Fun Animal Facts

Our random animal facts are a both fun and a little bit weird but they will keep you entertained for days!

WTF Fun Fact 12799 – The Migratory Monarch Butterfly Is Endangered

Migratory monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus plexippus) are a subspecies of monarchs, and while you may have seen them in your backyard growing up if you’re over 40, chances are you’ve seen a lot less of them lately. Migratory monarchs are now endangered and could go extinct.

The iconic monarch butterfly

These iconic American butterflies are black and orange. Like other monarchs, their larvae feed on only one plant – milkweed. Climate change and fires have destroyed much of the milkweed in America and conservationists are encouraging people to plant more.

The butterflies are also threatened by pesticides, herbicides, deforestation, and urban development. In fact, they’re so threatened that a Switzerland-based conservation organization that monitors the status of wildlife – the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – has added them to the list of threatened species.

They join around 41,000 other species that could become extinct without intervention.

Migratory monarch populations

Migratory monarchs in the American West face the largest extinction risk, having lost 99.9% of their population over the last 40 years, according to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below).

The number of Western migratory monarchs went from ten million in the 1980s to 1,914 by 2021. That may not be enough butterflies to keep the population alive.

But according to Smithsonian Magazine, there’s still hope:

“To help boost monarch numbers, scientists and conservationists recommend planting more milkweed and nectar flowers, maintaining forests and limiting the use of pesticides and herbicides in the butterflies’ range, report CNN’s Madeline Holcombe and Jalen Beckford.

​​“People recognize the monarch,” Anna Walker, an entomologist at the New Mexico BioPark Society who led the assessment, tells the Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni. “People love the monarch. So that gives us an opportunity to do the outreach and get people on board.”

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Migratory Monarch Butterflies Are Listed as an Endangered Species” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12790 – Dog Branded a Fake Hero By NYT

In 1908, the New York Times ran a story calling a dog in Paris a fake hero. But before you jump to the canine’s defense, you might want to hear why. It turns out he was a bit of a bad boy.

Dog Saves Child

As the story is told, a heard a child screaming for help one day by the Seine river in Paris. And like a proper hero, he jumped in to rescue the poor kiddo.

Of course, he was greatly rewarded.

It turns out that the slab of meat he received as a reward was something he didn’t want to give up. So he presumably figured he’d just wait by the Seine to see if his heroics could be of service again. And it didn’t take long for another child to fall in.

Once again, the dog saved the child and was rewarded.

Now, remember the story of Pavlov’s dogs.

“Fake hero” dog pushes children

Eventually, someone noticed that a suspicious number of children were falling into the Seine, and always nearby a certain meat-loving canine. At first, people thought there was some sort of child-drowning criminal wandering about the neighborhood.

It didn’t take long for people to figure out that the dog eventually started pushing kids in if he had to wait too long for a rescue and reward scenario to present itself.

That’s what landed him on the front page of the NYT in a story titled “DOG A FAKE HERO.”

Now, whether the story is true or not, we can’t say. We only know what the NYT reported. Sadly, they didn’t follow up on what may have happened to the dog nor did they mention whether or not any of the children noticed that they took a swim courtesy of the canine.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “The Dog Who Kept Pushing Kids Into A River To Acquire Steak Rewards” — IFL Science

WTF Fun Fact 12786 – Endless Albatross Flying

It seems impossible, but albatrosses can go years without ever landing on the ground.

Albatrosses get a bad rap. They’ve long been a metaphor for a psychological burden that’s difficult to escape. This originated not in any real story but in a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge called The Rime of the Ancient Mariner published in 1798.

In the poem, an albatross flies out with a ship heading to sea. But the mariner shoots it with a crossbow. Since the albatross is normally a sign of good luck, the action curses him and his crew, who tie a dead albatross around his neck.

But what’s so great about an albatross

Albatrosses are large seabirds whose wingspans can reach over 10 feet. The “great albatrosses,” the wandering and royal albatrosses, have the widest wingspans—ten feet or more—of any living bird.

The albatross’ flying forte

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “Albatrosses are masters of soaring flight, able to glide over vast tracts of ocean without flapping their wings. So fully have they adapted to their oceanic existence that they spend the first six or more years of their long lives (which last upwards of 50 years) without ever touching land.”

Who knew an animal could fly, move, or even glide that long?!

The albatross’ future

Sadly, albatrosses are endangered – in fact, Smithsonian Magazine reports that they’re “one of the most threatened families of birds on earth. All but 2 of the 21 albatross species recognized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature are described as vulnerable, endangered or, in the case of the Amsterdam and Chatham albatrosses, critically endangered. The scientists hope that the data they gather may save some species from extinction.”

The birds mate for life, but reproduction is a two-step process that requires the right conditions and a long time to produce an egg. Once it hatches, predators abound.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “The Amazing Albatrosses” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Facts 12785 – Dogs Are Family

A 2017 survey from Rover.com found that Americans are really fond of their dogs. In fact, “dog people” tend to prefer their pets over people at times.

People think of dogs as family

Aside from the finding that 54% of dog owners said they would consider ending a romantic relationship if their dog didn’t like their partner, the report also noted that:

24% of dog owners make up songs to sing to their dogs
29% share more pictures online of their dogs than of friends and family
47% of those with a significant other admit they’d find it harder to leave their dog for a week than their human partner

Other furry findings

According to Rover.com’s report on their findings, there are 54 million households in the U.S. wth dogs.

  • 94% of dog owners consider their dog a part of the family
  • 56% greet their dog first when they return home before greeting the rest of the family.
  • 78% would include their dog in family moments like marriage proposals, holiday cards, and even vacations
  • 56 percent% have celebrated their dog’s birthday

Being a dog owner is even good for our health. “Dog ownership increases leisure time and physical activity by nearly 70 percent.”

According to Rover pet lifestyle expert Brandie Gonzales, “Young Americans are less likely to be homeowners or parents than previous generations, but one category they lead in is pet ownership. They shower their dogs with attention and splurge on expensive gifts because their dog is their best friend, and they want to be their dog’s best friend too.”

Millennials may have killed department stores and traditional marriage, but they sure were a boon for the animal rescue industry! At least one thing has remained stable over time – dogs are still man’s best friend.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Rover.com Reveals New Research on ‘Dog People'” — Rover.com

WTF Fun Fact 12779 – Goat Yoga

Goat yoga began in Oregon when a local yoga instructor, Heather Davis, asked Lainey Morse if she could hold a class on her animal therapy farm in August of 2016. Of course, the answer was yes and everyone – goats included – seemed to have a great time.

From yoga with goats to Goat Yoga(TM)

When Morse sent photos from that event to Modern Farmer magazine, everyone was obsessed. The practice took off and is now performed all over the world.

According to CNBC (cited below), Morse said of the fateful moment she sent in the photos: “Within a few minutes, they contacted me and said, ‘We have got to do a story on this.’” The story came out and changed her life. “You never know what it means when something goes viral, but it feels like a roller coaster going 100 miles an hour, and you can’t get off.”

“By the time Morse had the business fully up and running, “I had over 2,300 people on the wait list.” She started listing classes on Facebook, and “realized I can’t have 400 people on my farm showing up for goat yoga.” She soon came up with a registration platform to bring order to the process.”

As for Goat Yoga(TM), it’s not really a thing. Trademarks have long been denied and copycats exist everywhere. It did, however, become a 6-figure business. But it’s expensive to run.

“There were other big expenses along the way, like spending thousands of dollars on tents to protect outdoor sessions during inclement weather, only to see the tents destroyed in wind storms. She also had to buy special mats for customers because the goats would eat (or poop on) yoga mats people brought themselves.”

How do the goats feel?

Goats are pretty friendly and show happiness when they’re in good situations. In most cases, they probably don’t mind Goat Yoga too much.

Of course, not all goat yoga teachers are good to the goats, and animal rights activists have taken up the issue. That said, not all goats are the same, so there are probably some goats that would rather be anywhere else. – WTF fun facts

Source: “This woman’s goat yoga business is bringing in 6 figures” — CNBC

WTF Fun Fact 12772 – Real-Life Paw Patrol

Remember McGruff the Crime Dog? Ever watch Paw Patrol with your kids? Well, it turns out dogs really do take a bite out of crime – just not in the way we expected.

The Pros of a Paw Patrol

Recent research in the journal Social Forces has found that neighborhoods that contain more dogs have lower levels of crime. But the paper, titled “Paws on the Street: Neighborhood-Level Concentration of Households with Dogs and Urban Crime,” found that it wasn’t the dogs themselves that deterred criminals.

Based on the work of Jane Jacobs, this research adds to the idea that “eyes on the street” can (but don’t always) help deter bad actors. That’s a plus for communities where people get out of their houses and are seen by neighbors. (But it’s obviously not that straightforward, and Jacobs failed to take into account race and class in much of her research.)

Eyes on the street

Nevertheless, the new research suggests that in many neighborhoods, the presence of community members makes a neighborhood less likely to seem like a target for crimes such as theft. Not only do neighbors get to know each other better and establish trust, but more eyes mean more potential reporters when people who see something wrong.

Of course, we’ve seen reporting of “something wrong” go sideways in many cases, especially when it comes to situations that involve race and class differences. We’ve also seen that a police response isn’t the best way to keep crime down. So this research just provides a general sense of how things might work for some neighborhoods.

So what’s the deal with dogs?

Dogs come into play because people need to walk them – and people do this at all hours of the day. Neighborhoods with dogs tend to have a lot more human activity out on the sidewalks. In general, the evidence showed that this was largely a good thing when it came to deterring crime.

The researchers found that neighborhoods with higher concentrations of dogs tended to report less robbery, homicide, and aggravated assault rates (as long as “eyes on the street” came with an increased level of trust).

As always, it’s important to note that the researchers found a correlation between dog ownership and less crime. This is not the same is causation – meaning we can’t say that owning dogs leads to less crime until there’s far more evidence. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Dogs Could Be Lowering Crime Levels in Your Neighborhood. Seriously” — ScienceAlert

WTF Fun Fact 12767 – Lyrebird Mimicry

There are actually two types of lyrebirds, both live in Australia, and both are fabulous mimics. We just think the superb lyrebird has a better name. The other one is called Albert’s lyrebird and it’s a little less showy (but equally capable of mimicry).

Lyrebird taxonomy

The superb lyrebird belongs to the genus Menura (family Menuridae, order Passeriformes, if you like to get truly taxonomic). The birds live in the forests of southeastern Australia and do not fly – they are groundbirds.

For the most part, they’re not so impressive to look at. They look a lot like brown chickens. Well, except for the male superb lyrebird – he has to show off to attract females.

What does a lyrebird look like?

According to Britannica (cited below), “the male’s tail consists of eight pairs of ornate feathers, which resemble a lyre when erect. There are six pairs of filmy whitish feathers. One pair of 60–75-cm (24–30-inch) feathers that form the arms of the ‘lyre’ are broad and curled at the tip and are silvery on one side and marked with golden-brown crescents on the other. There are also two equally long ‘wires,’ narrow, stiff, slightly curved feathers that correspond to a lyre’s strings; they are situated in the centre of the curved ‘arms’…When the male displays in small clearings, which he makes at several places in the forest, he brings his tail forward so that the white plumes form a canopy over his head and the lyrelike feathers stand out to the side.”

Lyrebird mimicry

Here’s our favorite part of Britannica’s description: “In this position he sings, while prancing in rhythm, far-carrying melodious notes interspersed with perfect mimicry of other creatures and even of mechanical sounds.”

You might not think much of that at first, but the fact that a bird can mimic just about any sound is not only impressive but potentially creepy. Imagine walking through the deep forest in Australia (known for all manner of amazing-yet-terrifying creatures) only to hear the sound of a predator, a crying child, or a chainsaw!

We’d be freaked out, to say the least.

Seriously, listen to this bird mimic a baby crying!

Ok, now listen to construction noise (we had to double-check to make sure it was real):

Next time you head construction in the outback, look closer to the ground if you don’t see any men with tools. It may just be a lyrebird trying to troll you.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Lyrebird” – Britannica

WTF Fun Fact 12752 – The Loudest Animal

What would be your guess for the loudest animal on earth? A lion? An elephant? What about a shrimp?

Ok, but what about a specific type of pistol shrimp named after the bank Pink Floyd? That sounds a bit more believable,

The loudest animal

You’ve probably never heard a pistol shrimp make a noise unless you spend time near reefs with your head underwater. But the way they catch their prey is pretty interesting. They use bubbles.

By snapping their claws super hard and fast, a pistol shrimp can create a bubble that travels out from their bodies at around 60 mph. That’s enough to stun their prey so they can attack.

But when the bubble pops, it really makes the ocean rock.

Noisy eaters

One specific type of pistol shrimp is known for being a particularly noisy eater (or at least bubble-maker). Synalpheus pinkfloydi is pistol shrimp named after Pink Floyd. Because, hey, why not? We’re pretty sure one of the coolest things about being a scientist is getting to name stuff to your liking.

Anyway, this little shrimp can snap so hard that when it’s bubbles burst the noise can reach up to 210 decibels, according to the Ocean Conservancy (cited below). That’s louder than an actual pistol. Gunshots can reach around 175 decibels.

Clawing their way up the chain of command

The Ocean Conservancy also notes that “The pistol shrimp’s mighty snap comes in handy for more than just lunch. Its powerful claw can deter predators or other competitors looking to take over the shrimp’s burrow. It also makes males more attractive to the ladies—larger claws suggest they are better mates.”

It turns out a good claw is better than a pistol any day!

But it turns out pistol shrimp are also lovers, not just fighters. They work together – even with other species – to help find food and keep their hunting mates safe. So next time you’re hunting in a reef, find a friend with a big claw!

– WTF fun facts

Source: “The Real Power of the Pistol Shrimp” — Ocean Conservancy

WTF Fun Fact 12751 – Snails Can Sleep For 3 Years

You know have knowns snails live their lives at a leisurely pace, but snails can actually sleep for three years at a time!

They’re also hermaphrodites, which means they have male and female reproductive organs, so they don’t even need other snails to mate. They are the ultimate hermits.

But those three-year naps aren’t necessarily a good thing (no matter how comforting they might sound to your right now).

Snails sleep longest in summer

Some snail hibernation is called “estivation.” Hibernation is something that happens when animals sleep to conserve energy in the winter. Snails also sleep in the summer – that’s estivation. Snails can actually do both, but it mostly depends on species or geography (nevertheless, it’s still a skill we’re jealous of).

But why do snails sleep for three years?

Well, not all do. In fact, a three-year estivation typically occurs when the snail’s resources are so depleted that it’s either sleep-or-die. (Yes, we know how relatable this sounds – especially if you have little ones.)

A gooey slumber

Even if snails are estivating for much shorter periods of time, they secrete mucus that covers their whole bodies if the weather is too hot or dry. The mucus helps to protect them from hot or dry weather.

Snails need moisture to survive, so they just provide their own!

Of course, a gooey nap doesn’t protect them from predators thinking they’re dead.

Snail power naps

Snails usually sleep for about 15 hours at a time and then are awake for 30 hours. But that’s under optimal environmental conditions (which are kind of hard to come by these days, no matter what your species.)

This kind of sounds like a productive schedule, if we’re being honest. (Or maybe we could just use a very alert 30 hours to get our work done.)

Beware the sleeping snail

If you think a snail is dead, consider that it may just be taking a power nap. This is especially the case if you keep a snail as a pet. If it is stuck to the side of an aquarium but not moving, it’s likely still alive because it’s secreting mucus to make it stick.

Pet snails are unlikely to hibernate for years (mostly because if humans are providing suboptimal conditions, it’s likely bad enough to just kill the snail).

If the snail’s body is shriveled and dry (if you can see into the shell), then the snail is almost certainly dead (sorry for your loss).

And if you see a snail in the garden, well, that’s up to you and how much you want them around, but crushing it because you think it’s dead could be a deadly mistake for the snail.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Let’s Learn Exactly How Some Snails Sleep” — AZ Pet Vet