorded deaths attributable to stingrays that only 17. obviously that number has gone up in more recent years but compared to more common Killers like bee stings and dog attacks stingrays aren't exactly Mother Nature's assassins of course it's still best to proceed with caution if you end up anywhere near a stingray and to follow best practices for dealing with wild animals look from a distance but definitely do not touch giant pandas are endangered pandas are still considered vulnerable that represents an upgrade from their longtime status as endangered the worldwide population has actually grown around 17 percent over the past decade according to the World Wildlife Fund of course the fact that the adore bears are so closely associated with endangered animals in general has a lot to do with the WWF they've used pandas as a sort of mascot for the organization's efforts for decades and should be applauded for their success there is a risk of this single species conservation strategy though as Benji Jones outlined in a piece for Fox while photogenic animals like pandas gorillas and tigers might be well served by this approach it risks neglecting other species which are just as important for Global biodiversity in the same time period that pandas have begun their comeback for example many bird and fish species have been depleted mussels and corals are at risk though they're vital to ecosystems they don't have adorable faces that make for good promotional materials we can be happy that pandas are hopefully on the road to recovery but still acknowledge that future conservation efforts may be better served by taking a holistic approach bread makes good duck food eaten in moderation a little bit of bread is super harmful for ducks it may provide empty calories but it's not toxic but if you're in a well trafficked public park it's unlikely that ducks being fed bread and other human food are able to practice moderation this can lead to malnutrition if the birds are filling up on bread bread that isn't eaten right away can mold with potentially negative consequences if it's eaten later on it can also attract Critters like rats which come with a different set of problems people feeding ducks bread also can lead to overcrowding and increased defecation which can promote excess algae growth in the spread of diseases if you really want to feed your local Ducks there are duck pellets available that will generally be more nutritious oats barley and thawed frozen peas are probably also better choices but really you should avoid feeding them at all experts generally agree any wild animal relying on humans for food is not ideal salmon jump to loosen their eggs okay I have to admit that I had never heard of this misconception it apparently has been floated as an explanation for why the fish jump though the idea is that the movement helps free the eggs from a membrane which would then be helpful around mating time since male salmon have also been shown to jump though this explanation doesn't seem very plausible the reason I wanted to bring up this misconception such as it is is that we don't really know for sure why salmon engage in this unusual behavior jumping frequency increases as feeding activity goes down so it doesn't seem like they're hopping up for insects one study suggested they might be trying to dislodge sea lice though there is some evidence for the claim it apparently took an average of 56 leaps to dislodge a single sea louse which seems like a questionable return on investment for an activity that expends energy and puts the fish at greater risk from predatory Birds further research is likely needed sheep are Mindless you don't have to travel very far on Twitter to find someone accusing a human being of being a sheep the implication is that they're unthinking and overly obedient I'll leave that particular topic for another channel to comment on but I can speak to the supposed stupidity of sheep these adorable animals can recognize peers and familiar humans and Studies have shown the ovines are able to remember the distribution of different foods across a pasture well they've also been found to have distinct personalities one study for example showed individuals falling at different places on the spectrum of shyness to boldness exhibiting different appetites for risk-taking behavior and exploration images of large flocks of sheep moving more or less in unison may have given rise to our figurative language around the animals but assuming this means their dumb is incorrect In fact on an individual level that flocking behavior makes perfect sense by congregating together vulnerable sheep reduced their risk of being picked off by predators Komodo dragons have lethally dirty mouths this myth dates back to a 1981 book by biologist Walter Auffenberg as Ed young broke down and a piece for National Geographic the idea is that while the large lizards aren't venomous per se their mouths are teeming with bacteria that indirectly take down anything unlucky enough to get bit by a Komodo dragon the actual explanation is much simpler Komodo dragons do have venom glands when they bite another animal the toxins released by the glands are contributing to those early deaths not poor oral hygiene when a team led by Ellie Goldstein from UCLA's School of Medicine swabbed Komodo dragon mouths they found normal microbial life nothing that would support offenberg's original claim our next episode is covering 100 weird facts it is absolutely too late to get a suggestion into that video but drop your weirdest fact in the comments just for fun thanks for watching

Channel: Mental Floss

Views: 373,439

Keywords: John green, mental floss, trivia, idea channel, vlog brothers, misconceptions, justin dodd, animals, animal facts, myths about animals, fun facts about animals, animal misconceptions, lies about animals, do toads give you warts, do pigs sweat, do horses sleep standing up, are ponies real, are bats blind, animal trivia, misconceptions about animals, zoology, the fault in our stars, homework help, vlogbrothers, dog years

Id: vUaFvHFFHGo

Length: 40min 25sec (2425 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023