This feature was first published on 23 June in My Mensa Weekly, our exclusive newsletter for Mensa members
Eight weird and wonderful facts about critters
Words: Joanna Cummings
The amount of life on Earth is mind–blowing, and there are fascinating animals on every continent and within every ocean. You don’t need to be told that there are some pretty odd creatures out there too – some displaying what appear, to us, to be weird behaviours, or others that are, frankly, pretty freaky looking. Below, we share eight of our favourites, which have developed all sorts of unexpected traits (often to deal with evolutionary challenges), from all-blood diets to tailored venom cocktails. Click on the links in each headline to find out more…
1. This spider adjusts venom to mood
It is unlikely that you need to be warned not to anger a poisonous spider, but just in case… Researchers in Australia put four species of spider through a series of “annoying tests” and discovered that the Border Ranges funnel–web adjusts the content and potency of its venom depending on how threatened it feels. They also found that the spider adjusts its metabolic rate when under threat, meaning that it trades off its ability to move for increased toxicity. It’s not much consolation, is it?
2. Sharks can sense hurricanes
Several species of shark, including tiger sharks and hammerheads, all dive much deeper into the sea when a hurricane is on its way. Now, while ‘hiding from a devastating weather event’ may not seem very surprising, consider this: they were observed to change their swimming patterns up to two weeks before the hurricanes hit, suggesting that they respond to the preceding decrease in air pressure.
Recent footage caught an octopus on film seemingly waking up from a bad dream. In the video, taken by a team at Rockerfeller University, New York, the octopus opens its eyes and releases black ink – usually, but not in this case, a response to a nearby predator – as well as changing colour and flailing his arms about. Costello, as he is named, had lost two of his appendages in an attack, and the team are wondering if his distress is down to memories of this event.
4. Vampire bats can survive on a 100% blood diet
“Blood is a terrible food source”, a bat expert recently told Associated Press, in response to a new paper about bats in Science Advances. This may be true, but it doesn’t seem to be doing vampire bats any harm – they can live on an exclusively blood-based diet, and this makes them more intelligent and more social than other bats. This was shown to be because of genes they have lost over evolution linked to taste receptors, insulin secretions, and the stomach. And in case that doesn’t make you queasy enough: if certain members of the group are feeling a bit peckish, a well-fed bat will happily regurgitate consumed blood into its friend’s mouth.
5. Fish communicate acoustically
Dory’s whale sounds in Finding Nemo may have been comical, but they are closer to the truth than you’d think. It turns out that at least 175 families of fish either communicate via sound, or are at least physiologically able to, with the black drum fish able to make itself heard 10 kilometres away. This ‘soniferous behaviour’ has evolved over 150 million years, and the researchers believe it primarily allows the fish to communicate in low visibility conditions. This ability itself might be awe-inspiring, but some of the topics of discussion are much more prosaic: food and sex.
Just when you thought bumble bees couldn’t be any more adorable – it turns out they like to have fun too. When given small wooden balls to roll, the studied bees not only obliged, but also showed a preference for the chamber the balls were in. The fact that there was no connection to food-finding suggests that the bees gained a reward beyond ‘survival’.
Many Laysan albatrosses raise their young in same-sex relationships – in fact, up to a third of albatross couples are female-female. Actually, researchers have so far found over 300 examples of animals that have same-sex partnerships, and have even discovered that 10% of rams prefer to copulate with other rams. There is also no evidence to suggest that this behaviour threatens the populations of these animals, or as this article puts it, “sex…[results] in lots of gayness but also lots of babies”.
Well, Gothic, at least. The gloriously dramatic Pesquet’s Parrot, which resides primarily in the New Guinea rainforest, is black with a crimson belly and closely resembles a vulture. Despite its Dracula-like appearance, it survives not on the blood of Jonathan Harper, but on figs. Still, it seems only fair it should get an invitation to the bi-annual Whitby Goth Festival, don’t you think?
Image credit: Shutterstock
