Do you have any interesting animal facts or behaviors that we should know about?

I have one, Porcupines don't actually shoot their quills, they flick their tales at their predators and the loosely attached quills go into the predators skin. Thus porcupines don't actually shoot their quills.

Armadillos always give birth to identical quadruplets.

Polar bears have black skin

Mosquitoes kill more people every year than all other animals COMBINED

Don't eat the yellow snow, the yellow could be animal piss

Possum females have 2 uteran bodies and males have a forked *****, so the female can be pregnant and give birth at the same time

Bees and dogs can smell fear.

Scimitar Oryx can go 10 months without drinking water. They can get it from their food and they can elevate their internal body temp to like 116F during the day to conserve water.

I've always thought that was really cool!

First one I didn't know.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Scimitar Oryx can go 10 months without drinking water. They can get it from their food and they can elevate their internal body temp to like 116F during the day to conserve water.

I've always thought that was really cool!

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sure...next you'll be telling us is they turn into unicorns, jump over rainbows, and you killed one with a 6.5 bleednomore.

Dung Beetles eat Dog Poo. I have the cleanest Poo Free yard…

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Scimitar Oryx can go 10 months without drinking water. They can get it from their food and they can elevate their internal body temp to like 116F during the day to conserve water.

I've always thought that was really cool!

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How does elevating their temp conserve water?

The closest relative to a pronghorn is a giraffe.

I should know a lot of these, but haven't worked in the zoo world for about 20 years.

- When I used to have eastern hognose snakes, I would trick them into eating mice. Typically, they and almost entirely amphibian diet. I'd get a toad, rub it all over the frozen thawed mouse, and then put the mouse in the bucket that I fed the snake. Worked like a charm every time.
- Elephants who have anxiety can use Xanax to help their anxiety. At one of the zoos I worked at, they were doing work on the elephant barn gate, which scared one of the elephants. She would not come out of her barn for a month. The consulting vet prescribed her the human equivalent dosage of Xanax. It was pretty weird picking up 100 pills of Xanax at the Walmart pharmacy. But, she eventually came out of her barn and was not scared anymore.

I'm sure I'll think of some more.

Mature Blackbuck males will poop and pee on the same spots every day. They mark the perimeter of their territory with those piles.
Aoudads have the long hair "chaps" on their front legs so they can lay down and bury their heads/noses in that hair during severe sand storms prevalent in their native countries to filter the air.
Axis bucks go into rut and Axis does go into estrus based on their birthdays….. not one time of year like other cervidae.

Deer, antelope, and other hoofed animals will sometimes kill and eat small rodents. I witnessed this at one of the zoos I worked at, when a collie sized antelope began stomping a rat on the ground, and proceeded to eat it. It is thought that they do this to get extra protein when their diet is deficient of protein.

The famous big white Lipizzaner horses that General Patton was credited in saving in WWII are always born black or bay and then turn solid white as they mature in about 6 years.

Mature blackbuck males, Addax, Scimitars, Gemsbok etc will have more vivid dark colors of their coat markings in the winter months than summer months due to trying to absorb more heat from the sun.

Raccoons avg lifespan in the wild is 2 years while domesticated 25. They are most calm when being fed, recognizing the hand that feeds them. Extremely curious and persistent to their demise and dismay of their owners.

Bears recycle their own urine into protein during hibernation.

I used to get a kick out of this old wive's tale:
Snakes can grab their tail in their mouth and roll downhill like a wheel.

Tigers have killed over 3 1/2 Kyle Fields full of people since the year 1800. One specific tiger killed over 400 people.

Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards

There is no blue pigment in animals, the blue color is made from other pigments mixed together

zooguy96 said:

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I should know a lot of these, but haven't worked in the zoo world for about 20 years.

- When I used to have eastern hognose snakes, I would trick them into eating mice. Typically, they and almost entirely amphibian diet. I'd get a toad, rub it all over the frozen thawed mouse, and then put the mouse in the bucket that I fed the snake. Worked like a charm every time.
- Elephants who have anxiety can use Xanax to help their anxiety. At one of the zoos I worked at, they were doing work on the elephant barn gate, which scared one of the elephants. She would not come out of her barn for a month. The consulting vet prescribed her the human equivalent dosage of Xanax. It was pretty weird picking up 100 pills of Xanax at the Walmart pharmacy. But, she eventually came out of her barn and was not scared anymore.

I'm sure I'll think of some more.

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Interesting - elephants taking Xanax is crazy stuff

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Scimitar Oryx can go 10 months without drinking water. They can get it from their food and they can elevate their internal body temp to like 116F during the day to conserve water.

I've always thought that was really cool!

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I've got a beautiful one mounted

redaszag99 said:

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Don't eat the yellow snow, the yellow could be animal piss

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So, watch out where the huskies go?

Birds aren't real.

Red Wolves. The most endangered wolf on the planet? Almost completely gone but efforts are being put forth to save them. They look like a coyote/Grey wolf hybrid and often misidentified and killed. Their howling sounds between the yip of a coyote and the deep howling of a Grey wolf.

Im pulling for these guys

water turkey said:

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The closest relative to a pronghorn is a giraffe.

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Sure it's not okapis? Thought it went pronghorn-okapi-giraffe?

We have a Cooper's hawk nest on our property. I watch them all day long. 99% of what they eat is bugs. They sit on low limbs and just watch the grass.

Learned this on our Alaska cruise earlier this month

Bald Eagle nest can weight one or two TONS. They add to then every year increasing the size and weight.

What in the world are they putting in there?

Wombats are the only animal that produces square poop.


Learned that watching a cartoon with my 4 yr old recently. He thought it was hilarious.

Maybe some illegal immigrants?

They are huge nests, as big as washing machines and bigger built out of sticks as thick as your forearms.

I've always thought it was interesting that prairie dogs might have their own "language".

From Wiki -"Constantine Slobodchikoff and others assert that prairie dogs use a sophisticated system of vocal communication to describe specific predators. According to them, prairie dog calls contain specific information as to what the predator is, how big it is, and how fast it is approaching. These have been described as a form of grammar. According to Slobodchikoff, these calls, with their individuality in response to a specific predator, imply prairie dogs have highly developed cognitive abilities. He also asserts prairie dogs have calls for things that are not predators to them. This is cited as evidence that the animals have a very descriptive language and have calls for any potential threat."

It makes me wonder what their word for a 50gr 22-250 round is.

reproag said:

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water turkey said:

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The closest relative to a pronghorn is a giraffe.

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Sure it's not okapis? Thought it went pronghorn-okapi-giraffe?

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Not 100% sure. I think I read it in "American Serengeti", which discusses what a unique animal it is and how it evolved to be able to outrun the American cheetah that lived on the Great Plains at the time.