Hello dear readers,
Do you have a moment to talk about how Disney owes hyenas a huge apology?
Shenzi, Bonsai, and Ed may have been hilarious and iconic characters, but they also convinced people that hyenas were unintelligent, sneaky, and evil.
I'd like to have a word about that.
Hyenas are incredibly intelligent, both as individuals and when working together as a group. The hyena regularly out performs chimps in intelligence and teamwork tests.
Uh huh. Take that, Bubbles and Curious George. (He's a chimp, not a monkey, deal with it. Don't @ me.)
Hyenas are demonstrably smarter; but we think of chimps as furry little brainiacs. Make it make sense!
You want girl power? Forget Nala.
Always Sunny Reaction GIFGiphyYou want hyenas for that. Their society is led by the girls, female hyenas are bigger and stronger than the boys, and the ladies aren't afraid to get scrappy.
They're also thought to be among the best mothers in the animal kingdom. Hyenas invest more energy per cub than any other terrestrial carnivore...
Far more than lioness, DISNEY. Y'all out here making Sarabi look like the distraught mother the whole movie and it turns out she probably didn't even notice Simba was gone...
While I appreciate Jasiri as your "good hyena Lion King character to make up for the movies" and acknowledge that Sisi Ni Sawa is a bop... I remain salty.
Lots of readers literally had no idea what that last paragraph meant, which is exactly my point!
It wasn't enough. Hyenas deserved better!
Reddit user sqnyq asked:
"Which animal do you think deserves more love and recognition than it gets?"
So yeah ... I don't really have a passionate and long-held opinion on this completely asinine matter at all.
Backyard Buddies
Giphy"The opossum!"
"Eats ticks and pests, rabies resistant, carries cute babies on its back, has a bunch of teeth, marsupial!"
- impregnatEcOpWives
"Omg yes!! Every time I’ve ever seen a opossum they’ve been the chillest wild animal I’ve ever met."
- xchakrumx
"Yus! They eat ticks, which helps combat lime disease."
- Triborg501
"And they have little fingers 😍"
- ipakookapi
Diseased Flesh Eaters
"Turkey vultures."
"Hear me out: they look ugly AF, but they're gentle creatures who just clean up the environment naturally."
"If they get too scared, they will vomit themselves. They can eat diseased flesh without taking on any illness. They live in a flock, and are tied to their mates until death."
"They're also endangered in some areas."
- boomblebeez
"They were my favorite animal as a little kid and my family could never understand why lol"
"But they are just freaking rad. Also turkey vultures are so HUGE up close it’s amazing."
- xchakrumx
Keep Count
"Backyard birds."
"Set up a bird feeder and see how much enjoyment you can get just by watching and counting the different kinds of birds that show up."
"From my old deck I was able to identify 28 different species of birds."
- Feels2old
"I love the birds in the green space outside my flat!"
"I get robins, sparrows, great tits, big dumb wood pigeons, woodpeckers, Eurasian jays, and the occasional pheasant. They’re all adorable, my cats and I have lots of fun watching them."
- burgeremoji
Criminal Masterminds
Finding Dory Octopus GIF by Disney/Pixar's Finding DoryGiphy"Octopus are very intelligent creatures and fascinating to watch."
- bagpipesfart
"I love that story about a big aquarium having fish going missing from a lot of it's tanks, so they put up some cameras and their octopus turned out to be the culprit."
"It climbed out of its tank, walked over to the other tanks, jumped in, munched down some fish, climbed out, walked back, and put its lid back on."
- ipakookapi
"Not only that, the octopus actually memorized the guards walk around pattern to time its escape so that it didn't get caught!! Crafty little bugger"
- RazvanDubrinsky
"My favorite is the one that was being 'annoyed' by a light above its tank, so it figured out that it could shoot water at the light to cause it to short circuit and turn off."
"This also caused a bunch of the aquarium’s other electric systems to short out, causing a bit of a commotion."
"Several people question his motives; believing that it wasn’t about the light bothering him, but because he enjoyed the resulting commotion."
"Considering that some of the other stories about him show he was a sassy little thing, either one wouldn’t surprise me."
- GrimmSheeper
Bad Press
"Sharks, they do get recognition but most of it is negative. Sharks are 👌👌"
- --Dominion--
"Sharks are my fav animal."
"A couple years back we went on vacation to Florida and I went snorkeling with sharks with no cage just open ocean."
"It was easily the best, most relaxing, experience I've ever had. I think there was about 4 different kinds of sharks (I only remember lemon and bull sharks) and they were beautiful."
- manbamtan
"My favourite shark fun fact. They are older than the rings of Saturn."
- lenny_ray
Irritating Humans
"Spiders."
"Most are harmless to humans and they get rid of irritating bugs."
"They are also perfect for keeping away irritating humans."
- falkordragon233
"Nice choice."
"As long as they're not venomous, it's literally just a little guy living in your house and eating flies and mosquitos."
- ipakookapi
"Thank you!"
"I adore spiders. I got into macro photography for a while and spiders are my favorite to photograph - they're often so much more beautiful than we realize."
"And those little jumping spiders are the cutest darn things ever."
- BlacksmithAlert1313
Interesting Death
oscar keeper GIFGiphy"I like porcupines and find them interesting, but they smell like stale death."
"Any I've been near smell horrible and carry a cloud around them. It's entirely possible my experience is an outlier; I've only encountered them a few times, so I could be misled by a narrow sample."
"But the smell was assaulting. Still like them!"
- Dangercakes13
"Used to work at a zoo in my teens. Porcupines are super stinky to ward off predators."
"We used to rock paper scissors for who was going to pull weeds by their enclosure."
- SuparToastar
"I love them. They're cute and make cute noises. Also, have some of the best defense mechanisms."
- frostmasterx
How Many More Bugs
"Bats are one of the most beneficial animals on the planet."
"A single bat can eat over 1,000 insects in one night of feasting. Take into account the largest bat colony is in Texas and is about 20-40 million bats (depending on time of year)."
"Think about how many more bugs there would be without those bats."
- Winter-Life8196
"They are cute and fascinating and we should all be proud of them, they're the only mammals who have managed actual flight."
- siani_lane
"Upvote for skypuppies! Pollinators, bug eaters, they’re so biologically important."
- trocarkarin
Incredible
"Donkeys. Grumpy horse with bunny ears 😍"
- ipakookapi
"Yes!"
"They're stronger than horses, which is probably why they're carrying around all our stuff. They have great memory and bond for life."
"The reputation for stubbornness comes from the fact that they refuse to move if they feel they're in danger rather than run away."
"Horses flee. Donkeys stand their ground."
- dustnrose
"I love horses, been around them most of my life. But donkeys scare me, precisely because they don't have that same fleeing instinct as horses."
- imlumpy
"They're so close to horses but are suddenly so heartful and loving and they show affection in a very visible way."
"They can also cry if they miss someone and they usually come to greet people like dogs do."
"I'm your average dude, but they have a soft spot on me 😅"
- Yukazaka
"Fun fact, some farmers keep donkeys to protect their horses from coyotes and wolves. Donkeys will stomp the sh*t out of coyotes and that is incredible."
- JauneStrife
Pocket Puppies
sleepy photos GIFGiphy"Rats."
"They are incredibly smart, sweet, and social animals."
"One reason why they are often used for experiments (lab rats) is because they are so socially similiar to us humans. That gets more and more heartbreaking the longer you think about what that means."
"Rat Park is a great read about an experiment on how our life conditions affect likelyhood of drug addiction."
- [Reddit]
"100% I was scrolling to see if anyone had said this."
"I am a huge dog person but it wouldn't have been fair to have one in college. Rats are amazing and as rewarding as dogs."
"They are just as smart and loving. They learn tricks, love to cuddle and play."
"Sammy and Oliver got me through some of the lonely times of college."
- Dance-Various
"Totally agree, my ladies are so smart. They are way better trained them my cat."
"My favorite nickname for then is pocket puppies."
- supercalisto
Yucky Heroes
"Carrion feeders of every stripe."
"They are the heroes of the animal kingdom, providing important steps in decomposition and reclamation of matter, and people think they’re yucky."
"If you hit an animal with your car, and are able to stop, please stop and move the animal to the side of the road, it helps prevent carrion feeders from getting hit by cars later."
- kharmatika
Genes Are Jerks
"Okay so I know a lot of people hate pandas for them eating bamboo even though they’re designed to eat meat, but it’s not because they’re stupid. They lost their taste for meat."
"A gene they had which 'motivated' them to hunt and eat meat somehow disappeared. It’s not like they can control that."
"And people also say they don’t mate on their own. Well god made female pandas go into heat for only three flippin days out of an entire flippin year! That’s it!"
"Since their population numbers are so low and they don't exactly live in herds, what are the chances a male and a female are going to see each other in that time frame?"
"Exactly. Haters."
- Horror-Award-1144
Snake Spotting
"Crows. They are so intelligent!"
"When i was 14 working at a farm, some crow opened our chickens door. It didn't go in, it just opened it."
"The door was there to keep specific chickens separated from others, so I was annoyed like why the f*ck would a crow just open that door?"
"Anyways I closed it. A few minutes after I stepped away, the same crow opened the door again."
"This time when I went, I took a look. I was shocked."
"There was a huge snake in that enclosure with the chickens and the crow was literally trying to help the chickens to get away from the snake!"
"People just look at them as some useless bird or whatever but they are not."
- SolubleSlug
Little Tie Fighters
"The termite."
"They are fascinating and they know when it's going to rain!"
"The termites have a caste system. The soldiers will boot out the aeletes only when it will rain within 24 hours."
"Aeletes are winged reproductives; they will fly out of the nest and try to start a new one. They look like the tie fighters in Star Wars: four fixed wings like a biplane."
"They are harmless; you will see them in the evening with low wind, about 70% humidity and 30 degrees C. [World's American, I know. I wasn't brought up with Fahrenheit] "
"That's also a survival tip. If you see the winged reproductives flying then it's going to rain soon. Go to higher ground, prepare to collect rain etc."
"There are many different kinds of termites. Many have not yet been discovered."
"Some are similar to cockroaches in the way they lay eggs; the Giant Northern Australian termite. Others use parthenogenesis to reproduce. For instance, the French Guianan termite."
- Dense-Independent-66
Beaver Baddies
"Beavers."
"Did anyone say that yet? If they did, please know they are an awesome person. Please learn why! Links included because don’t take my word on anything."
"Beavers are incredibly hard workers, capable of the same level of decision making and precision that goes into our construction of dams or homes or chopping down trees. There ears can sense the slight trickle of water indicating a leak."
"In a story linked below the arrival of settlers in the 1800’s wiped out beavers in one area effectively destroying the ecosystems that the beaver dams had created and wildlife depended on. The loss of beavers was still so profound that HUMANS started to make their own beaver dams!!"
"Then like the born workers they are, a few beavers must have heard through the grapevine and took over what humans were doing with far more than their teeth and bare hands."
"They work so hard. Their work ethic is better than any humans. They are always on call. No nights off."
"Now, I truly admire the team work and socialist structure of most any colonies, but beavers can build dams that transform its environment and create their own mini ecosystem. They are incredibly important and considered a keystone species."
"The largest beaver dam is half a mile long and started in the 70’s and is located in Canada. That’s generations of beavers dedicated to the 'family business' of continuing this huge dam."
"They of course continue to MAINTAIN a dam a half mile long. Made of just sticks and trees and mud and whatever other tricks they have. I have the utmost respect for their abilities and contributions to their environments!"
"Seeing videos blowing up their incredibly hard work makes me sad. I get it, someone’s poor garden is flooded and we can’t stand for that. Or someone’s property is filling with water and they have the right to not want it to."
"But, it just seems so horrible to destroy something so incredibly built and with such hard work and dedication and brain power that we need to blow it up to take it down."
"For the record, I get that beavers can cost millions in damages to property and some support trapping when their numbers get high or they become a problem."
"But, I just truly hope animals have the capacity to just laugh at a species who’s numbers are growing faster than the environment can handle or support, whom quickly destroy and invade their homes before they take over and are everywhere, who cost thousands and thousands of years of growth and strength and survival in trees every year with their destruction, that species having the NERVE to point to others as needing help being controlled."
"Calling others destructive or a nuisance."
"The best part is saying with a straight face how another species population is growing too fast and too large and needs to be culled and controlled!"
"I know, I’m human. But even if it’s just us, it still feels hypocritical to say."
"BEAVERS ARE AMAZING (Just don’t think about the rodent thing)"
"Sources:"
"https://www.science.org/content/article/beaver-dam..."
"https://phys.org/news/2010-05-world-biggest-beaver..."
"https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/67662/sound-ru..."
"https://www.bu.edu/articles/2015/beavers-vs-humans/"
"https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/why-do-beavers..."
- Rgsnap
You've heard Reddit get all Steve Irwin and champion for animals that don't get enough love.
Now it's your turn, wildlife warriors!
What creatures don't get the love they deserve?
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Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.
