animal lovers are everywhere those of us who think of ourselves as animal lovers think we know so much about their world when in reality we really know so little and some things we think we know are actually not true at all I'm Mike with list25 and today we'll take a look at 25 facts that may change the way you see the creatures all around you 25. Windows kill millions of birds every year the number of birds killed by hitting windows each year can range anywhere from 100 to 200 million this happens for a variety of reasons sometimes a bird will neither see plants placed just beyond the glass or the reflection of natural vegetation outside they naturally see this as an opportunity to find food and head directly for what they believe to be real only to smack into the window with such force that it kills them Springtime is the most likely time for this phenomena to occur as it's the season when male birds are looking to mate and creating and defending their newly established territories these birds see their own Reflections and attempt to drive away what they perceive to be an intruder it is such a problem that there are dozens of products on the market to prevent birds from dying which include a frosted dot stickers bird decals and polarized films that Ward the birds away 24. Mickey has a serious tummy ache you see evidence of a mouse or worse a big rat in and around your house you want to get it out of there because it's getting into your pantry and helping itself to certain dry goods or maybe getting into your garbage setting traps often doesn't work so you switch to rat poison why are rats and other rodents so good at escaping other methods but rat poison almost always works well the answer is because rodents including rats mice hamsters guinea pigs Etc do not have the ability to vomit rodents have a strict one-way digestive system which doesn't allow for vomiting although their defense mechanisms include their Keen sense of smell and taste many rat poisons are able to disguise any detectable traces of the poison rodents who ingest any type of dangerous substance become nauseated the effects of which smear intoxication since rats can't vomit well they have no choice but to let the contents of their stomach pass through their digestive system naturally bringing about death it kind of makes you wonder what happens to Mickey when he has a bad snack at one of his parks 23.
killer whales who didn't get the feels when Willy was finally free from captivity everyone wanted to see that killer whale sent back to his pod I wonder if people who saw that movie would have felt differently if they knew what Willy really was see killer whales are not really whales at all they're actually member of the dolphinide family otherwise known as you know dolphins both whales and dolphins are a part of the satishian killer whales or orcas as they are more commonly known and they share far more characteristics with dolphins than whales their bodies have many of the same characteristics as Dolphins large dorsal fin for more precise moves when hunting a more compact build in their bodies a curved head with a more aerodynamic snout they even have longer teeth than whales which can reach up to four inches in length and finally the largest orcas are a little over 30 feet while whales can reach up to a hundred so how did they end up being called killer whales the common theory is that Sailors of old witnessed one hunting everything from seabirds seals and sea lions all the way up to squid sharks and whales they started calling them whale killers and over time that morphed into killer whales 22. the king of the jungle the male lion the king of the jungle the most feared of all the animal kingdom the huge mane surrounding Fierce eyes and Powerful Fang line crushing Jaws you've heard stories of these Majestic beasts since childhood they strike fear into all other species including us humans but the truth is the mighty predators of every Pride the females male lions are tasked with keeping the pride safe when they fight it's for supremacy of the pride and when they kill it's primarily to defend it the female primary function is to hunt and kill for food they keep the pride alive lions are also primarily nocturnal preferring to sleep the sweltering Savannah days away and hunting by night so when Disney's Lion King came out when they showed the female lions hunting well at least they got that part correct 21. okay that's just gross vultures are putting it lightly not the world's most cuddly avians baby owls cute swans elegant mean sure but still elegant Ducks mostly funny because they make great cartoon characters but vultures they're truly ugly when born and they grow to be creepy looking scavengers that Feast on decaying Corpses nothing about them is appealing but it gets worse like every animal vultures can have a rough time during the summer they have to find ways to deal with Heats and cool their bodies the solution well vultures poop on their own feet to stay cool in the summer they eat decaying corpses and poop the undigested remains onto themselves 20.
Arctic Masters of Disguise remember the joke when you were a kid that you'd hold up a plain piece of paper and say look it's a polar bear in a snowstorm it's very likely that you more you get more eye rolls and laughs that's because it's a bad joke anyway polar bears are awesome creatures they're huge powerful Hunters at the top of the Arctic food chain due in part to their white bodies helping them blend into the Arctic surroundings if one was to look across the tundra and see a polar bear they would most likely think they were looking at a snow drift but the truth of the matter is that polar bears are not technically White a polar bear has black skin over a thick layer of fat that helps them survive the icy climate their fur is actually clear as well as Hollow the fur also reflects all wavelengths of UV rays which gives it the appearance of being white a polar bear's black skin absorbs the heat from the sun's Rays while the fur absorbs the light because it's Hollow each hair functions as a tiny fiber optic cable which filters the light into the skin helping to warm the layers of fat which keeps the bear warm unfortunately for these Bears their habitat is warming at a rapid rate and decreasing this is forcing them into warmer climates as they look for new food supply sources to replace those that have been taken from them 19. okay that's just odd everything that eats must also poop it's a law of nature sometimes on yourself to keep cool that's a callback if a creature eats and cannot expel that which is not used for life that life becomes very uncomfortable so just be thankful you're not a wombat because of a wombat's intestinal structure and digestion process its droppings are square shaped just thinking about that can make someone tense up while all other animals have intestines that are evenly flexible wombats have grooved intestines which causes the odd shape since wombats are very territorial this is a unique way for them to warn Intruders to leave 18. you'll never watch Finding Nemo the same way again Nemo and his dad Marlin are clownfish when the movie was first released people all over the country rushed to pet stores to try to find one of their very own which if you've seen it sort of goes against the film's message anyway here's the thing all clownfish are born male that means that all of the eggs that were getting ready to hatch were boys but if all clownfish are male well how did Nemo have a mom various animal species are born with no sex chromosome for example a turtle's gender is based on the temperature which is egg is incubated clownfish fall into that same category in the case of the clownfish a group usually consists of a dominant male a dominant female and anywhere between zero to five children when the dominant female dies the dominant male becomes the dominant female at that point one of the juveniles becomes the dominant male and the procreation process begins again I am absolutely begging you to not try and put those pieces of knowledge together all I can say is that I'm really glad the sequel was not based on any kind of reality 17.
oh that's adorable the Adelie penguin is one of the most common types of penguins in existence they're also among the smallest breeds of penguin these penguins are very social and living colonies together but are likely to become territorial during mating season they live anywhere from 10 to 20 years and they mate for life but how does the mating process happen well that's the sweet part when one penguin wants to propose to another penguin it presents its desired mate with a pebble it's a penguin engagement present and it's adorable I can almost hear your Collective oh it's from here 16. loneliness sucks there Comes A Time in every child's life when they want a pet some parents will go for a dog or cat or you know maybe a hamster some parents trick their children into getting pets that cannot be cuddled or played with like a fish or a bird then there are some people who go with a classic one of the most popular pets has always been a guinea pig they can be cute playful and snuggly they make great pets if you live in Sweden it's not as easy to get a guinea pig in fact it's impossible to get a guinea pig there but it's easy to get two because in Sweden they understand that these cute little animals are very social creatures if you isolate them from others of their kind they suffer so Swedish law states that you can only have more than one and never just one 15. Phineas and Ferb were in more danger than we realized remember a Perry the Platypus the amazing pet of Phineas and Ferb that was a spy in his side Hustle he was fun heroic and always one step ahead of DrDoofenshmirtz what we didn't know was that he was actually seriously dangerous as if it weren't weird enough that platypi are mammals that lay eggs they also have another characteristic that makes them even more odd platypus are also venomous they have venom glands that become swollen during mating season the glands are connected to the claws and they're hind legs these claws are Hollow and can be used to inject Venom into a predator while the Venom is not lethal to humans it is extremely painful and the pain lasts a long time the worst part is that platypus Venom is completely impervious to any kind of painkillers 14.
Dolphins get high dolphins are very intelligent animals this is a widely known fact but just how smart they are is something scientists and oceanographers have been studying for decades in 2013 documentary filmmaker John down was filming dolphins for a series that appeared on BBC One while watching footage from one of his many hidden underwater cameras the crew saw groups of dolphins playing with a puffer fish they would swim up to the puffer fish and take small gentle nibble from it and then pass it off to another dolphin who would repeat the process after a few minutes the Dolphins just floated around in a euphoric State some would float up close to the water surface and stare at their own reflection for long periods of time the Dolphins were stoned plain and simple puffer fish contain a toxin called tetrodotoxin which can kill humans in mere minutes but dolphins have experimented to the point that they now know just how much toxin they can ingest to get supremely baked but not die it seems as if dolphins are the party animals of the sea 13. cats shouldn't have milk why is it in nearly every movie or TV show that shows a cat someone gives the feline a saucer of milk even in both of the Batman movies in which Catwoman has appeared there is a shot of her giving cats a little bowl of milk she's supposed to be a cat expert right so how does she not know that most cats are lactose intolerant lactose is the sugar that's produced in milk and cats just like many mammals cannot digest it causes the milk to sit in the stomach and ferment causing cramps bloating and gas if you're giving your cats milk chances are that your home reeks of cat farts another problem experienced by lactose intolerance is that sugars that go undigested pull water into the part of the intestine where it is trapped the excess water in the intestines is what causes diarrhea so all that milk being given to all those cats is causing quite a mess also there is zero nutritional value for cats in milk whatsoever so why even take the chance 12. the beauty of a mother's love otters are not monogamous and this tidbit will not make many of you like male otters very much at all the norm among otters is that the male finds a partner mates with her and then moves on to find a different female to mate with leaving the female to raise The Offspring by herself unlike with humans this is the natural course of the Otter's mating ritual female honors are not only okay with this they prefer it and the female otter is an amazing caring protective and loving mother an otter family unit is made up of a mother and up to four pops and she never goes anywhere without them mother otters carry their young on their backs until they are old enough to walk on their own the only time the mother will leave her babies is when she hunts but she does not leave them unprotected sea otters find safe places for them and then wrap their pups up in seaweeds so they won't be detected by Predators or float away after the hunt she goes directly back to her Young the pups will stay with the mother for approximately eight months then the process begins again but the most adorable part about this is that otters sleep in the water and hold hands to keep from drifting apart it's common to see them holding hands with their mates or forming a circle with a mother and her kids 11.
squirrels adopt orphans there's a good chance that if you drive a car you've run over a squirrel if you have any kind of empathy you may have thought oh no what if they have babies they'll starve but take heart while rare squirrels have been known to adopt orphan pups while more normal and highly sociable mammals squirrels are actually anti-social and less likely to be in larger groups this means that a female squirrel will not take just any baby squirrel that loses its parents they do tend to take nieces and nephews the reason well it's all about genetics by raising a niece or nephew the female keeps the original mother's genes within the familial group thereby strengthening its family line 10. giraffes are also gross remember how cute the penguin mating ritual was a cute little penguin brings its true love of pebble it gets laid at the intended's feet and then it becomes a little I love you gift well giraffes do it differently much differently when a giraffe finds the partner it wants to mate with it licks up their chosen partner's urine to see if they're ready to mate isn't that nasty I can almost hear your Collective Ooze from here 9. spider webs are super strong and tasty too if you haven't figured it out from one of the Spider-Man movies or reboots or cameos and other Marvel movies spider webs are strong pound for pound a spider's web can be up to five times stronger than steel the amazing thing about this is that once it's expelled from the spider in a liquid state the proteins in this fluid self-assemble into interlocking components which gives the webbing structure of the silk its strength and sturdiness and just as it is with Spider-Man the arachnid means time to produce more of its natural web fluid one of the things that contributed to this process is that the spider will consume its own web so it can be broken down and reprocessed inside the body how would that work you ask well it comes out one out of the digestive system and ends up going right back in the other end take a second and let that sink in and now you can be grossed out eight female ferrets or jills go into heat in the early spring and summer months when this starts Jews begin to produce high levels of estrogen if the estrogen level is not reduced she will eventually go into aplastic anemia and dye a slow excruciatingly painful death one of the only ways to save her aside from having her Spade which is recommended if you want to keep one as a pet is the letter mate a female ferret actually has to mate or die a Jill has a unique form of reproduction wherein the only way she can ovulate is by mating once she does the deed with any willing male she ovulates thereby releasing the excess estrogen returning her to her normal state some vets do have what is called a Jill jab that will chemically reduce the amount of estrogen in her body which is a last resort but definitely preferable to death seven friends will be friends manatees or sea cows as they're sometimes called are huge creatures they're also gentle and their main threat comes from not other water dwelling species but from us humans and mainly the boats we drive it would be expected that since they share a common habitat they would be at odds with alligators but this is actually not the case manatees and alligators coexist nicely it's not uncommon to see the two swimming in coordinated patterns just under the surface of the water in some cases it even appears that alligators ride on the backs of the sea cows while alligators are probably instinctively willing to eat a manatee it would be very difficult for one to do so when alligators hunt they grab their prey and spin it in the water to break its neck otherwise known as a death roll then it takes the catch and pulls it to the bottom and stores it for later the average adult Manatee is around 10 feet long and weighs nearly a thousand pounds this is far too big for an alligator to handle also Gators don't chew their food they gulp down their catch hole rip off large chunks and then swallow that hole because their jaws are not big enough to rip manatees apart they have simply learn to coexist 6.
Daffy and Donald hang 10. Southern California is a laid-back place to hang out beachgoers and Surfers flock to the area to take advantage of the weather the lifestyle and some serious waves but lately they're not the only ones descending upon this stretch of the Pacific coast California beaches are also becoming home to mallard ducks recently some mallard ducks have been seen catching cresting waves and duck diving yes that is a real surfing term then body surfing to shore this leaves the duck in the back wash where it's able to bury its bill into loose sand and find food namely sand crabs many ducks however just stay near the shore allowing swashes to lift them up carry them back to shore where they remain in the backwash finding the crabs and swallowing them whole scientists aren't positive how this started as mallard ducks generally dabble in the fresh water finding food on or near the surface the working theory is that they learn to feed on the Shore by watching other Shoreline Birds scavenge the area where people are and food is plentiful 5. Long Cold amphibian winter in the warm months of the year amphibians seem to be everywhere you hear the toads and frogs croaking during the nighttime hours they then crawl under their holes and reappear the next night but what happens when winter comes they can't travel the warmer climates like birds so what happens to them like Bears they hibernate amphibians are cold-blooded which means their body temperature Falls in line with their environment it also means that they can handle much colder temperatures than you might expect during the winter months frogs and toads that live in or around the water will often go to the bottom of a lake or Pond and remain there until things warm up for land dwellers they burrow into holes or crevices and remain there frozen solid until spring starts remember it takes time for them to thaw out so if you run across an icy frog unable to move just leave it there it's taking its time to thaw four flamingos are gray flamingos the garish pink bird that just screams welcome to Florida the image of these birds is Iconic plastered on every form of kitschy cheap souvenir you can find in our Sunshine State but Florida is actually the con artist of all the states we call it the Sunshine State even though it rains just about every day in the spring the summer and the fall it's land is mostly swampy overgrown Shrubbery and not palm trees and beaches and it's certainly not a warmer climate it's hot and humid all the time there are a few cold days between January and February but that's about it also the happiest place on Earth is actually an incredibly overpriced stressful frustrating slog of a vacation destination thing so that's why the flamingo is the perfect bird to be associated with the state it's fake you'd expect a cute pink baby to emerge when it hatches but you'd be wrong they're actually pretty tough to look at and they're Gray why do they appear to be pink you may ask no it's because of their diets and it's not even totally because they're diets but because of the diet of their main source of food brine shrimp see brine shrimp eat microscopic algae which contains carotenoids which is what gives many species of fruit vegetable and plants their color the flamingos Chow Down on these brine shrimp which naturally have a pinkish Hue combine the shrimp with the algae and boom get a pink bird three nightmares are real cockroach Style people hate cockroaches to say that they're unattractive is an understatement they're filthy and they freak people out when they show themselves but it gets darker oh so much darker you see sometimes cockroaches are tough to kill they're fast they can jump or fly which if you didn't know that and you go to hit it that's fun to find out and even stepping on them might not be enough to take them out even worse is learning that a cockroach can live up to two weeks after it's been decapitated what fresh hell is this you may be saying right now how can this Abomination be cockroaches have holes throughout their body that are used for breathing so they don't need a head for that they also have what's called an open circulatory system which means their blood flows freely inside its body there are no pesky blood vessels or arteries to get in the way the only reason a decapitated roach will finally die is because well with no mouth it can't take in any water it actually dies from dehydration and not from the actual decapitation and that's horrifying two Japanese monkeys are tricky little thieves if you're ever in certain areas of Japan you better keep a close watch on your belongings we know by now that gorillas monkeys and chimps are highly intelligent Homo sapiens and have picked up human tendencies they can communicate with us using sign language they've been known to use tools in the wild then they often display many of the same behaviors as their human cousins and some of those human behaviors are not as legal as we would like in Japan macaque monkeys have learned to steal wallets and purses from Japanese citizens and tourists alike once stolen these monkeys go through the stolen personal effects find coins and other tokens and use them to buy snacks from vending machines these monkeys have not only learned thievery but they also have an entire racket going sometimes they blatantly steal someone's belongings and refuse to give it back until the owner gives them a snack it's like a mini monkey Mafia over there one animals with pride contrary to what you may have been taught animals from across the Spectrum display homosexual and bisexual tendencies just as in humans homosexual and bisexual orientations are a natural and normal part of sexuality from Lions to dolphins all manners of creatures have been observed in these relationships Japanese macaques are commonly bisexual exploring same-sex Partners regularly according to Peta over 90 percent of sexual activity among giraffes is homosexual homosexuality is more common in male lions than female but lesbian relationships have been observed as well African and Asian elephants have same-sex relationships that go beyond sex by showing their mates affection through activities such as grooming and wrapping their trunks together like this while some animals such as penguins are essentially monogamous and mate for life the most famous of these being Reggie and Ronnie a male couple at the London Zoo others such as bottlenose dolphins have no preference as to which sex they mate with they regularly have sex with any other dolphin that's around and even have been seen in pods having relations with multiple same-sex Partners at the same time how those naughty naughty dolphins so what are some of your favorite maybe not as well known animal facts that you know let us know in the comments below or tweet your answers to us at list25 or you know check us out on Facebook be sure to like Click Share And subscribe and you know do all that YouTube stuff and uh we'll see you next time enjoying our lists be sure to click that subscribe button and the notification Bell so you don't miss out on new videos every Monday Wednesday and Friday share them with your friends and help us consistently conciliate curiosity and if you want even more lists check out these videos here or just head to our website at list25.
