Animals — Page 9

A woodpecker's tongue wraps around its brain to protect it.

The tongue is extremely long and forks, wrapping around the skull and acting as a seatbelt and shock absorber to…

Sloths cultivate algae in their fur for camouflage and nutrients.

The green algae help hide sloths in the tree canopy, and when they groom themselves, they ingest this algae which…

Certain lizards can squirt blood from their eyes to deter predators.

When threatened by canines like coyotes or foxes, horned lizards increase blood pressure in their head and rupture…

Pigeons can distinguish between paintings by Monet and Picasso.

After training with food rewards, these birds demonstrate an advanced visual ability to categorise artistic styles…

Male cats tend to use their left paw as dominant, while females prefer the right.

Researchers found that paw laterality in cats is strongly linked to the animal's sex, likely due to the influence of…

Reindeer eyes change color depending on the season.

In summer, their pupils are gold to block intense light. In winter, they turn deep blue to capture as much light as…

Zebras have completely black skin under their striped fur.

The stripes of zebras are only pigmentation patterns in the fur. If you shave a zebra, the skin underneath is dark…

Adélie penguins offer a pebble to their partner as a mating proposal.

Males search for the smoothest and most perfect pebble they can find and offer it to the female. If she accepts it…

Sheep can recognize human and other sheep faces in photographs.

Cambridge researchers discovered that sheep can learn to recognize the faces of famous people and other sheep from…

Cats cannot taste sweetness in food.

Cats lack the TAS1R2 gene responsible for detecting sweet flavours. This genetic mutation occurred millions of years…

Hoatzin chicks are born with claws on their wings.

The hoatzin is a unique Amazonian bird whose chicks have functional claws on two of their wing digits. They use them…

The bombardier beetle defends itself by firing a chemical spray at about 100 °C.

Inside its abdomen, the insect mixes hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide in a chamber full of enzymes. The reaction…

Some sea cucumbers expel their own internal organs to distract predators and then grow them back.

When threatened, they contract their body and push out part of the gut and other organs, which act as a decoy. Within…

The Arctic ground squirrel hibernates with its body at about -3 °C, below the freezing point of water.

It is the lowest body temperature ever measured in a mammal. Its blood is supercooled: it cools below zero without…

The archerfish hunts insects resting on leaves above the water by knocking them down with jets of water shot from its mouth.

It presses its tongue against a groove in the roof of its mouth and snaps its gills shut, forming a tube. It hits…

Cuttlefish have W-shaped pupils.

In bright light the pupil closes into a wavy W-shaped curve. Scientists think this shape balances the strong light…

The bar-headed goose crosses the Himalayas and has been recorded flying at over 7,000 metres.

At that altitude the air holds less than half the oxygen found at sea level. These geese have larger lungs…

The saltwater crocodile has the strongest bite ever measured in a living animal.

In a 2012 study, a 4.6-metre male closed its jaws with a force of about 16,400 newtons, roughly 1,700 kilograms…

Clownfish are all born male, and the largest one in the group can turn into a female.

Each anemone hosts a dominant female, a breeding male and several smaller males. If the female dies, the breeding…

Sperm whales sleep vertically, motionless, near the surface of the sea.

Researchers found groups of sperm whales drifting head-up or head-down, not reacting to a passing boat. These naps…

When attacked, the hagfish releases a slime that expands in the water in less than a second and clogs the predator's gills.

Glands along its body release mucus and ultra-thin fibres that unravel on contact with seawater, forming a gel…

In 2021, scientists revived microscopic rotifers that had been frozen for about 24,000 years in Siberian permafrost.

The animals, bdelloid rotifers, were taken from a sample of frozen soil 3.5 metres deep. Once thawed, they started…