Facts about critters!

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 16 '19

You can spot scorpions at night by shining a UV light on them. There are several theories as to why they glow, but scientists have not come to a consensus.

587 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 01 '19

You can identify which family or sometimes genus a spider belongs to by the pattern the eyes are in.

241 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 20 '19

Female wolf spiders carry their egg sacs around on their backs. When the young hatch they hitch a ride on her for a few days before ballooning off on their own.

235 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 17 '19

The Cantor's giant softshelled turtle spends 95% of its life buried and motionless underwater, with only its eyes and mouth protruding from the sand or mud. It surfaces twice a day to breathe.

216 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • May 08 '19

Crows remember the faces of threatening humans, and react to them years after last seeing them. They scold the person on sight, cackling, swooping and dive-bombing in mobs of 30 or more. Other crows learn to recognize the face.

205 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 05 '19

A stable gaze allows animals to see the world clearly without blur. Mantis shrimp, however, observe with a series of pitch (left/right), yaw (up/down) and torsional (roll) rotations of their eyes, where each eye may also move independently of the other.

185 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Jun 01 '19

Embryonic bats have a development stage called the "Peek-a-boo" stage where their wings grow to cover their eyes!

171 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 14 '19

Bumblebees can solve a simple problem; pulling string to get food. They can pick this skill up even quicker by watching other bees perform the task first!

170 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 21 '19

Chimpanzees are capable of metacognition, or thinking about one's own thinking, and can adjust their behavior accordingly.

169 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Apr 16 '19

When a horse is running, its breathing and stride are linked in a 1:1 ratio, so for every stride they take, they also take one breath. The peak airflow they generate is very high (about 80 liters per second). Thus, a very small defect in the airway can cause a big decrease in performance.

164 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 12 '19

The vibrations and pulses that male fiddler crabs produce when they are trying to lure females into their burrows serve as a type of "Morse code". This tells females about the size and stamina of their suitors.

162 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Jul 31 '19

Old bra clasps can save injured turtles! The clasps are glued on either side of a shell fracture, then pulled together with a zip tie to stabilize the injury.

159 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • May 18 '19

In preparation for the annual spawning season of the Red crab, rangers on Christmas Island put up barriers along the roadside to prevent the crabs from being crushed by cars. They have also constructed a 5 m high bridge to help the crabs move across the island and continue their migration.

159 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Jul 02 '19

The aardvark is the only species in the family Orycteropodidae and the only living member of order Tubulidentata. While they may resemble anteaters their closest living relatives are elephants (order Proboscidea), hyraxes (order Hyracoidea), and dugongs and manatees (order Sirenia).

156 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Apr 19 '19

Crows exhibit strong behavioral signs of analogical reasoning—the ability to solve puzzles like “bird is to air as fish is to what?” Analogical reasoning is considered to be the pinnacle of cognition and it only develops in humans between the ages of three and four.

155 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 23 '19

Cardinalfish swallow ostracods accidentally while looking for plankton. To avoid being digested the ostracods evolved a brilliant defense: lighting up. Since the cardinalfish is translucent, their glowing bodies make them easy targets for predators. Once the fish lights up it spits out the ostracod.

153 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 10 '19

Buff-tip moths, of family Notodontidae, resemble the pale branches of broken Birch trees (Family Betulaceae). This camouflage hides them from potential predators.

151 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • May 22 '19

Bad moods could be contagious among ravens. The birds seem to pick up on and share negative emotions, but not positive ones.

142 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 15 '19

Creatonotos gangis expands their coremata (also known as hair pencils) to spread its pheromones in order to attract females. The coremata are stored within the abdomen when not in use. The chemicals act as an attractant and tranquilizer on females but repel other males.

139 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Feb 15 '19

The snail shell spider (Olios coenobitus) hauls empty snail shells into bushes to use as protection. This BBC footage is the first time this has been captured in the wild.

139 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Jun 12 '19

There are five species of adorable pygmy possum! Four of the species are endemic to Australia, with one species also co-occurring in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

137 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Mar 03 '19

A species of jumping spider (Toxeus magnus) produce a milk-like fluid which is more nutritious than cow’s milk. Although young T. magnus start hunting for food 20 days after hatching, they don’t wean until they are 40 days old. During that period, juveniles eat a mixture of spider milk and insects.

132 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Jul 06 '19

Hyraxes are rotund herbivorous mammals native to parts of Africa and the Middle East. Despite their rodent-like appearance, they are elephants' closest living relative. Hyraxes are colonial, living in colonies of about 50 within the natural crevices of rocks or boulders. They do not create burrows.

129 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Dec 24 '19

Young male zebra finches begin life by making random sounds before learning complex songs from their fathers. Once the bird has mastered the family song, he will sing it for the rest of his life and pass it on to the next generation.

126 Upvotes

r/CritterFacts • u/FillsYourNiche • Sep 21 '19

When the weather is hot, zebra finches in Australia sing to their eggs - and these "incubation calls" slow the chicks growth and allow them to cope better in heat.

125 Upvotes