-Elephants can't jump.

-Starfish don't brains.

-Cheetahs are almost literally giant housecats: they purr, they meow, they don't attack humans and are surprisingly easy to tame.

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[–] 39 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Cheetah’s went through a genetic bottleneck somewhere between ten and twelve thousand years ago. There may have been less than ten left at one point. Dating the Cheetah Genetic Bottleneck
My totally silly theory is that humans in fact where adopting kits at that time and help saved the species, and that’s why they’re so almost domesticated.

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  • [–] 14 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    There is almost no genetic diversity among them. You can skin graft or transplant organs between any two cheetahs without fear of rejection.

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  • [–] 31 points 5 months ago (6 children)
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    [–] 27 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Pigs can't look up. Sharks are older than trees. The duck billed platypus has no nipples; milk just oozes from the skin. All mammals have the same number of cervical vertebrae.

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  • [–] 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Starfish don’t brains?

    I like that cats know their own names, understand why we’re saying them, yet choose to ignore us on purpose.

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  • [–] 17 points 5 months ago

    Wild bees (often solo) will sometimes "bed down" in cactus flowers. The flowers close in the evening providing protection for the sleeping bee.

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  • [–] 16 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Opossums are essentially immune to rabies and eat ticks.

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  • [–] 14 points 5 months ago (5 children)
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  • [–] 14 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    The octopus has 9 brains, one central brain (donut shaped, around the esophagus), and one in each of the 8 arms.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    And one arm is used especially for octopus sexy time. (hectocotylus)

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  • [–] 14 points 5 months ago

    You can see a good portion of the back of many owls' eyes if you look in their ears.

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  • [–] 13 points 5 months ago

    Dogs are cool.

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  • [–] 13 points 5 months ago

    Penguins have a gland above their eye that converts saltwater into freshwater

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    There are 25-million ants for every person on this planet.

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Elephants think humans are cute

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    A centipede's 'fangs' are actually weird legs that can inject venom, and they're called toxicognaths (which is one of my favourite words)!

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Female spotted hyenas have pseudo-penises and no vaginal opening. They instead dock and give birth through their dicks

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago*

    Some scorpions can drop their tail if in danger. But afterwards they can't poop anymore and die of constipation months later.

    Link

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  • [–] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

    Humans can throw objects in excess of 100 mph (40 m/s), and hit a target from over 60 feet (20 m) away

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  • [–] 10 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    Meerkat mobs are led by a dominant female. She's identifiable by looking for the biggest butt.

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  • [–] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

    As a platypus lays eggs and produces milk, it's the only mammal that can make its own custard (plus the enchidna which can also do the same)

    Dolphins don't dream. Their cortex is large enough to not need to

    Sharks are older than the star polaris

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Cheetahs sound fun until I consider how many cords my cats have chewed, furniture they've scratched, and litter boxes they've populated.

    Then suddenly a giant tame housecat seems less appealing.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Cheetah are extremely anxious animals, most other felines are very "lazy" animals but cheetah are active. Their hunting strategy is an outlier in felines, they don't stalk and surprise, they outrun their prey.

    Another issue is that even tho they're more tame than other cats including the Serval they still can pretty much kill you. Tamed cheetah don't usually harm their owners but there have been catastrophic incidents with kids.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Orb weaver spiders use their webs as giant, super-effective external eardrums.

    https://youtu.be/D1LJ3uBxRhE (@ about 26:45)

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    Platypuses are one of the few venomous mammals. Males have a spur on their hind legs, which can inject a venom that can make a human sick for several weeks.

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  • I learned a NSFW animal fact the other day. There are some fish that care for their young by holding them in their mouth, it's called mouthbrooding. That's not the new or NSFW part though.

    The NSFW part is the fact that

    for some fish, the fertilization occurs in the mouth. The female lays her eggs and scoops them up into her mouth. Then the male fertilizes the eggs directly in her mouth. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. A male fish cums into a female fish's mouth, and that's how they normally reproduce.

    Ahh, nature. So beautiful. So like us.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Elephants have a prehensile penis that they sometimes use for a fifth leg.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Barnacles have the longest penis relative to body size out of all animals.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago*

    Cats offer us mice because we are incompetent at hunting ourselves.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago*

    Chimps will gang up and murder tyrannical leaders, we could learn so much from them. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119677-chimps-beat-up-murder-and-then-cannibalise-their-former-tyrant/

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago

    Most giraffe sex happens between two males.

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  • Humpback whales are able to navigate exceptionally well and I don't think science knows how.

    Humpback whales travel by picking a direction and traveling in that direction. They can maintain a true course to within a degree of accuracy for hundreds of miles regardless of location on the planet, ocean currents, magnetic variation, day or night, though open empty ocean.

    I know how to do that, but I need stuff the whales don't have like visual reference to a solid surface, accurate charts, radio-based navaids, winds aloft forecasts, and/or gyroscopic instruments. Most of the time, most creatures either navigate by landmarks, some are able to navigate magnetically, some can home, ie they can sense a destination and point their noses at it and go that way, as forces such as winds, ocean currents, Coriolis force etc. push them off course they steer to keep the destination dead ahead, tracing a half-teardrop course.

    But humpbacks can pick a direction and go perfectly straight. Somehow.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    Sharks have existed on earth longer than trees and grass.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    I'ma shock you.

    Creatures don't need brains. I mean, we have ample human evidence. But like, nervous systems can create thought (or whatever it is animals do) and reaction to stimuli without a central processing organ.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Only female ducks can quack.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Wasps and bees are closely related to ants, ants really go crazy for honey.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    uhh i've seen a cheetah attack a lady some years ago, tbf it was a pissed off one, on a leash, that she wanted to pet or pose with for a photo

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