What are your favorite fun facts about animals?

Cheetah’s went through a genetic bottleneck somewhere between ten and twelve thousand years ago. There may have been less than ten left at one point. Dating the Cheetah Genetic Bottleneck
My totally silly theory is that humans in fact where adopting kits at that time and help saved the species, and that’s why they’re so almost domesticated.

Wobats poop cubes.

Pigs can't look up. Sharks are older than trees. The duck billed platypus has no nipples; milk just oozes from the skin. All mammals have the same number of cervical vertebrae.

Wild bees (often solo) will sometimes "bed down" in cactus flowers. The flowers close in the evening providing protection for the sleeping bee.

Starfish don’t brains?

I like that cats know their own names, understand why we’re saying them, yet choose to ignore us on purpose.

Opossums are essentially immune to rabies and eat ticks.

Dogs are cool.

You can see a good portion of the back of many owls' eyes if you look in their ears.

Earwigs can fly....

The octopus has 9 brains, one central brain (donut shaped, around the esophagus), and one in each of the 8 arms.

Penguins have a gland above their eye that converts saltwater into freshwater

A centipede's 'fangs' are actually weird legs that can inject venom, and they're called toxicognaths (which is one of my favourite words)!

Female spotted hyenas have pseudo-penises and no vaginal opening. They instead dock and give birth through their dicks

There are 25-million ants for every person on this planet.

Elephants think humans are cute

Some scorpions can drop their tail if in danger. But afterwards they can't poop anymore and die of constipation months later.

Link

Meerkat mobs are led by a dominant female. She's identifiable by looking for the biggest butt.

Humans can throw objects in excess of 100 mph (40 m/s), and hit a target from over 60 feet (20 m) away

As a platypus lays eggs and produces milk, it's the only mammal that can make its own custard (plus the enchidna which can also do the same)

Dolphins don't dream. Their cortex is large enough to not need to

Sharks are older than the star polaris

Orb weaver spiders use their webs as giant, super-effective external eardrums.

https://youtu.be/D1LJ3uBxRhE (@ about 26:45)

Cheetahs sound fun until I consider how many cords my cats have chewed, furniture they've scratched, and litter boxes they've populated.

Then suddenly a giant tame housecat seems less appealing.

I learned a NSFW animal fact the other day. There are some fish that care for their young by holding them in their mouth, it's called mouthbrooding. That's not the new or NSFW part though.

::: spoiler The NSFW part is the fact that

for some fish, the fertilization occurs in the mouth. The female lays her eggs and scoops them up into her mouth. Then the male fertilizes the eggs directly in her mouth. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. A male fish cums into a female fish's mouth, and that's how they normally reproduce.

:::

Ahh, nature. So beautiful. So like us.

Platypuses are one of the few venomous mammals. Males have a spur on their hind legs, which can inject a venom that can make a human sick for several weeks.

Elephants have a prehensile penis that they sometimes use for a fifth leg.

Barnacles have the longest penis relative to body size out of all animals.

Most giraffe sex happens between two males.

Humpback whales are able to navigate exceptionally well and I don't think science knows how.

Humpback whales travel by picking a direction and traveling in that direction. They can maintain a true course to within a degree of accuracy for hundreds of miles regardless of location on the planet, ocean currents, magnetic variation, day or night, though open empty ocean.

I know how to do that, but I need stuff the whales don't have like visual reference to a solid surface, accurate charts, radio-based navaids, winds aloft forecasts, and/or gyroscopic instruments. Most of the time, most creatures either navigate by landmarks, some are able to navigate magnetically, some can home, ie they can sense a destination and point their noses at it and go that way, as forces such as winds, ocean currents, Coriolis force etc. push them off course they steer to keep the destination dead ahead, tracing a half-teardrop course.

But humpbacks can pick a direction and go perfectly straight. Somehow.

Cats offer us mice because we are incompetent at hunting ourselves.

Sharks have existed on earth longer than trees and grass.

Starfish are all head and no limbs. Genetically speaking. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/starfish-are-heads-just-heads/

Chimps will gang up and murder tyrannical leaders, we could learn so much from them. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119677-chimps-beat-up-murder-and-then-cannibalise-their-former-tyrant/

I'ma shock you.

Creatures don't need brains. I mean, we have ample human evidence. But like, nervous systems can create thought (or whatever it is animals do) and reaction to stimuli without a central processing organ.

uhh i've seen a cheetah attack a lady some years ago, tbf it was a pissed off one, on a leash, that she wanted to pet or pose with for a photo

Only female ducks can quack.

Wasps and bees are closely related to ants, ants really go crazy for honey.