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People Break Down The Absolute Craziest Animal Facts They Know

Animals are awesome!

Mammals are truly the greatest species. Humans are trash. Let's just admit that and embrace it. The Animal Kingdom is the most fascinating and most welcoming. The behavior and truths about animals is a never ending well and there of course is some chaos and lunacy but its always a information that is worth knowing.

Redditor u/elonsmodel3 wanted to discuss all the wonders of the animal kingdom by asking.... What is an animal fact that absolutely blew your mind?

Look out below....

flying slow motion GIF by Eloy LannoóGiphy

Dragonflies cannot walk. It's strictly landing gear.

astropheed

Through the Hole...

Rats can fit through any hole as long as their head fits through it. When they pass through the hole, their lungs collapse down allowing them to squeeze through and spring back into position once the rat gets out.

Tomie_Junji_Ito

Like the holes in my attempts to not look desperate for their friendship. There's a kitty on my block who squeezes right past that but one day I'll get her to see I am a most suitable friend indeed.

suzieQueue

Stretch....

giraffe eating GIFGiphy

A giraffe has approximately one inch of tongue for every one foot of height.

sdjacaranda

Giraffes are bizarre animals. They look like a camel-chetah hybrid got its neck stuck in something and then stretched it out.

Christopher-Nolan

Up a Tree... 

Leopards can drag 3x their own bodyweight up a tree.

rface2032

And they are know to kill and eat gorillas despite being smaller than some dogs (40-165 lbs, smallest females to largest males).

Reddit-Is-Anonymous

Poop Squared....

Wombats have square poop.

Ness51

Not only that, but wombats literally have an armored butt.

When pursued by predators, a wombat will just run back to its den and plug the entrance with its butt. Much of their butt is made of thick cartilage, which is apparently quite scratch and bite resistant. And many of the wombat's natural predators also lack the ability to really hurt a wombat's combat ass.

If a predator manages to stick its snout in the den, it will use its powerful hind legs and padded butt to crush the predator's head up against the ceiling to suffocate it. It twerks predators to death.

monkeypie1234

No Sleep...

Dolphins don't sleep. Each hemisphere of their brain alternates being active and resting every 12 hours.

MillionToOneShotDoc

It's the same with flamingos! It's how they're able to stand on one leg while sleeping. I think it's called having a "semi-hemispheric brain" but I might be remembering that wrong. It's been a long time since that zoo visit.

hitoribocchan

Biggest Ever!

the golden girls weenie GIF by TV Land ClassicGiphy

The blue whale is not only the largest animal in the world currently, it is also the largest animal that has EVER lived in the history of the earth, including all dinosaurs.

NugBlazer

"warm blooded"

Argentine Tegus are known to be the only "warm blooded" reptiles. Unlike all other reptiles that require a heat source to maintain a warm body temperature, these tegus are able to "turn on" an internal heater certain times of the year (mainly observed around breeding season). Both males and females can do this. Most of the time, they still require an external heat source, but the fact they can warm themselves up when needed is a first for reptiles!

robo-dragon

Facts.....

Here's two, somewhat related due to nutrition.

  1. Pandas rarely eat anything other than bamboo which is not a calorie dense food at all. A full grown 120 kilogram panda has to eat 45 kilos of bamboo a day just to not starve.
  2. The Koala's diet is so poor that, after generations of eating only eucalyptus leaves, it's brain has shrunk so much that it's considerably smaller than it's cranial cavity. malgranda_azeno

The Devil's Work.....

Angry Tazmanian Devil GIF by Looney TunesGiphy

Tasmanian devils have up to fifty babies but only four nipples. They're marsupials so they're born premature and have to climb up to their mothers pouch. As she licks herself she eats most of them and only the four strongest make it to the pouch.

Lukestr

20/20 Jumpers....

Jumping spiders have basically the same vision we do, they can see us and know when we're looking at them and like to show off!

giddensite

I would assume this is the same for most spiders that actively hunt their prey. I'm in Australia and we get huntsmen here. They're big and creepy looking but ultimately harmless. They don't build webs, they're wicked fast and chase down their food including speedy bugs like roaches.

Anyway when they get in your house they usually hang out up high on a wall where it meets the ceiling and in my experience if you look at them too long and start to move toward them they just book it at warp speed. I've always wondered how well they (and spiders in general) can see but spiders and especially their eyes creep me out so I've never really researched it.

MalHeartsNutmeg

Slow Eats

sloth yawn GIFGiphy

A sloth's metabolism is so slow that they can starve to death with a stomach full of food Also, many sloths have fallen out of trees and died because they mistook their own arm for a tree branch and tried to grab it

I wonder how they're not extinct yet.

AnEnzymeWithEmotions

The Asexual Power

There was recently a 62 year old female python that had no contact with any males for over 15 years and just got laid an entire batch of eggs.

Supposedly it's been documented that pythons can asexually reproduce, however in this case they are currently testing if they were asexually born or if it was a result of the female storing the semen. (Which they can also do!)

moonlight_white

Cat Prowess.....

Cats have a stealth ability with their paws I believe! I don't know the exact science behind it, but the way the padding on their feet is arranged makes it so they're essentially silent hunters. It's how such large animals like tigers or mountain lions can sneak around so easily (plus, their hind legs step exactly where their front legs step, adding to their stealth. I think giraffes are one of the few other animals that also matches steps like that).

hitoribocchan

Consuming the Male

How angler fish mate.

Basically, the male (who is maybe 1/10 the size of the female) bites onto the side of the female, who then secretes a substance that dissolves the lips of the male, thus binding his mouth to her body. His body will continue to dissolve until all that remains are the gonads, which dangle outside the female's body. So, not only was the female able to reproduce, she also gained nutrition by consuming the male.

But, wait, there's more!

Females can mate with multiple males. Many females have been caught with 5 or more sets of gonads on their sides. AND, after mating, the female can continue to draw from any of the gonads whenever she pleases.

So, yeah.

WesWizard_2

Savage Moby Dicks....

Orca whales elbow slam blue whales for hours in groups to prevent it from catching air, drowning it.

Also, some jellyfish are immortal.

GrumpyCat1337

Orcas have developed different "cultures". Each population only eats certain food (some only eat fish, some eat sea mammals etc.), they don't breed to outsiders, and they even speak different "languages". Of all animals on this planet they might be the closest to humans intelligence-wise, despite having evolved in a completely different environment.

Ereska

Smart Squid

octopus GIFGiphy

The mimic octopus can not only change its color, but also changes its shape, movement and patterns to copy other species. It can imitate a lionfish, sea snakes, jellyfish, sole, and others. Pretty kick a**, but that's octopus for ya.

ItsJanetSnakeh0le

Bloodsucker....

There's a parasitic isopod that literally sucks the blood out of fish tongues (in the living fish's mouth) and then replace the tongue. Then all the males who've been vibing in the fish's gills the entire time get to crawl into the mouth to have an interesting party with the female. There's nothing the fish can do about this.

Allorz

Venom....

Everything about platypuses.

They are a prehistoric evolutionary step between reptiles and mammals, they swim in water but live underground, lay eggs and sweat milk because they don't have nipples, their beaks are actually radars to spot electromagnetic movement in the mud, and most importantly: they are venomous.

They have stings on their heels. The venom won't kill you but there is no anti-venom and you will be in pain for MONTHS. Not even high doses of Morphine can ease the pain.

I mean wtf. Gotta love those venomous prehistoric beaver-ducks with built-in radar.

EDIT:I wrote they are a evolutionary step between amphibians and mammals. I was wrong.

tabid_

Sonic Flight

owl think GIFGiphy

Owls feathers are layered just perfectly that they don't create a sonic sound when flying.

SephiraSkye

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REDDIT

People Describe The Most Historically Significant Event They've Ever Witnessed In Person

Reddit user FictionVent asked: 'What is the most historically significant event you witnessed IN PERSON?'

Aircraft losing control
Richard R. Schünemann/Unsplash

Do you ever wonder what it must've been like to experience major events throughout world history when reading about them in text books?

But if you take pause and actually think about it, we're living through many newsworthy current events that succeeding generations will be talking about long after we're gone.

Reading about them online or in newspapers is one thing. But seeing them happen unfold before our eyes is another.

Curious to hear from those who'll have anecdotes to tell in the future, Redditor FictionVent asked:
"What is the most historically significant event you witnessed IN PERSON?"

People recall the natural disaster events they've witnessed.

Tremors

"1964 Good Friday Earthquake 9.2 Richter. Was a boy in Cordova, Alaska at the time."

– KitchenLab2536

"My father was skipper of the USCG cutter stationed there. He was inport, and when the quake struck shortly before 5:30pm, he and my mom gathered me and my three siblings on the front porch. At first, it felt like the house was crumbling at the foundation, but on the porch we could plainly see our whole world was shaking. I remember watching telephone poles swaying, and the wires snapping and crackling in the street. The quake lasted about five minutes initially. My dad got his ship underway to avoid the tidal wave which was sure to come. We had several aftershocks in the coming weeks, some of which were quite strong, though nowhere near as strong or as long as the quake itself. I was seven at the time."

– KitchenLab2536

Collapsing Freeway

"October 17th, 1989. I watched the 880 Nimitz freeway collapse during the San Francisco earthquake. The Honda in front of me had the upper deck crush her front-end engine compartment. The mother and her daughter were shaken up but completely fine."

"I was driving a convertible Triumph Spitfire, which was scratched up slightly from debris. However, I walked away unscathed. Aside from the fact I pissed my pants, which I didn't notice until much later."

– CatDaddyWhisper

Thar She Blows

"I sat on the roof of our house and watched Mt. St. Helens erupt less than 100 miles away."

– stinkykitty71

"This must have been fascinating and terryfing in equal measure. What a thing to witness."

– runrossyrun

"It was amazing! The ash that covered everything like snow was interesting to kid me, but less so to my parents."

– stinkykitty71

People recall seeing major catastrophes as a result of malfunctions or judgement errors.

Bomber Crash

"The b-52 crash that led to changing what large military aircraft are allowed to do for airshows."

"I didn't see the plane, but immediately saw the fireball. It was just a perfect, bright red turning to black mushroom cloud."

"Fairchild is a nuclear air base and there were a few minutes there where I was sure the world was about to end."

"A few years before a KC-135 doing the same thing crashed near the school while we were in class."

– goffstock

Tragic Takeoff

"I was standing on my front porch watching the launch of the Challenger."

– StarChaser_Tyger

"Was riding in my parents car to a basketball game in the next town over in north texas when we saw a shooting star and thought that was neat."

"It was the Columbia..."

– Misdirected_Colors

Demolition Gone Wrong

"The failed implosion of the Zip feed mill in Sioux Falls, SD in 2005."

"They hyped it up, sold tickets to it, had a big 'BOOM' marketing thing, and broadcast it live on TV."

"The explosives took out the main supports on the first floor, and the rest of the building above it just plopped down 10ft or so and came to a rest. It was a massive failure, and was a funny little blurb on news stations around the world that day. Definitely not major news, just the rest of the world taking 20 seconds to laugh at us."

"The building sat like that (the leaning tower of SuFu) for quite a while until they figured out how to safely demolish it."

"Here's a clip of the failed demolition."

https://youtu.be/I8DEDUqd0RU

– KitchenBandicoots

These well-known historical events were seen by very few who are alive today.

Historical Remnant

"The tumbling of the Wall in Germany… along with people selling bits and pieces of it on tables in lobby in front of commissary and px in the following weeks and months. I had picked up a chunk about the size of an oreo and kept it… has blue spray paint on the flat side. Wonder if anyone is buying them now?"

– SingedPenguin13

Major Upheaval

"I would have to say the LA riots. I lived about two blocks from where it started. I was on my way home from school and saw someone throw a brick through a window. I didn’t even wait. I just started running the whole way home."

– Scarlaymama0721

Day Of Infamy

"9/11, I could SMELL the collapse of the towers."

– go4tli

"A friend of mine was there. One day in the warehouse we worked in together there was an odd electrical burning smell. He stopped in his tracks and went 'this is what 9/11 smelled like.'"

– mantistoboggan287

I didn't physically witness the fall of the World Trade Center but I was living in New York City at the time.

However, I did see the smoke.

I was living up north in Washington Heights at the time and knowing what happened, uncertain of what was to come, and seeing the plumes of smoke from the attack site was the most ominous sight I've ever seen in my life to date.

Have you ever lived through a historic moment or witnessed something sure to be noted in history books? Let us know in the comments below.

man in business suit standing near the stairs
Hunters Race on Unsplash

A job search is not fun, so most people will tolerate a lot to keep a job.

But everyone has their limit.

Sometimes that limit is reached right in the middle of a work day and people are forced to walk off the job with no prior notice.

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groom in gray suit kissing bride in white dress
NIKITA SHIROKOV on Unsplash

Many weddings involve months of planning and thousands of dollars.

But the one guarantee in life is that poo happens and weddings are not immune to sh*t storms.

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When I was in seventh grade, I had aspirations to be a poet. I made a Mother's Day card for my mom with a cute (but now, cringe-worthy) poem inside, and a hand-drawn picture of a rose that took me hours to perfect.

A friend saw the card and said they wished they could do the same. Then suddenly, she asked if she could buy the card from me. I said no, since I needed to give it to my own mother, but I said I could make her a copy. From there, my friend got the idea for me to make copies of the card to sell. I went along with it, mostly because I didn't think it would actually work.

Turns out, it did. After making sure people would actually be interested, we went to the library after school and made several color copies of my card for 10 cents each. The next day, we sold each card for $1. Not only did we make enough money so that my friend and I could both afford to get our moms an actual present in addition to the card, but we had enough leftover to put us over the top for the money we needed to buy the matching faux leather jackets we'd been wanting all year.

The next year, many people who bought cards asked me to do it again, so I did. Once again, we made a killing. We didn't try to do it again once we got to high school, but it was definitely fun while it lasted.

When we tell people this story, they think it's a pretty crazy money-making scheme. Maybe it is, but we're not the only ones who ever did anything like this. Redditors know all about crazy money-making schemes, and are eager to share their own stories.

It all started when Redditor primeiro23 asked:

"What are the craziest ways you’ve heard of people making money?"

Tumble Into Business

"In college, I take a class on how to start & run a small business. Prof tells us to think of ridiculous business models for our fictitious businesses as we will get more out of the class that way. Stupid ideas ensue. Selling paperclips door to door, refilling car gasoline tanks in people's driveways, service to read & summarize the newspaper to executives etc."

"One classmate decides he is going to sell tumbleweed."

"Guess who quits college and started a successful business? Tumbleweed guy. Takes a van to the desert, collects tumbleweed and sells them to Hollywood movie & TV studios who need them. Keeps the tumbleweed in a warehouse and since they never spoil, his only costs are gasoline, storage & a website. He eventually becomes the number one tumbleweed provider to studios around the world, shipping tumbleweed globally."

"Made a heap of money selling what millions of people drive by and ignore every year."

– Accomplished-Fig745

Synopses

"I did have a job reading and summarizing newspaper articles to the boss. Literally only task I was hired for."

– Draigdwi

"An actual union job in the film industry is reading scripts and summarizing them in short mean book reports."

– Trixiebees

Jump!

"Heard of crazier, but a guy I know, friend of my mother's, went to Texas 30+ years ago. (we are from Norway), and he noticed every single garden had a trampoline. And it was almost always "jump king" - the circular with blue mat ones."

"So he went to the HQ, bought 10 and took back to Norway. Within days they were sold, and he ordered 50 more, same thing. So he became the only importer and has God knows how many millions to his name today."

– alexdaland

"This IS wild. I went to Norway recently and one of the first things I noticed was that almost EVERY yard had a trampoline in it."

– TrulyMadlyCheaply

Working For A Home

"Back when Dogecoin took off I wrote a guide on recovering old lost wallets and it got so popular I was flooded with requests for further help. Some corrupted wallet files, some lost passwords, etc."

"I have a background in computer science and experience in data retrieval and password cracking, so I started helping people in exchange for a percentage cut (industry standard for wallet recovery). All above board with a contract and everything."

"For a while I was getting new clients every week and making hundreds up to thousands of dollars on every successful recovery (with a fairly good rate of success). The biggest one I ever recovered was a 19 letter long password someone had lost. The work dried up when the price of doge dropped but it got me the down-payment on a house."

– internetpillows

Horsing Around

"A cabbie in Dublin once told me a story about one of his fares who had a brilliant hustle."

"The guy was a sculptor. He would watch horse races, then when a horse won, he'd use social media to contact the owner directly with a digital mockup of a life-sized sculpture of the winning horse. Now, the people who own winning racehorses tend to be very rich - we're talking sheikhs, oligarchs, billionaires. Every now and again, one of these owners would bite, and spend €100,000 euros or so on a statue commemorating their animal's win."

"Dude only did a couple a year, and spent the rest of the time living the good life."

– escoterica

Sweet!

"Richest guy in a rich town near us makes enormous amounts of money buying Hershey bars and rewrapping them with customised retirement celebration designs or corporate logos to be given away at events. Literally just rewraps them in pieces of paper and doubles or triples his money."

"Every time I try to start a company or invent a better product or something, I ask myself why I’m not just rewrapping candy bars."

– perchance2cream

"F**k man, I think I found my new niche."

– LibertyPrimeIsASage

Slightly Used

"I went to college in a capitol C college town. A friend of mine bought an old school bus, fixed it up and took out all the seats."

"At the end of every semester she would drive around the neighborhood that was the fancier side of off campus living and collect whatever the rich kids were throwing out before they moved / went home for the summer. Flat screen TVs, couches, computers, tables, it was wild to see what people would chuck out and replace the next semester rather than having to deal with getting a storage unit or moving themselves."

"Sold it all on Craigslist over the summer or the beginning of the next semester and made a killing."

– sam_neil

Credit Where Credit Is Undue

"When I worked in a really busy, upscale restaurant my coworker would put all of his cash-paying customer’s bills on his credit card and keep the cash which he used to promptly pay off his credit card."

"He did this all day, every day for quite a while and the points started to add up and he was getting free airfare, etc."

"Worked great for a while until management notice a rise in credit card processing fees with an emphasis on one employee and they shut him down real quick."

– blinkysmurf

We Found Gold!

"My buddy worked his way through college by panning for gold. This was in 2009 in California. Most days he made nothing, occasionally he would come home with a couple hundred bucks worth and I think once he found a night worth over $1k."

– discostud1515

"My cousin had a metal detector when he was in HS. He would go every weekend down to the lake and take it with him on vacation. He found all kinds of things. He did find gold jewelry and would sell it online. He made so much money he bought his own car."

– Content_Pool_1391

Sleeping For The Job

"I knew a woman whose job was literally to sleep."

"A local office building owner wanted somebody on-site 24/7 to be the point of contact with first responders if they ever needed to be called. So they hired her to come in to the building in the evening when the maintenance crew was finishing their work. And she would settle up to sleep for the night in a bedroom they'd set aside for her. In the morning she'd hand the building back over to the office employees and go on about her day."

"No first responders were ever called. It's about the least stressful legitimate job I could ever imagine."

– CaptainTime5556

The Secret

"Back in the 90s, I knew a guy who put an ad in the classified section of the newspaper which read something along the lines of, “For $10, I’ll tell you my secret to making easy money. Send $10 cash to (address) to find out how.” People would send him $10 & he would then instruct them to put a classified ad in the newspaper telling people to send $10 & how to make money."

– freudianfalls

Accident Payment

"I was pushed down the stairs by a teen girl who told me to "pay attention and get out of her way" i ripped my dress during the fall and was getting back up when some guy rushed up to me, apologized for his daughter and handed me $500 as compensation."

– thebrilliantcounc

"LOL - years back, I was in a parking lot during a snowstorm. A guy was trying to pull around me, slid on the snow/ice and hit into my passenger side door. It really and truly was an accident. He was all apologies. We exchanged info - he said to get a quote and he would pay for the damage."

"Well, the car I was driving at the time was a crappy old Ford worth maybe $500. But, I went to a body shop, got a quote on the repair and it was $900. I faxed it to him (this was back in the 90's, LOL) thinking he'd tell me to go through the insurance company and just have the car totaled out."

"To my surprise, I had a bank check for $900 from him in my mailbox three days later. Now, I already owned another car, so I pocketed the $900, sold the smashed car for parts for $300 and ended up with $1200 on a car that was worth only $500 before the accident. I was very glad that he ran into me!"

– Deleted User

Only Feet

"I have a friend who sells pictures of her feet. In heels. Barefoot squishing cake. In mud. She charges extra for special requests. Has strict ‘no go’ rules. Never shows anything above the calf so she can’t be identified (no tats). All proceeds go to her kid’s college fund. Has made enough to fund a PhD."

– NotACrazyCatLadyx2

The things people do for money! But, I guess it works for her!