First dates are tricky to get right.
You're doing what you can to make a real connection with someone, forge a bond that perhaps could take you to the end of time. However, a mismanaged meal or bad weather can offset the blooming romance, taking the first date down into the "bad date" level. You save the date with the right moves, the right conversation, and a little bit of charm.
Then there's these dates, where the bloom couldn't be stopped no matter what happened, leaving you with butterflies in your gut and affection in your heart.
Reddit user, u/Trick_Prompt_5613, wanted to know what first date set your heart aflame when they asked:
What has been the best first date you went on?
It can't be described. That's the easiest way to explain why a first date goes so well. You return from the encounter, flurry of feelings rushing through you, unable to process your words, and that's when you know something is working.
The True Tunnel Of Love
"The first night I went out with my now-husband was pure cinematic magic. It wasn't even technically a date, we were 25, casual friends, and he was visiting my city and he met me out."
"Early in the night there was a moment where we went to the bar to get drinks, and it was super crowded. In my memory, it feels like we were in a tunnel of people swirling around us and we were the only two people in focus in the room. We stayed out dancing all night, I took him to see the nyc skyline, and we walked 2 miles back to my apartment and got street tacos at 5am. The whole night was just like a movie."
"3 months later, he moved to New York and we've been together for almost 8 years now."
Board Games And Hand Holding
"My current gf and I had our first date at a boardgame cafe in her hometown. We got there in the afternoon, and stayed for over 5 hours, well into the evening, talking surprisingly easily with one another and enjoying some games. It was a nice November night, so we went for a walk around the city block after leaving the cafe to continue chatting. We held hands, despite the cold. It ended with a kiss and promise of another date."
"She's been my person ever since :)"
Early Internet Days Of Meet Cutes
"I drove 4 hours to meet someone I had met online 6 months previously and spoke to pretty much daily, after she asked me to accompany her to her freshman roommate's wedding. We spent a week together bumming around upstate NY being gloriously happy, and have been together for the past 21 years."
"Gotta ask, how did you meet her in the first place?"
"September 2nd, 1999 - we met on the messageboard of our (then) favorite band. It was a "favorite quote" thread, and she Instant Messaged me that evening to say how glad she was that someone quoted the line I had used."
"The wife just now, after I told her about this: I have no idea how you remember such tiny things… ;-)"
You Know It's Real When They Don't Throw The Blue Shell At You
"My personal completely unexpected Tinder love story: I went to her place to eat pizza and play Mario Kart on a Friday evening. That would have been a great first date for me on its own."
"We ended up liking each other so much that our date basically lasted all weekend and I only went home to get some fresh clothes and stuff. We've been inseparable since then and we both knew very quickly that we wanted a relationship."
"So yeah, I went there with zero expectations and now we are moving in together."
Best Excuses For Late Assignments That Were Actually True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
You can't predict how a first date is going to end, or even what it might lead to if it's good. All you can hope for is the good times continue on to the second and third date.
Fortunately, these ones all have happy endings.
When Technology Isn't Playing Along
"Before debit cards became ubiquitous. A very nice guy asked me out and had a nice evening planned. He said he needed to stop at a cash machine first. OK, sure. He couldn't get any money and was very embarrassed. "I know what my balance is, why is this happening?" We've all been there. So I volunteered to get cash. My card wouldn't work. Not declined due to NSF, just didn't register at all. The problem was genuinely the ATM."
"We could have gone to other ATMs, but decided instead to use the money we had on us to get ice cream cones.Sat at an outdoor table and talked. Perfect!"
Smooth Recovery, Bro
"Besides the one with my partner...."
"I was in high school. A boy asked me to the movies. We we're standing in the wide patch separating all the other rows from the last 3 decidingwhere to sit. (Before it started of course. ) He went to lean on one of the seats behind him forgetting that they weren't just right behind him because they were descending. He flipped over the row of seats, stood up, took orange juice out of his pocket and took a sip with so much nonchalant grace it's like it never happened. Fifteen years later and I'm still impressed."
All The Ribs
"We went to a rib shack.
"If you're both the kind of person to go get handsy at a rib shack when you're trying to impress each other, you might be onto something. He was fun, not afraid to look a bit silly, and somehow managed to make me feel like I was being dainty chowing down on a full rack (I absolutely, 100% was not, and nor was he)."
"That guy was a real winner. If it'd turned out I was straight, 100% would have married him."
Pictures Only Tell So Much
"I met a guy on tinder, he was DREAMY in his pictures. We texted for a couple weeks, I had just moved to that area so I wanted to make sure he wasn't some creepy weirdo. We got to know each-other pretty well so I agreed on a first date, watching the sunset on the river after work. My apartment at the time shared a parking lot with some other local businesses, so I had him pick me up outside one of the storefronts. We drove like 3 miles down the road to where the pull off was, he brought chairs for us to sit in and a couple beers and we sat and enjoyed the sunset. The date was going really well, you could tell he was nervous around me, so I asked if we could go for a drive (he had jeep with the doors and top off)."
"We went for a drive down the river and I was singing my heart out, I kept seeing him peaking at me. I told him to pull off at another area and we just unloaded on each other, about our pasts, what we wanted, what we saw for our futures, etc etc... it was going so well. On the way back to my place I made him pull over, I grabbed his face and kissed him.
"We get married in 26 days."
Beach Day! Night? Day.
"We were both foreign grad students in Italy. We went bar hopping on a Friday night until 4 am, when bars were required by local law to close. I asked her where should we go and she said "the beach." Then we went to each other's places to pick our swimming suits, towels, extra clothes, etc, and took the first train to Cinque Terre. What was supposed to be a just a night out turned into a weekend at the beach."
Not every date is navigated like sailing on a calm lake during a windless day. There can be stormy sessions, periods where you're not sure where it might be going, but all you can pray for to happen is the bond you wished was there to keep things together.
And then it does.
A Romantic Evening In The E.R.
"I was meant to go on a date with a guy I'd liked for ages, but I got suddenly, dramatically sick and ended up in hospital. I messaged the night before to cancel and when I explained why, he was like 'obviously I'll just come and visit you.'"
"Being hospitalized, I wasn't at my best. I probably looked the worst I'd ever looked. He turned up with a book of '100 unbelievable facts' because he figured the done thing was to give books to people stuck in the hospital and that had been all he'd had at hand."
"The staff immediately started harassing him about whether or not he was my boyfriend, and then he sat through a really lengthy, over-the-top lecture about a medical condition that I have."
"His only response to the whole thing was that I was beautiful and it had been good not to miss out on spending that time with me."
"Anyway, I married him."
Still In Progress...
"Last weekend I had my best first date ever."
"A common acquaintance kinda set us up."
"We initially wanted to go for a walk, but it was raining heavily. So she picked me up at the train station and we went to her place. The moment I entered her room I saw five books that I read and liked. Off to a good start."
"We talked for hours and when we looked at the time figured we'd better get something to eat so we ordered some sushi. Always fun eating with chopsticks."
"After that we both felt like going for a walk so we took that walk and had a lot of fun. After that went to her place again for a drink. Talked for hours again, totally forgot the time and almost missed my last train home."
"The date lasted for over 8 hours and it was honestly my most enjoyable first date ever. To be continued."
Just A Little Bit Closer
"I remember how I used to be depressed (maybe more just 'annoyed') that my stock answer for questions like these was a really fantastic date that I'd been on back in 2013. We matched on Tinder when I was home for Christmas but didn't live in the area, I made that clear but she didn't care, literally said; 'Whatever. You seem fun. Wanna grab a beer sometime this week anyways?'"
"We went on 3 really great dates. On that first date we talked for hours, ended up getting told the bar was closing and we had to leave. I just really clicked with her on a level you don't with most people; but since we lived on opposite sides of the country (literally... Portland, OR, and Savannah, GA) I figured it was a wash and didn't really pursue much. We stayed in casual contact and both went on to date other people and live our lives... I always kinda knew in the back of my head it was a big 'what if' and felt like a major league 'missed connection.' I remember in like 2015 a friend saw me texting her out at a bar one night and asked who I was texting. I explained the background and insisted I didn't have any designs when he pressed me a little. He asked if we lived in the same city if things might be different, I kind of jokingly said: "Oh. 100% would be trying to wifey her up if I lived closer."
"It turns out that I wasn't joking quite as much as I thought. In 2016, I moved to the West Coast (a different state but technically closer) and now we will be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary this Summer."
Keep yourself honest, be willing to try new things, and never apologize for being yourself. You never know what kind of real world connection you might find.
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People Reveal The Worst Health-Related Advice They've Ever Received
Reddit user Ohyo_Ohyo_Ohyo_Ohyo asked: 'What is the worst health advice you've been given?'
Whenever we feel like something isn't right about our bodies or we're suffering from some kind of medical issues, we want them taken care of straight away.
The problem with that is, that depending on whom we're getting information from, we tend to believe in the initial diagnosis or remedy because we trust the professional sources and we want quick solutions.
But do doctors and health specialists always know what they're talking about?
Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
Strangers online shared their medical horror stories when Redditor Ohyo_Ohyo_Ohyo_Ohyo asked:
"What is the worst health advice you've been given?"
Not doing further research into something that raises eyebrows can be a fatal mistake.
Turns Out It Was Brain Cancer
"i went cross eyed and my primary said 'could be a sinus thing, get some mucinex.'”
"turns out it was glioblastoma."
– Guy_Faux
"Wow, that's an absurdly sh**ty doctor. The same thing happened to my mother and it was quickly determined that it was stage 4 lung cancer. She made it about 3 months after that. She was 48 and I was 18 so the idea that any doctor would ignore that is infuriating to me."
– Frisky_Picker
Second Opinion Saves Lives
"My primary doctor kept telling me that nothing was wrong with my thyroid, and I was a hypochondriac."
"I had been told at 12 years old that I had thyroid issues and she told me that doctor was wrong. I had to see a whole other doctor to get a referral to the endocrinologist because she literally refused to refer me to one."
"The endocrinologist said, I had scarring all over my thyroid, I had Hashimoto’s, and my levels were horrible, and she didn’t know what the doctor was talking about. She said she was glad I advocated for myself."
– littlemybb
Tiny Grandchild
"I was not the recipient of this 'advice' but I had a coworker proudly say how small her new grandchild was when they were born and that her daughter smoked her whole pregnancy to try and have a smaller baby. This was in like 2010, not the 1960s for reference."
"ETA: smoked cigarettes. clarified since that can mean more than one thing."
– Emkems
Unforeseen Ailment
"Was sick for a year in my late teens. Saw multiple specialists to find the cause. Experimented with diet. Saw a naturopath that did some ‘electric pulse test’ thing that apparently gave indicators of organ health. After a few visits, and months of eating the weirdest sh*t, the test said things were improving (including my gallbladder). Months went on but I was still quite sick. I eventually ended up in hospital and one of my specialists decided to take my appendix out on a whim to see if it might help. Turns out I had something called a ‘grumbling appendix’ and it completely fixed me. Funny thing is, while they were in there, they discovered I was born without a gallbladder."
– Ok_Ear_8848
These are not appropriate remedies.
That's Not How That Works
"When I had an urinary tract infection someone told me to wash my vagina with vinegar..."
– _Puke_Bucket_
"And maybe add some diced onions and tomatoes to make a refreshing Mediterranean salad."
– Bos_lost_ton
Pushing Through
"Just push through whenever you're sick. If you can get to a doctor's office for a doctor's certificate you can get to school/college/work."
– BoyMonday
"My childhood pediatrician told my parents that 'A sick child never smiles.'”
"I tend to laugh/smile when I’m nervous or uncomfortable to self regulate."
– pinotproblems
"A doctor once told my parents that a child who isn’t crying can’t really be hurt. Because of that, it took me days to convince my parents to take me to the doctor after I fell on my arm because I wasn’t crying. It turns out it was broken."
– slowsunslumber
"Ignoring" The Problem Isn't A Solution
"A friend of mine was in horrible pain, and was repeatedly told (by multiple doctors) that she should stop complaining and just get used to it because periods are painful and that’s the way it is."
"After being blown off for years, she finally got a doctor to take her pain seriously- and it turned out she had severe endometriosis. The surgeon said it was the worst case he had ever seen in his career, and was horrified that it had gotten so advanced with no one listening to her."
– sapphireblossoms
Choking On Blood
"The school nurse telling me to tilt my head back for a bloody nose. That was an awful experience."
– hypo-osmotic
"I do like doing this because when I cough up the blood I can pretend I’m in a period drama and I have tuberculosis."
– OrangeTree81
These Redditors discovered that all pain is not necessarily "normal."
The C-Word
"Doctor said certain pain is normal as you get older. Turns out it was cancer."
"That's a fibrous strip of breast tissue, you're too young to have breast cancer."
"Delayed diagnosis by 6 months. I was 31."
– juniper_max
Thinking Twice About Back Pain
"I got from a doctor, 'everyone has back pain. There’s nothing wrong with you, just use a heating pad.' It was kidney stones."
– 5hrs4hrs3hrs2hrs1mor
"Yikes, I am so sorry."
"I had a kinda similar experience. I went to the doctor for a morning appointment to get some persistent, worsening back pain checked out. Doc asked me where my back pain was, looked me in the eyes and told me I was fine and must have just slept wrong. He shut me down when I tried to advocate for myself."
"That night, I was admitted to the ER due to the crippling pain I was in. Turns out I had a serious kidney infection that was turning septic."
"One of the ER staff who helped me told me if I had waited another 24 hours, my kidneys would have shut down and I very likely would have died from organ failure?!"
"I’ve been dismissed by doctors over and over again in my personal health journey, and it is so frustrating and scary, as they’ve dismissed me for 'being dramatic' when there’s actually something very serious going on with my body."
– Yarr0wFeather
Vitamin D Overdose
"If you have pale skin, get just a little sunburnt every day so that your skin will 'learn' to get a tan. That’s how everyone else does it."
"My Solar Keratosis skin cancers would beg to disagree."
– comfortablynumb15
As much as we want to believe our doctors when they give us a health assessment and assure us we're "fine," you should never ignore your inner voice telling you that something is not right.
Your conscience is there for a reason.
Even if a doctor tells you it's okay to ignore the problem, you should think twice about ignoring your gut feelings.
The Absolute Stupidest Things People Have Said With Complete Conviction
When giving a speech and making an argument, the most effective way to reach other people or get your point across is to speak with conviction.
However, speaking with conviction doesn't always mean people are speaking the truth... or even coherently.
Redditor MonkeyGentleman420 was curious to hear more stories of ludicrous things people said with unwavering conviction, leading them to ask:
"What is the stupidest thing someone has told you with complete conviction?"
We Know How Often Birds Check Clocks...
'That we set the clocks forwards and backwards so the birds don’t get confused with their migration patterns."- alliecita410
Speaking From Experience?
"'Two people can breathe underwater forever if they have a hose'."
"The first person breathes in while the second breathes out, then the first person breathes out and the second person breathes in etc'."- PahoojyMan
Dream On...
"She said:'
"'If you are dream about falling and you hit the ground in your sleep you'll actually die'."
"'It's been proven'."
"I said 'If you die in your sleep, how can anyone know what you were dreaming?'"
"Ruined a favorite story of hers."
"Sorry."- FrankieMint
Because ALL Cops Ask For Your SSN Before Cuffing You...
"From a coworker: 'If you don't have a social security number then the government can't do anything to you'."
"I asked if that meant, if I didn't have an SSN then I could just go kill someone on the street and the government couldn't arrest me."
"'Yep', he said, 'if you don't have an SSN then they can't enforce any laws on you'."- AllAboutThePotatoes
Keep Them Away From Needles...
"A former coworker insisted that the body believes the ears are injuries, and we are all constantly trying to heal our own ears closed."
"The only thing keeping them open, you ask?"
"Ear wax."
"We worked in healthcare."- Reflection_Secure
Credit To the Visual Effects Designer
"A girl I worked with was convinced that every single mythological creature was real."
"I’ll never forget one of her claims."
“Think about it, every movie you done seen all those creatures and aliens and sh*t, all that’s real."
"Someone has to have actually seen it to come up with that!”
"Apparently there’s no such thing as the human imagination to her."
"So yes, transformers are real, Godzilla is real, Independence Day is real."
"This was a 20-year-old that said all of this."- Dragonborn83196
In Theory... Still Wrong!
"That the speed of light wasn’t like an actual number, it was just a figure of speech."- sunbearimon·
Check The Date...
"Sunburn is not caused by the sun, it is actually caused by sunblock."
"If you don't use sunblock then you will never be burned."
"Sunburn was created by the sun cream industry to sell their products."
"Seems easily testable, why not lie on the beach all day in one position with no sun block and see what happens?"
"Make sure you fall asleep for maximum effect."
"You go bright red and then blister to the point that you get taken to hospital for a combination of sunstroke and the beginning of shock then spend the rest of the holiday indoors face down with regular application of creams and replacement paraffin patches on the burns."
"It puts a bit of a dampener on your 2 week break."
"Sunburn is mentioned in Livy's history of the second Punic war and others over 2000 years ago which is solid proof that the 'Big Sunscreen' claim is ridiculous."
"However it would be hand-waved away by a True Believer of big Sunscreen."- Magnus_40
Ignorance Is Not Always Bliss...
"A distant relative, recently retired, once told me that he was going to hire a gardener and a housekeeper because 'the government will give you a grant to pay for them now'."
"This was a few minutes after a lengthy rant about how the welfare state should be scrapped because only lazy people lose their jobs and need to claim benefits."
"The same relative, some years ago, also announced with absolute conviction that he was going to hire a neighbor as a cleaner because 'she won't have anything to do now her kids are grown up'."- Plantagenesta
The Price Of Never Looking Up!
"Pineapples aren't real."
"They're entirely manmade and do not exist in nature."- tricksterloki
ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR!!!
"My dad was experiencing end stage renal failure (was on dialysis at the time and has since had a transplant)."
"My best friend's boyfriend at the time looked at me dead in the eye and said he could reverse his condition with a vegan diet and that the only important organ in the body was the skin, so as long as you take good care of your skin, your other organs will function properly."
"Mind you, by the time my dad got on dialysis his kidneys were functioning at 11% and his SKIN WAS JUST FINE."- lyingintheleaves
But What Causes Cavities?
"I'm a dental hygienist."
"We had a patient come in with terrible teeth."
"They thought toothpaste caused cancer."- dilapidatedfungus
If Only...
"That women don't burp or fart, because only men have (the ability to pass) gas."
"Spoiler alert: he was horrified when I burped in front of him."- sequoia_summers
Guilt Is Easier When You Know It's Coming.
"First girlfriend was religious, and apparently it was okay that we had sex 'as long as she feels bad about it after'."
"Pre-planning regret was her loophole to do what she wanted."- Lone_Buck
When people do speak with conviction, more often than not they firmly believed what they say.
So much so, that they have trouble believing the person brave enough to correct them.
In spite of the concrete evidence thrown in front of them...
When you're in a relationship, it's important to stay alert.
Yes, you of course want to give in to love.
But when you start seeing red flags, be vigilant.
You're gut always knows more than you give it credit for.
Sometimes those flags are a sign that it's time to jump ship.
if you see them... run.
Redditor Shinfekta wanted to compare notes on why people would immediately end a relationship, so they asked:
"What red flag is an instant break up reason for you?"
The signs are always there, but I tend to put on blinders.
I need to do better.
A Big Deal
"Someone that casually says they've cheated. There's no way around that for me."
Kitchen-Bid-8235
"Or worse when they treat cheating as somehow noble."
2diceMisplaced
Hear Me!
"Wanting and demanding my attention but not reciprocating whatsoever."
Cranky_Windlass
"My ex. She would get pissed when she would talk to me about something while I was working and I wasn’t giving her my full attention. But every time I wanted to tell her something while she was doing nothing, she would get 'ADHD distracted' and completely ignore me or interrupt me to say something completely irrelevant."
ModestMustang
"I had a friend like this! he literally completely ignored me for 6 months and then blew up at me for not responding to him within an hour. Very strange."
KindBrilliant7879
Wronged
"Never admitting a mistake."
Curious-Force5819
"I know a total hottie that is notoriously known for not being able to admit he’s wrong, sucks because he’s a gem outside of this. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a fair and responsible person in general… but he 100% can’t admit he was wrong in banter or a light argument even when he realizes he realizes he’s wrong hahaha lost confidence in him ASAP."
Zomgirlxoxo
"This is a big one, even when these types of people apologize they still pass the blame. 'I'm sorry for my behavior but you made me really angry.'"
space_being135513
Never Again
"Unmanaged mental illness. Never again."
RuggedHamster
"I was with a girl that had that and I helped her through all of it and it was so hard to deal with it all but somehow I managed but when she felt better she just left me for her best friend’s ex and I was left with all that trauma because I loved her with all my heart and soul but she was just using me to feel better… and when she broke up with her best friend’s ex she came crawling back begging me to be with her again but it was too late.. the damage has already been done and I can’t do that again even though I still love her but I can’t tell her that... sorry for venting."
d7oomy998899
Afterthought
"If someone makes you feel alone, that you don't matter, or if you are a second choice on most of the occasions, you need to leave."
Mycatsnameislegolas
Always know when to acknowledge your feelings.
And know when to depart.
Behavior
"How they treat animals, children, elderly, handicapped, and service workers."
"A wise man once said: judge a person not by how they treat their equals, but by how they treat their inferiors."
Major-Ad148
Just Kidding
"Being mean as their 'thing' or 'just a joke.'"
netsbr
"'I'm just sassy!'" No, you're a bi*ch."
BansheeShriek
"I’m going to be honest, with certain friends I am absolutely ruthlessly mean, to the point that people are actually concerned it’s just bullying."
"However with strangers, I’m nothing like that. And the friends that I am meant to, they do the exact same thing back to me. We also know that if we need each other, then the meanness is dropped instantly, and it’s nothing but support and love."
5tr4nGe
Well-Meaning
"Zero accountability for anything. Everything they do is absolutely justifiable because, well, they mean well."
Throw_thethrowaway
"Yeah, I was looking for this answer! And it’s true outside of romantic relationships also! I had to end a friendship over this exact behavior- it was never her fault, always the victim, and her hurtful behavior shouldn’t be addressed because she 'meant well…' but my feelings are still hurt so why don’t I matter?!"
helibear90
"This. Can't stand people who always play the victim or blame everyone else and never take accountability for what they do."
_5minutesalone
Boundaries
"This one may take a while, but I would break up if I notice them creeping over personal boundaries, and not stopping when I tell them about it."
"People cross each others' boundaries all the time. I'm happy to give the benefit of the doubt until it becomes apparent that they have no intention to respect me."
"For example, if I don't like tickles or being startled, don't do that. It's not about the tickling, it's about them respecting me. And if there's no respect, there's no relationship."
Ptatofrenchfry
Talk to Me
"If I'm hearing about a problem in our relationship from someone else rather than the partner. It shows huge trust issues."
"I've seen three divorces in my life, and they all were the result of the girl venting to her mother and her friends about issues she should have discussed with her husband."
michajlo
Communication is key.
If you're not talking to you're partner, why are they you're partner?
People accumulate facts throughout life on a wide variety of subjects.
Some are mundane while others are weird, wild or wonderful.
One subject a lot of people focus on is animals. Most people have a favorite animal that fascinates them that they want to know all about.
Reddit user FunChemical3182 asked:
"What is the weirdest animal fact you know?"
Like Perry
"Platypus glow blueish green under ultraviolet light."
"They also don’t have nipples, they just exude milk from glands under the skin and the baby’s lap it up."
~ WakingOwl1
"They have electrolocation in their bills that lets them detect their food under water."
~ DrPlatypus1
"And they lay eggs."
"The more I find out about them the more I understand why people first thought they were fake."
~ Reidroshdy
"After seeing all these platypus facts I am convinced these things are aliens that have been abandoned on Earth."
~ SeattleOne206
Kapow!
"Mantis Shrimp have 16 different sets of cones. Rods and cones are in your eyes. Cones see color, rods see light and motion."
"Dogs have 2 sets of cones—green and blue. Humans have 3 sets of cones—green, blue and red."
"Mantis Shrimp are seeing colors we can't comprehend and explains why they're very colorful."
"That’s not even the strangest thing about them."
"They can also punch as fast as a .22 bullet which cause a cavitation bubble which boils the water around them at temperatures of several thousand Kelvins."
~ RigzDigz
Terrible Twos
"Cats have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old which makes a lot of sense."
~ Alive_Ad823
Like Tinder
"When a female sloth wants a mate she'll hang onto a tree branch and just scream."
~ Remarkable_Sink2542
Good Thing They're So Small
"Dragonflies are the most successful predators on Earth."
"When lions choose prey they have like a 10% chance of catching it."
"African painted dogs—who hunt in packs—have the highest kill rate of any mammal, successfully catching 51% of their prey."
"When a dragonfly locks onto a target, it has a 99.9% success rate!"
~ PurpleInevitable2103
On A Swivel
"Owls have really long necks, but it's hard to notice that because their feathers are so fluffy."
~ ergonaut
What About Cousin It?
"Sea otters are the most densely furred animal with 600,000 to 1,000,000 hair follicles per square inch."
"Dogs have about 15,000 per square inch, humans on average are between 800 to 1,290 hairs per square inch."
~ atom1129
Sucker Punchers
"Octopus punch other fish for no reason—so, for fun."
~ Samanthalynn8915
"There's a direct correlation between species' intelligence and dickish behavior."
~ TheDesktopNinja
Looks Are Deceiving
"Polar bear fur isn't white—it's translucent (for most frequencies of light). And they have black skin underneath."
"So polar bear fur lets all the light through to their black skin to warm them—except for a few visible frequencies to keep them camouflaged as white."
~ seedanrun
Who's Going To Attack One‽‽
"Honey badgers can turn their a**holes inside out and use the smell to deter attackers."
"Not sure what exactly has the guts to attack a honey badger, but if they have the courage to do so, the badger sure as hell isn’t gonna make it easy."
~ nonexistantauthor
Big Momma
"The Blanket Octopus exhibits the highest degree of sexual dimorphism known."
"Females: About 6 feet across."
"Males: About one inch."
~ Fabulous-Pause4154
High Times
"Dolphins will intentionally use puffer fish to get high."
~ altkaldra
"They upset blowfish so they inflate, and therefore emit poison. It gets the dolphins high. Then they pass it around, literally."
~ smack4u
"Not just the dolphins. I recently saw a video about 10 animals that like to get high. Very interesting."
~ s137leo__
"Lemurs do that with giant centipedes/millipedes too."
~ chubbyknuckles420
Fabrizio Frigeni on Unsplash
Better Than Bike Helmets
"Woodpeckers' tongues wrap around their brains to cushion them from the vibrations of slamming their face into trees all day."
~ we_made_yewww
"Their tongues also have barbs to grab bugs out of the holes."
"Their brains have additional cushioning because, you know, they spend their days smashing their face as hard as possible into trees."
~ RhynoD
Detachable Organs
"Argonauts [paper nautili] are small octopuses that are too lazy to have intercourse."
"They detach their penises and toss them into the open sea to mate with female argonauts."
"The detachable 'd*ck' is a tiny tentacle, complete with suckers and sperm, that develops in a cavity under the eye of a male argonaut [paper nautilus]."
"When it's time to mate, the tentacle explodes out of the cavity, instantly killing the male argonaut. The tentacle then swims towards a female argonaut to insert itself."
"Sexy, huh?"
~ Schwarzes__Loch
What's your favorite weird animal fact?