- 2 days ago
Do you want to know interesting myths about animals? Or see hybrid animals you'd never believe actually exist... Nature seems to have experimented a lot!
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00:01Now, one of the most common animal myths is that mice love cheese.
00:06It popped out a long time ago, probably as early as when people started storing food.
00:11Since mice are regular visitors to human homes, they were constantly looking for food they could eat.
00:17People used to store grains in glass jars.
00:20They also kept their meat hanging up high.
00:22But they'd lay the cheese on the shelf, which was an easy target for all the unwelcome pantry visitors like
00:28mice.
00:29So they ate it because they couldn't reach anything better.
00:32But a mouse will definitely more likely go after chocolate or some other sweet thing than the cheese.
00:38Who can blame them?
00:40Now, flamingos don't really stand in the water on one leg so they wouldn't get cold.
00:45This is just a simple way for them to spare the effort.
00:48It's exhausting for us humans to stand on one leg.
00:50But for them, this is the most stable position possible considering their peculiar anatomy.
00:56This pose doesn't require any muscular work.
00:59Now I'm jealous.
01:03One of the most widespread and oldest myths out there is that ostriches hide their heads in the ground every
01:09time they're scared.
01:11A long time ago, researchers thought ostriches weren't very smart because they bury their heads in the ground without being
01:17aware the rest of their large bodies are still out there, where everyone can see them.
01:21In fact, ostriches do it when they want to swallow sand and pebbles to boost their digestion or just turn
01:28over the eggs they lay in their nests.
01:30And even then, they technically don't bury their head but put it near the ground.
01:35Otherwise, with its head in the sand, the poor thing wouldn't be able to breathe.
01:39No reason to think of an ostrich as a frightened bird.
01:42Like some other animals, it will flee if it senses there's a danger coming.
01:46And in some situations, it'll fight back and defend itself.
01:50And that's one angry bird.
01:53What do you think is the largest thing a blue whale can swallow?
01:57Well, we're talking about the biggest animal ever known to have lived on our planet.
02:01It can grow up to 100 feet long with a weight of 200 tons.
02:05Its heart is as big as a car, and its tongue can weigh as much as an average elephant.
02:10It's easy to imagine a blue whale swallowing cars, people, and even small ships, perhaps.
02:16But it's all wrong.
02:17The largest thing it can actually swallow is a grapefruit.
02:21Its throat can take the size of a small salad plate.
02:25Whales feed on small fish, plankton, and marine crustaceans, so they don't need a bigger throat.
02:30But we wouldn't be able to survive the juices inside a blue whale's stomach anyway.
02:35It would finish us within 15 seconds, similar to how long we'd last in space without a spacesuit.
02:41So don't try this.
02:44Camels don't store water in their humps.
02:46We're talking about animals with extraordinary resistance to some pretty extreme conditions.
02:52They can survive even when drinking water only every 8 to 10 days.
02:56But not because they have a secret stash on their back.
02:59It's because, when they have a chance to drink, they will swallow 50 gallons of water at one sitting.
03:05They mostly use it to replenish 30% of their total body weight, an amount they can lose by dehydration.
03:11So, they lose a lot of water but quickly regain it.
03:15Their humps are where they deposit fat.
03:17But it's not for producing water.
03:19The oxygen camels would need to inhale would cause them to lose too much water because it would evaporate through
03:25their lungs.
03:25That's why they use fat as a nutritional source for energy.
03:29This helps them survive in arid regions and times of scarcity.
03:34Now, it's a myth that anteaters vacuum ants using their noses.
03:38They don't go around looking for ants and hoovering them through their long snouts.
03:42Anteaters have very long tongues.
03:45Giant anteaters have tongues that go up to 2 feet long.
03:48It's the shape of a strand of spaghetti and covered in spiny hooks and sticky saliva that traps ants.
03:54Up to 160 times in a minute.
03:56Which means they eat up to 20,000 insects in a single day.
04:00That's a lot of bugs.
04:02They open anthills using their claws and then do the rest of the work with the tongue.
04:07They don't have teeth, so they only swallow all the insects they catch.
04:12Movies might have given you a false sense of security when it comes to dinos.
04:16Nope, standing very, very still couldn't save you from a raging T-Rex coming after you.
04:21Uh-uh. It's a myth. The Dino King had bad vision.
04:25These beasts may have seen better than modern-day raptors.
04:29They had excellent death perception.
04:31Something present in today's animals such as eagles and hawks.
04:34Even if, by some miracle, the Dino King can't see you
04:38or thinks you're just a small tree or some other object because you're standing so still.
04:43They had a pretty good sense of smell.
04:46So, the better option would be to run
04:48because the T-Rex is not as fast as scientists used to think.
04:51Up to 33 miles per hour.
04:54Considering their anatomy, they could move at a speed of 12 miles per hour.
04:58Anything faster than that would have caused serious bone damage.
05:01But this didn't stop them from ruling the animal world
05:04because there were plenty of dinosaurs way slower than them.
05:07So, they didn't have to worry about food.
05:11Another misconception states that owls can spin their heads.
05:14Neither more nor less than 360 degrees.
05:17Their head spitting does have its limit, 270 degrees in one direction.
05:22Since they can turn 270 degrees to the left and right,
05:26owls have a 540 degree range of motion.
05:31Don't worry.
05:32If you touch a butterfly's wings, the animal won't lose its ability to fly.
05:36It will survive.
05:37Despite the common myth, it says the opposite.
05:40Butterfly wings have scales.
05:42When you touch them, some scales might shed off.
05:45But it's not a bad thing.
05:46Because they shed off naturally, too.
05:49Because of sheddable scales,
05:50they can escape more easily if they get stuck and trapped in spider webs.
05:55Now, the next myth has inspired many movies, books, and TV series scenarios.
06:00But no, wolves don't howl at the moon.
06:03They typically howl at night, true.
06:05But because that's the period of time when they're most active.
06:09They'll also look up while howling since this helps the sound travel.
06:13That way, other wolves will hear them from around 6 to 7 miles away.
06:17And that's why they howl in the first place.
06:19To communicate with each other.
06:21They make specific sounds for a certain situation.
06:24For example, to help a wolf that lost its pack find its way home.
06:28The moon just happened to accidentally be there while wolves were communicating.
06:34Okay, giraffes only need 30 minutes of sleep a day.
06:38That's another myth.
06:39They sleep about 4 and a half hours daily.
06:42It's not that unusual for animal species that are most active during daylight.
06:46Studies also show giraffes usually lay down to sleep for less than 11 minutes at a time.
06:53Many people believe moles are blind.
06:56These small, burrowing mammals actually can see.
06:59It's just their vision is really poor and only adapted to recognize light.
07:03They're also colorblind.
07:05When they're searching for food and navigating the dark underground,
07:09these creatures mostly rely on their touch and sense of smell.
07:13Now, their sense of touch is sharp,
07:15which is why moles can feel nearby vibrations of activity.
07:18This helps them avoid danger or find their next meal more easily,
07:22like millipedes, worms, centipedes, and other invertebrates.
07:25Yum!
07:26They're really fast at digging and can dig a couple of inches per minute.
07:32In the winter, animals hibernate, not because it's too cold for them to be outside,
07:37but because there isn't enough food during that period.
07:39When an animal is in hibernation,
07:42its heart rate, body temperature, breathing, and other metabolic activities slow down significantly.
07:48That's how they conserve energy.
07:51Chipmunks, bats, turtles, snakes, they all hibernate during the winter,
07:55which saves them energy for other seasons when they get more active and are capable of getting more food.
08:01I'd say bears, too, but they're not the true hibernators.
08:04If you try waking one up during the winter when you believe the animal is sleeping,
08:09you might end up having a bad time.
08:12Now, they do slow down, which means they sleep for extended periods of time.
08:15They're still not asleep for the entire winter season,
08:18and you can easily wake them during their sleep.
08:21So, let's not.
08:24Now, don't believe myths.
08:25Earwigs won't lay eggs in your ears.
08:28Yep, despite their name, they're not that interested in your ears.
08:32Well, at least, there's no evidence they'd want to go there.
08:35They prefer to spend their time in dark, moist places,
08:38such as under tree bark or in soil.
08:41So, your ears are off the hook.
08:47Lions, dogs, cats, all these mammals sleep in pretty comfortable positions.
08:52But not whales.
08:53They look like giant floating loaves of bread,
08:56which is a scene one diver accidentally came across in the Caribbean Sea.
09:00Six whales were just standing upright with their tails pointed down
09:04at a depth of about 65 feet below the surface.
09:08Scientists discovered that when sperm whales take a nap,
09:11they stay in this position for 10 to 15 minutes.
09:14They don't move or breathe.
09:15But these creatures spend only 7% of their time asleep,
09:20far less than other mammals.
09:21Usually, they either rest peacefully in the water
09:24or relax, slowly swimming next to other marine animals.
09:28When they're moving and sleeping at the same time,
09:31they're actually taking a nap.
09:33These animals can't go too deep and need to stay close to the surface.
09:37Great white sharks sleep and hunt at greater depths,
09:40which means one less thing to worry about when taking a quick nap.
09:44Plus, it gets pretty cold the deeper you go.
09:47And whales need warmer environments
09:49that can help them maintain the temperature of their large bodies.
09:53When alone, dolphins enter a stage of deep sleep.
09:57It usually happens at night and lasts for only a few hours at a time.
10:01While sleeping, the animal floats at the surface.
10:04It shuts down half of its brain, I can relate,
10:08together with the opposite eye.
10:09The other half is at a low alert level,
10:12awake and ready to react if some unwanted visitor comes closer.
10:16The part of the brain that is awake also sends signals
10:19when it's time to go up to the surface to take a breath of fresh air.
10:24Marine mammals have the blowhole.
10:26That's a flap of skin they can open and close whenever they want.
10:30People breathe automatically.
10:32Your body knows what it needs to do even when you're sleeping.
10:35But whales and dolphins have a voluntary breathing system.
10:38It means they need to consciously go to the surface to get some air.
10:42And one part of their brain needs to always be awake
10:46to inform the animal it's time to go up.
10:49Whales and dolphins can hold their breath way longer than other species.
10:53They also have a higher tolerance for carbon dioxide
10:56and can take in more air.
10:58Their red blood cells store more oxygen, too.
11:02Whales and dolphins' blood goes only to those body parts
11:05that really need oxygen.
11:07If a whale only uses its brain, heart, fins,
11:10and some other muscles needed for swimming at the moment,
11:13those will also be the only body parts that will get the oxygen.
11:17Digestion or other functions can wait.
11:19The ocean is not a place where you can relax and peacefully fall asleep.
11:24While sleeping, fish reduce their activity.
11:27Their metabolism becomes slow.
11:29Some of them keep floating in the same spot.
11:32Others find a safer place among corals or in the mud.
11:35Early in life, dolphins learn to make a unique whistle
11:39that helps others from their pod to identify them.
11:42That means these specific whistles are their names,
11:45and dolphins do respond to them.
11:48Clams have feet.
11:50It looks like a large tongue that sometimes protrudes from the shell.
11:53But that's actually the foot.
11:55And it's relatively long compared to the length of the animal.
11:59Clams use this limb to dig themselves in the sand.
12:02The blue whale is the largest living animal.
12:05And it's also larger than the majority of dinosaurs used to be.
12:09They can grow to more than 100 feet long
12:12and have a weight of almost 200 tons.
12:15That's like 50 adult elephants.
12:17A blue whale's tongue alone can weigh more than one elephant.
12:21Such a giant surely needs to eat a lot.
12:23Half a million calories in just one mouthful.
12:27The blue whale's heart is the size of a small car
12:30and weighs 1,300 pounds.
12:32To move the blood through such a giant body,
12:35the heartbeats are so strong,
12:37you can hear them even from 2 miles away.
12:40The heart of a whale beats only 8 to 10 times per minute.
12:43The whale is one of the loudest creatures out there.
12:46Its call can go up to 180 decibels,
12:49which is as loud as a jet plane.
12:52Almost 95% of jellyfish's body is made of water.
12:56For comparison, the human body is 60% water.
12:59It's probably not a surprise since jellyfish don't have a heart, blood, eyes, or brain.
13:06The other 5% of their body weight is proteins, muscles, and nerve cells.
13:11Jellyfish have been around for more than 500 million years.
13:14This makes them older than dinosaurs.
13:17These creatures haven't changed much,
13:19and today's jellyfish are pretty much like their ancestors.
13:23These creatures live in the ocean,
13:25but in 1991, more than 2,000 jellyfish polyps were taken into space.
13:31Scientists wanted to see how they would react in the environment with no gravity.
13:35The jellyfish reproduced and created 60,000 new polyps,
13:40But unfortunately, those couldn't function normally after getting back to Earth.
13:44One species of jellyfish can literally live forever.
13:48As it grows older, the critter goes down to the seafloor to become a polyp again.
13:52And that polyp turns into a new jellyfish with the same genetics.
13:58Greenland sharks can live 500 years.
14:01This is an animal with almost the longest lifespan among vertebrates.
14:06Sperm whales are sociable creatures.
14:08They spend their life surrounded by their family.
14:11These animals support one another and have close friends they remember well,
14:15even if they don't see each other for a long time.
14:18Electric eels have small eyes that are not so effective in environments with no light,
14:24so they mostly rely on their electric organs.
14:27Those consist of 6,000 cells.
14:30Eels use them to stow power, similar to batteries.
14:33These creatures use electricity, like bats use their radars or dolphins their sonar.
14:39An eel can also produce enough electricity to power a panel of light bulbs.
14:45There's a small tropical archer fish that can learn to recognize human faces.
14:50This fish has an interesting ability to spit small jets of water from its mouth.
14:55Researchers showed the fish the image of two different faces placed side by side.
15:00One was unknown, and the other was familiar.
15:03The fish was supposed to spit water at the familiar one.
15:06The creature took the right guess more than 80% of the time.
15:11Every year in the winter, great white sharks that live along the California coastline disappear.
15:17It feels as if they take a vacation for 30 to 40 days.
15:20The animals go to a point halfway between Hawaii and Mexico.
15:24They might do it to get some food, relax, or hang out with their buddies from other areas.
15:30The spot is now called the Whale Shark Cafe.
15:34Some types of sharks, like makos, whale sharks, or white sharks, breathe in a very specific way.
15:40It requires them to swim all the time.
15:42They also need to move quickly and with their mouth open.
15:46This way, the oxygen can enter and reach their gills.
15:50Sea sponges are some of the most primitive animals.
15:52They're immobile, don't have a mouth, eyes, bones, brain, heart, lungs, or any other organ whatsoever.
15:59And still, they're alive.
16:02There's such a thing as a sea unicorn.
16:04That's an animal called the narwhal.
16:07Its horn is actually a tooth that can grow up to 10 feet long.
16:12Manatees, also known as sea cows, are distant relatives of elephants.
16:16Their weight can go up to 1,000 pounds.
16:18These creatures are vegetarian and need to eat around 10% of their total weight on a daily basis.
16:25That's lots of sea salad.
16:27In some cases, manatees share space with alligators.
16:31But they get along pretty well.
16:33You can even find a photo from Florida where an alligator rides a manatee's back.
16:39Frogfish have special fins that help these creatures walk along the sand.
16:43They're very useful in shallow waters.
16:46A ghost pipefish is hard to see.
16:49But once you spot it, you're bound to get really surprised.
16:53Its head makes up over 40% of its body.
16:57Crabs don't feel like wasting time on such formalities as putting foods in their mouth.
17:02That's why they taste it with their feet, which is where their taste buds are.
17:07Marine iguanas are the only lizards on our planet that like spending time in the ocean,
17:11even though they mainly live on land.
17:13They're herbivores that feed in shallow waters and swim like snakes.
17:18Iguanas use their long claws to hold on to the bottom when they need to graze.
17:23Green turtles can cross over 1,400 miles when migrating.
17:27They try to find the perfect spot to lay their eggs.
17:31Penguins sort of fly when they're underwater, reaching a speed of 25 miles per hour.
17:37More than 5 million years ago, I've heard – I wasn't around then – deep sea worms and humans had
17:44a common ancestor.
17:45So we still share 70% of our genes with these creatures, and with sea stars, squid, and octopuses.
17:53The ocean covers over 70% of our planet, and over 80% of it is unexplored.
18:00More than 1 million species live there.
18:02But there are not only animals.
18:043 million shipwrecks are lying all over the ocean floor, hiding mysterious stories.
18:10Many of them are yet to be discovered.
18:22The liger is probably the most popular hybrid animal, and an incredibly large cat.
18:28You won't see them in the wild.
18:30People most deliberately breed them.
18:32Lions and tigers don't even inhabit the same areas.
18:35So, a liger is a mix of a male lion and a female tiger, and they can grow to be
18:42very big in a pretty short period of time.
18:44They're actually the biggest cats in the world.
18:47Hercules, the largest recorded liger, is a real example of that.
18:52922 pounds and 10.8 feet long.
18:56Imagine taking him for a walk.
18:58Ligers are mostly way bigger than either of their parents.
19:01In most cases, they behave and look more like lions than tigers.
19:06But they have some tiger traits, too.
19:08For example, striped backs.
19:11And they're crazy about swimming.
19:13The tigan.
19:15Nobody could fault you for thinking the tigan and liger are basically the same animal.
19:20I mean, they're both a combination of tigers and lions.
19:23But a tigan comes from a crossbreeding of a male tiger and a female lion.
19:28They're usually smaller than their parents, and definitely much smaller than their giant,
19:33could you call them siblings?
19:35In most cases, they inherit charming looks from their tiger fathers.
19:40But they get some interesting traits from their mother's side, too.
19:43For example, love for socialization and the ability to roar.
19:48Hands down, one of the rarest hybrid animals in the world are wolfens.
19:52These fellows are a mash-up of a female bottlenose dolphin and a male false killer whale.
19:59Its name might make you think differently.
20:01But a false killer whale belongs to the dolphin family.
20:04They're not even related to killer whales.
20:07Wolfens are such an interesting 50-50 mix and balance of their parents.
20:11They have dark gray skin, the perfect blend of a black false killer whale and light gray dolphin skin.
20:18Dolphins have anywhere between 80 and 100 teeth.
20:22False killer whales have 44.
20:24And their hybrid young is halfway, with 66 teeth in total.
20:28What would it look like if algae and a slug paired?
20:32No need to imagine.
20:33You have a green sea slug to check the result.
20:36It lives in salt marshes in Canada and New England.
20:39And it's possibly the weirdest hybrid creature you'll see in this video, and in general.
20:44Part plant, part animal.
20:46So, some slugs seem to have been very sneaky while stealing the genes from innocent algae that they have eaten
20:53to enable them to look like this.
20:55Since they're partially a plant, they can produce the plant pigment called chlorophyll.
21:01That means these unusual slugs can even photosynthesize.
21:05That's the process plants use to turn sunlight into energy.
21:09So, they produce their own molecules that contain energy without having to eat anything at all.
21:15When scientists first discovered it, a green sea slug was the first case of a multicellular animal that's able to
21:22produce chlorophyll.
21:23What do you get when you mix a male leopard and a female lion?
21:27You get an interesting hybrid called a lepin.
21:30These animals grow to be almost as big as lions.
21:33But they still have shorter legs, similar to their father leopard.
21:37They inherit some of his other traits too, like a love for climbing and swimming.
21:41You can have a union with a male lion and a female leopard too.
21:46And the result is called a leopard.
21:49Male lions are usually around 10 feet long and weigh about 500 pounds.
21:53The female leopard is way smaller, only 5 feet long with a weight of about 80 pounds.
21:59The difference in size here is too big.
22:01So, this pairing really doesn't happen that often.
22:04Okay, how about a buffalo and a cow?
22:07When you were little, maybe you thought that they could be a good match.
22:10But in reality, the combination creates an unusual hybrid animal called a beefalo.
22:17Not many types of hybrid animals can reproduce on their own, but a beefalo can do it.
22:22When a grizzly and a polar bear get together, it results in a growler bear, or bizzly bear, or grizzlar,
22:30whichever you like the most.
22:32You can see them even in the wild.
22:34These two types of bears have a mutual contempt for one another.
22:38Yep, they're not good at living together in a mutual habitat.
22:41But even though it's rare, the love can still happen and result in these cute caramel-colored hybrid growler bears.
22:48In most cases, they'll be a bit smaller than polar bears.
22:53On average, 60 inches tall at the shoulder.
22:56An approximate weight, 1,000 pounds.
22:58But they're well-equipped for surviving in warmer climates, thanks to the genes they got from their grizzly family side.
23:05Now let's get to one pretty tough fella.
23:08The jaglion.
23:09As its name implies, it's the hybrid of a jaguar and a lion.
23:13We don't know much about these intriguing big cats, because only a few of them exist.
23:18But there was an unintentional mixing between a black jaguar and a lioness, which eventually resulted in two jaglion cubs.
23:26One had a dark gray coat with black spots, because of the dominant melanin gene black jaguars usually have.
23:33The other one had a lion color and the rosette pattern spots that remind you of a jaguar.
23:39Yep, you already know it.
23:41There are also liguars, a hybrid of a female jaguar and a male lion.
23:46That's some colorful family.
23:47Speaking of wild cats, have you ever heard of a savanna cat?
23:52Savannah cats are in both categories of house pets and exotic hybrids, since they're a mix of a domestic cat
23:58and a wild African serval hybrid animal.
24:01We're talking about striking animals, almost as big as a domestic cat.
24:05But what gives them their exotic look are their tall bodies, slender forms, and spotted coats.
24:12These cats are extremely loyal, intelligent, and loving creatures.
24:16Here's one unexpected mixture.
24:18A zebroid.
24:20Technically, it's a name people use to describe a hybrid of a zebra and any equine species.
24:26But when you pair a zebra and a horse, their young is called a zorse.
24:32Zebra hybrids mostly look like whichever animals they've been crossbred with, but with the striped coat of a pure zebra.
24:38Most of these hybrid creatures don't even have fully striped coats.
24:42You can mostly see the stripes on non-white areas of their bodies and legs.
24:47Speaking of zebra hybrids, check out this adorable creature.
24:51It's called a zonkey.
24:52Or zedonk.
24:54Zebras.
24:55Zanki.
24:56Eh, take your pick.
24:57They're mostly either tan, gray, or brown in color.
25:01You'll distinguish them by unique stripes that are darkest on their legs and belly.
25:05Unlike some hybrids, such as the liger, zonkeys can normally live in the wild.
25:10In fact, that's where you can find them.
25:13Living life to the fullest across savannas and open woodland.
25:16Mostly in Africa.
25:18Can you guess what a geep is?
25:20Yep, a combination of goat and sheep.
25:23And definitely one of the most adorable and cuddliest hybrid creatures in this video.
25:28Geeps are very rare.
25:30Some experts even believe it's possible that they're not true hybrids.
25:34But just sheep with certain genetic abnormalities.
25:37After all, sheep and goats do carry different numbers of chromosomes.
25:41Which means cross-species mixes are almost impossible.
25:44When a camel and a llama get together, you get a cute little thing called a comma.
25:50Similar to beefalo, the comma also produces the best economic traits of both its parents.
25:56The first one was born in 1998.
25:59Commas don't have camel humps.
26:01Their body is covered in soft, fleecy fur, similar to their llama side of the family.
26:06They can drink big amounts of water at a time.
26:09So they can survive with almost no water at all for pretty long periods.
26:14The koi wolf is a hybrid where nothing looks that unusual to most people.
26:19Since the coyote and the wolf are not that drastically different in their looks.
26:23After all, these two species only diverged around 200,000 years ago.
26:28Now they're still able to mate and bring koi wolf cubs to the world.
26:33People living in eastern Canada and the U.S. might be familiar with these smart, adaptable animals
26:38that inhabit their forests, neighborhood parks, or sometimes even cities.
26:42These hybrids have emerged over the past century or so.
26:46And they've picked up the characteristics of both their parents.
26:49When a koi wolf is fully grown, it's somewhere in between the size of both parents.
26:54But it's also 55 pounds heavier than pure coyotes and has a bigger jaw, longer legs, smaller ears, and a
27:02bushier tail.
27:03Check out the narluga, an extremely rare creature whose parents are a narwhal and a beluga whale.
27:10It's a pretty strange animal, but far from being lonely, they mostly live in the North Atlantic.
27:16Scientists had suspected their existence for decades.
27:19In 1990, they found an unusual-looking whale skull located in an Inuit hunter's tool shed in Greenland.
27:26People from that area said that there were other similar-looking animals,
27:29and they fit the description of neither a beluga whale nor a narwhal.
27:34People said they had gray skin, narwhal-like tails, and beluga-like flippers.
27:39Narwhals and beluga whales are similar in size, and they share a family, the monodontidae family.
27:45So, it may not even be that surprising that they're able to successfully breed in the wild.