35 Odd Nature Facts That You May Have Not Known Before

Most of what we know about animals and nature was read in school textbooks. But when we step into the real world, we realize how little we may know about our environment. One thing we quickly realize is that our surroundings may be more intricate than we thought. So today, we explore a bunch of strange facts about animals and nature that you may not have known before.  

#1 African Buffaloes Make Decisions By Voting

Image source: Gabrielle Clawson, Bernd Dittrich/pexels Turns out, Democracy isn’t just a human behavior. Animals take part in it as well! The African buffalo is one of the animals most well-known for using a voting tactic to make travel decisions. African buffalo herds actually use a form of voting when trying to decide which direction to travel in. One at a time, adult females will stand up and look in a certain direction before sitting down. Whichever direction gets the most amount of looks is typically where the herd travels. Interestingly, if the vote is divided, the herd will actually split up temporarily. Only the adult females are allowed a vote, regardless of social status within the herd.

#2 Young Goats Pick Up Accents From Each Other, Joining Humans, Bats, And Whales As Mammals Known To Adjust Their Vocal Sounds To Fit Into A New Social Group

Image source: Russell McLendon, Pixabay/pexels

#3 A Single Strand Of Spider Silk Is Thinner Than A Human Hair But Also Five Times Stronger Than Steel Of The Same Width. A Rope Just 2 Inches Thick Could Reportedly Stop A Boeing 747

Image source: Russell McLendon, Wenjun Zhu/pexels

#4 Reindeer Eyeballs Turn Blue In Winter To Help Them See At Lower Light Levels. (They're Golden-Colored In Summer.) No Other Mammals Are Known To Have This Ability

Image source: Russell McLendon, Annika Thierfeld/pexels

#5 In High Temperatures, Nectar Ferments, Causing Bees To Become Drunk. Their Hive Won't Let Them Back In Until They've Sobered

Image source: thootly, David Hablützel/pexels

#6 Happy Guinea Pigs Pop Like Popcorn

Image source: Alex Daniel, Dmitry Kharitonov/pexels When a guinea pig, particularly a baby guinea pig, gets excited, it just can't hold that feeling in. It pushes off from all four feet and hops straight up in the air, looking like a kernel of popcorn in a microwave. Guinea pigs aren't the only animals that popcorn, as this behavior is called. Gazelles will do something similar to ward off predators, and even horses have been known to popcorn on occasion.

#7 Bats Save Billions Of Dollars A Year

Image source: Alex Daniel, Miriam Fischer/pexels Bats tend to get a bad rap. The truth is, they gobble up lots of troublesome insects. In fact, they're so good at keeping pests away from food crops that they save U.S. farmers alone at least $3.7 billion on pesticides every year. So bats are actually a significant factor in the U.S. agricultural economy.

#8 Orangutans Self-Medicate

Image source: Debbie Graham, David Gonzales/pexels A Sumatran Orangutan in Indonesia has been observed healing a nasty wound on its face by making a paste from a native plant known to locals as having healing properties. The primate chewed the stems and leaves of the Akar Kuning plant (Fibraurea tinctoria), a type of liana vine, and repeatedly spread the juice and shredded leaves on his open wound over a number of days.

#9 Camels' Humps Are Made Up Of Fat, Not Water

Image source: Alex Daniel, Darya Grey_Owl/pexels It's time that the world knew the truth. While you probably didn't think those camel humps were beverage coolers, you might have imagined that all the water that a camel drinks—up to 53 gallons in three minutes—has to go somewhere. And it does, but it's not in its humps. The water stays in the camel's stomach or bloodstream. Those humps are actually storing fat, which is the camel's energy source when food is scarce. Since camels live in hot environments, they don't want all that fat insulating and overheating their organs, so it's stored in natural "backpacks" instead.

#10 Desert Foxes Use Their Big Ears To Keep Cool

Image source: Learn Libre, Yusheng ALF/pexels Desert foxes, especially the tiny Fennec Fox, have really big ears. But these ears aren’t just good for hearing. They help the foxes stay cool in the hot desert. The large ears act like natural air conditioners, releasing heat and keeping the foxes comfortable in the scorching sun.

#11 A Tiger's Skin Also Has Stripes

Image source: Alex Daniel, Jose Almeida/pexels Beneath a tiger's fur, the animal's skin is striped as well. Although shaving a tiger is not recommended, if you were to do so, you would see dark and light stripes in the same pattern as its fur. Just as some men have a very visible "five o'clock shadow" where their beards grow, the dark hair follicles of a tiger are easily distinguished from the light ones on its skin. Snow leopards and other big cats also have skin markings to match their fur.

#12 Donkeys Aren't Waterproof

Image source: Debbie Graham, Leon Woods/pexels They are not like other equines, and are less able to repel rain than horses because they have less oil in their coats. This is thought to be because donkeys are descendants of the African Wild A*s, whose natural environments are the hot, dry semi-desert and mountainous climates of Africa and the Middle East - not damp wet weather.

#13 Bees Dance To Communicate

Image source: Gabrielle Clawson, Pixabay/pexels It’s hard to think bees could get more interesting, but turns out, they can! Just like many other species, bees communicate with one another. They live in a hive together and must all work together, so communication is certainly key. However, what sets bees apart from other species is that they actually communicate by dancing! Bees have two different dance moves that allow them to show other bees where flowers are located. One bee will dance while the others watch to learn which direction they can find the flower patch in.

#14 Many Fish Change Sex As They Age

Image source: Gulo in Nature, Jeffry S.S./pexels About two percent of fish species can change their sex during their lifetimes. Some tropical fishes like many in the wrasse family (Labridae) actually change sex based on their age and size. This permanent change happens when they reach a certain age or size, usually because they can compete with other males for mating opportunities. Think about it: A female fish living in a coral reef can spend years mating with nearby males to lay eggs and produce young. One day, she decides it’s time, and in a matter of weeks or months changes completely over to a male. Now, she is competing with her ex-boyfriends for opportunities to mate with local females. How’s that for a weird nature fact? Fish like these, including the wrasses and parrotfish (family Scaridae or subfamily Scarinae), which change from female to male, are known as protogynous.

#15 Sloths Only Poop Once A Week

Image source: Debbie Graham, Carlos Junior photographer reporter/pexels Sloths only go to the ground in two circumstances: to defecate and urinate once every five to seven days or when they cannot move along the canopy due to lack of connection between adjacent trees.

#16 Elephants "Never" Forget

Image source: Gabrielle Clawson, Pixabay/pexels Have you ever heard the phrase, “memory like an elephant?” It turns out that elephants actually do have a better memory than most living things. All mammals, including humans, have four different lobes in their cortex: occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal lobes. All four of these lobes play a key role in the functioning of our brain. From language acquisition to processing auditory information, each lobe is crucial. Elephants actually have a larger and denser temporal lobe, comparatively. The temporal lobe is commonly associated with memory acquisition, allowing elephants to have an incredible memory.

#17 Squirrels Plant Thousands Of Trees Each Year

Image source: Learn Libre, Pixabay/pexels Squirrels help the environment by planting trees without even realizing it. They bury nuts, which they sometimes forget to retrieve. These forgotten nuts then grow into new trees, aiding in forest growth.

#18 Platypi Can Sweat Milk

Image source: Gulo in Nature, Michael Jerrard/unsplash To be fair, very few things about platypi aren’t weird. These Australian mammals are part of a mostly-extinct group of mammals known as monotremes that have some un-mammalish habits. For example, laying eggs! However, like other good mammal mothers, platypi do care for their young. Instead of feeding their babies through a well-developed teat or nipple like other mammals, platypi secrete milk more diffusely. In other words, they “sweat” out the milk from mammary glands. The result? Milk sort of oozes from a region of their skin, which the young platypi (sometimes called puggles) can lap up.

#19 Barn Owls Divorce Each Other

Image source: Wendy Graham, DSD/pexels Ecologists have found that while barn owls are normally monogamous – mating with only one partner for life – about 25% of mating pairs “divorce”, and move on to new partners. It appears the reason for divorce in barn owls is less irreconcilable differences and more so if breeding isn’t going to plan. If a breeding pair of owls isn’t managing to lay many eggs, or the majority of their chicks aren’t surviving then that seems to be the cue for barn owls to move on. When that happens, the male owl gets to keep the nest, and the female has to find a new home.

#20 Trees Can Communicate With Each Other

Image source: Gabrielle Clawson, Daniel Watson/pexels Now, we know what you’re thinking: how can trees talk to one another? Well, while trees certainly can communicate with each other, it actually can’t be seen with the naked eye, making it impossible to detect on an everyday stroll through nature. Trees “talk” to one another through an intricate network of fungi in the soil dubbed the “Wood Wide Web”. It connects trees at their roots, allowing them to communicate by sending signals about upcoming threats like droughts or disease — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This allows trees to alter their behavior upon receiving the signal.

#21 Male Gentoo And Adelie Penguins "Propose" To Females By Giving Them A Pebble

Image source: Russell McLendon, DSD/pexels These are precious because the penguins use them to build their nests, and they can be hard to find along the barren Antarctic shoreline. If the female accepts the pebble, the pair bonds and mates for life.

#22 Cows K*ll More People Than Sharks

Image source: The Environmentor, Pixabay/pexels Hard to believe, but true. Sharks k*ll an average of 5 people per year while cows k*ll an average of 22 people per year. In fact, humans are more deadly to sharks than they are to humans. Humans k*ll about 100 million sharks per year!

#23 Trees Can Fight Back

Image source: Gabrielle Clawson, Lina Kivaka Believe or not, if there’s a threat, trees don’t always allow it to harm them. In fact, sometimes, trees fight back. Now, it would be a little terrifying if trees fought back the way the apple trees do in Wizard of Oz. Thankfully, you won’t encounter any apple-throwing trees in the near future. Trees actually protect themselves in a much more subtle way. If an insect attacks a tree, it will fight back. Trees can flood their leaves with chemicals called phenolics, helping to deter any pests that may cause harm to the tree. They also have protective structures and processes that help protect them from disease, similar to our immune system.

#24 Cat’s Were First Domesticated 4000 Years Ago In Ancient Egypt

Image source: Debbie Graham, Marko Blazevic/pexels Cats were initially valued for their ability to k**l rodents and venomous snakes, but tomb paintings show that many of these felines were also household pets and a part of family life.

#25 Hummingbirds Can Fly Upside-Down And Backwards. Their Metabolism Moves So Fast That They Are Always Hours Away From Starvation

Image source: FirebendingSamurai, Djalma Paiva Armelin/pexels

#26 Crows Remember Faces

Image source: Wendy Graham, Mike Bird/pexels Researchers have found that crows can recognise individual human faces. It is believed that crows learn to recognise threatening humans from both their parents and others in their flock. Ornithologists believe this gives corvids the evolutionary edge. One researcher, Dr Marzluff said “If you can learn who to avoid and who to seek out, that’s a lot easier than continually getting hurt. I think it allows these animals to survive with us and take advantage of us in a much safer, more effective way.”

#27 There Are Animals That Can Live Forever. Well, Sort-Of

Image source: Debbie Graham, Tim Mossholder/pexels Immortal jellyfish, along with at least five other jellyfish species, dodge death by hitting rewind. Even after a dead medusa has collapsed into a pile of mush, its cells can grow into polyps. It's like a fragment of butterfly wing turning into a caterpillar. Immortal jellyfish can still die, from predation and disease, but their regenerating abilities make them tough and successful.

#28 Polar Bears Are So Efficient At Storing Vitamin A, Consuming Polar Bear Liver Can Cause Death....one Polar Bear Liver Contains Enough Vitamin A To K**l 52 Adult Humans

Image source: quantumguy, Pixabay/pexels

#29 There Are Mosses That Only Grow On Moose Poop

Image source: Gulo in Nature, mali maeder/pexels Mosses are fascinating and ancient plants with unusual lifestyles compared to the leafy plants with which folks are familiar. Being very small, tolerant of shade, and spreading via spores, they can end up in interesting places. In fact, mosses’ peculiarities often mean that they need to specialize in living in very particular places to compete for space. Here’s one for your weird nature facts: the red parasol moss Splachnum rubrum grows only on moose poop. This pretty little moss, less attractively known as dung moss, makes its life on animal poo, particularly that belonging to American moose (Alces alces). But how do the mosses reach their poopy homes in the first place? Studies show that their fruiting bodies give off a smell that attracts flies, and these flies disperse moss spores to other dung sites.

#30 Frogs Freeze In Winter And Thaw In Spring

Image source: Learn Libre, Jeffry S.S./pexels Some frogs have an incredible ability to survive freezing cold winters. They can actually let their bodies freeze and then thaw out when it warms up. This adaptation lets them live through temperatures that would be too cold for many other animals.

#31 The Loudest Animal In The World Is A Shrimp

Image source: Wendy Graham, William Warby/pexels Ready for another mind-blowing fact about nature? Well, one of the loudest animals in the world is a shrimp that is just 2cm long. The Pistol Shrimp can snap its claw so fast that it can be used as a sonic weapon that it uses to stun prey, before eating them. As the claw snaps shut, it fires a blast of bubbles. As the bubbles collapse, they produce a sonic blast that’s so loud it can even disrupt the sonic transmissions of submarines. The imploding bubbles also momentarily generate temperatures almost as hot as the sun. The sonic blast stuns the prey, allowing the tiny shrimp to feast without having to engage in a fight. It’s a good reminder that small can be mighty.

#32 The Amphibian That Can Regrow Any Of Its Limbs

Image source: Annie, Maël BALLAND/pexels Salamanders have the ability to regrow limbs that they lose within weeks. According to medium.com, when a salamander loses a limb, the wound gets sealed with a blood clot like a human's does. This is where the human experience begins to differ from the salamander's. A clump of stem cells called a blastema forms beneath the surface of the wound. Impressively, these stem cells multiplies and recreates the missing limb. These cells convert into bone cells, skin cells, and muscle cells in order to create a perfect duplicate. Based on the levels of certain cells, vitamins, or acids available, the salamander can determine how much of the limb needs to be regrown.

#33 Snow Leopard's Paws Act As Natural Snowshoes

Image source: WWF, David Atkins/pexels The wide, fur-covered paws of a snow leopard serve as natural snowshoes, helping to distribute its weight over soft snow and protect it from the cold.

#34 Male Seahorses Give Birth

Image source: Debbie Graham, Jeffry S.S./pexels Seahorses display a kind of reversed pregnancy – after fertilisation, eggs are transferred into the male’s brood pouch to develop. The eggs receive oxygen and protection, and gestation lasts from 14 to 28 days, after which the male gives birth to live young known as fry.

#35 The Smell Of Freshly Cut Grass Is A Distress Signal

Image source: Wendy Graham, Pixabay/pexels Whilst the smell of freshly cut grass may be synonymous with summer, the reason why cut grass smells isn’t such a sunny story. According to botanists, what we are actually smelling is a warning signal being released by plants under attack. In one of the more disturbing nature facts, the smell is described as ‘cries of horror’ from the cut grass which are received by other plants and animals. Why does grass do this? Well, the smell emitted by freshly mown grass is known as green leaf volatiles (GLVs). All plants produce GLVs. One particular study on corn crops found that when predators chewed on the corn, the GLVs made other corn plants produce substances which made them less tasty. This suggests that plants use GLVs as a warning system – letting other plants know about potential threats.