Our random animal facts are a both fun and a little bit weird but they will keep you entertained for days!
Pill bugs, also known as roly-polys, are not insects but rather crustaceans. They breathe through gills and are more closely related to shrimp and lobsters than other bugs. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/springtime-science-whats-home-sweet-home-to-a-bug/
The world record for the longest human long jump is greater than the world record for the longest horse long jump. Mike Powell set the human record in 1991 by jumping 8.95m, while a horse named Something under Andre Ferreira jumped 8.25m in 1975. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Equestrian Guinness records – EQUISHOP Equestrian Shop
Some rice farmers in Thailand use a swarm of some 10,000 ducks to clean up their fields after harvesting. Known as “ped lai thoong” or “field chasing ducks”, the ducks eat the snails and leftover husks making it easier to plow all while avoiding the use of pesticides. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Drone footage follows 10,000 ducks “cleaning” rice paddies in Thailand – YouTube
A “cattalo” or “beefalo” is a cross breed between a cow and a bison. They were first intentionally crossbred in the mid-19th century. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Beefalo – Wikipedia
The Australian Bassian thrush farts in order to startle earthworms into moving. Once on the move, the birds are able to locate and eat them. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Bird Facts That Sound Fake but Are True (insider.com)
India is home to the Ratufa indica, or the Malabar giant squirrel, which can grow up to three feet in length. They are capable of jumping 20 feet between trees and unlike their counterparts who bury their food, they store theirs in the treetops. – WTF Fun Facts
A giant Pacific octopus named Billye took ~55 minutes to initially open a childproof bottle. After some practice, she could execute the push-and-turn trick—without any instruction—in an average of 5 minutes. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Speedy Octopus Sets Record for Jar Opening – Scientific American Blog Network
In 2018, after 116 years behind bars, animal crackers were freed from their cages by Nabisco after PETA wrote a request to their parent company. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: In a Victory for PETA, Animal Crackers Roam Free – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
In April 2021, researchers from biotech company Oxitec released bioengineered male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which don’t bite, to mate with the wild female population in the Florida keys. The genetically engineered males will pass a modified gene on that will kill their female offspring as larva. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: First genetically modified mosquitoes released in the United States (nature.com)
Scientists managed to successfully mix goats with spider genes and now they can produce an extra protein in their milk, which is extracted and spun into spider silk thread. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: The goats with spider genes and silk in their milk – BBC News
The odds of an average golfer making a hole-in-one is: 12,000 to 1.
A hummingbirds wings can beat up to 200 beats per second or 12,000 beats per minute.
There are over 12,000 species of ants.
Bolivia’s La Paz is the highest administrative capital in the world at ~12,000 ft above sea level.
Between 12,000 and 15,000 bicycles are fished from the bottom of Amsterdam’s canals each and every year.
Saudi Arabian dairy company Almarai owns ~15,000 acres in California with water rights to the Colorado River so that they can cheaply grow alfalfa to feed their cows back in Saudi Arabia.–WTF Fun Facts
Source:Who keeps buying California’s scarce water? Saudi Arabia | California | The Guardian
On average, bald eagle nests are 2-4 ft deep and 4-5 ft wide. However, one pair of eagles near St. Petersburg, Florida, earned the Guinness World Record for largest bird’s nest at 20 ft deep and 9.5 ft wide. The nest weighed over two tons. – WTF Fun Facts
Goats have no upper front teeth – only lower. The upper front mouth is one big gum. In the back of their mouth they have both upper and lower molars. – WTF Fun Facts
“War pigs” were used during the siege of Megara in 266BC to combat “war elephants”. The pigs were coated in oil, set on fire, and sent towards the enemy’s elephants. The squealing pigs terrorized the elephants, causing them to panic and trample and kill anyone close by. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: War pig – Wikipedia
Starfish or sea stars have crude eyes on the tip of their arms. Each of their arms has an eye that looks like a red spot. These eyes cannot see full details but can sense dark and light and crude images so that they can find their way back to coral reefs. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Surprise! Scientists Find How Starfish See With Their Eyes (nationalgeographic.com)
After being sold to a herdsman 8 months prior, an elderly camel “ran away” and walked more than 62 miles alone in the Inner Mongolian desert to find its previous owners. Another herdsman spotted it and contacted its former owners. – WTF Fun Facts
Source: Bayannur: Camel Walks In Desert For Days To Return To Former Owners (indiatimes.com)
The yellow-billed oxpeckers nest in trees or similar when they lay their eggs. However, the rest of the time they can be found sleeping in a giraffe’s “armpit.” As many as seven birds have been seen clustered in a single armpit. – WTF Fun Facts
Source:Birds Sleep in Giraffe Armpits in Tanzania, New Photos Reveal (nationalgeographic.com)