Reddit user lgo21 asked:
"What are some dark facts about specific animals that make them not seem as cute anymore?"
So yeah. Brace yourself.
Trigger warning: EVERYTHING.
R*pe, murder, cannibalism, snacking... it's all here and it's all bad.
The Lion King
"The first thing a male lion does when he takes over another male's pride of female lions is go around and kill every single cub."
"That way the females don't have to nurse/care for their young and start ovulating sooner. The sooner they ovulate, the sooner he can get them pregnant with HIS cubs."
- fishnwirenreese
"Isn’t there evidence that lionesses can/will abort a pregnancy if this happens so that she won’t waste energy on growing a cub that will be killed anyway?"
- LordSoupSoup
"Lion king alternate ending"
- Mloxard_CZ
GiphyDuck Tales
"A group of bachelor Male ducks will find a mating pair (male and female duck) beat up the male and gang r*pe the female."
"Sometimes the will gang r*pe her so severely that the female will die in the process."
- el-mojo-
"Jesus I’ve WITNESSED this firsthand and was horrified."
"My parents live next to a pond and I like to read books by it. Was just trying to enjoy a nice spring day and witnessed duck gang r*pe. I chased them off but every spring it happens."
- crazygourdlady
"Was at Disney and saw this happen right outside Crystal palace."
"A lady jumps the fence to 'save' the female and proceeded to yell at park employees for letting the males hurt the female."
"The manager explained to her that it’s a duck natural behavior, they are federally protected, that Disney cannot interfere, AND that the lady was now trespassing and would be arrested if she’d didn’t leave immediately."
"That was a fun day of people watching."
- mtndew01
GiphyCasually Munching
"Sometimes deer will casually munch on live baby birds."
- NightSkies2019
"Which is why salt licks are important on a farm!"
"Generally, herbivores do that when their bodies give signals they lack certain nutrition. If they don’t have access to other animals to eat, they will also eat dirt and rocks (geophagy)."
- moxfactor
"Pretty much every herbivore is an opportunistic omnivore, they're just really bad at catching meat so usually go for stuff that's smaller then their mouths."
- stonedPict
GiphyHannibal Hamster
"Hamsters are cannibals. I don’t know if it’s only dwarf hamsters but they eat their own newborns and eventually each other."
- Catpix_
"This reminds me when my hamster gave birth to 7 babies and straight away ate 2 of them. Not something I wanted to see as 11 year old but oh well."
- Curious_Sandpaper
"I think this might be a rodent/small prey animal thing."
"Hedgehogs, squirrels, rabbits and gophers will all eat their new born. Mice and rats eat each other all the time and I've seen gophers eat their dead brothers/sisters while the body is still warm."
- Sufficient__Phrase
"A lot of the 'cannibalism' of newborn rodents and lagamorphs is because they aren't healthy at birth, and an unhealthy baby can bring a lot of attention and extra risk to their nest, along with extra work for the mother."
"Rats and mice will actually eat their dead to prevent attracting predators in a lot of cases."
"In captivity, this is often an indication that your husbandry is very wrong and the mother does not feel there will be enough resources, safety, etc. People don't realize how much space and effort these animals really take."
"I've owned rats and mice for well over a dozen years now, along with rabbits, hamsters, all those small animals, and I've never seen any rodent eating another unless they were already dead or sickly."
- The_Lab_Rat_
GiphyFlower's Grandkids
"The dominant female meerkat in her clan will kill the babies that aren’t her own to make sure only her own survive and have the best chance of survival."
- KingFlame66
"As a kid I learned this from watching Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet."
"Watching the cute leader named Flower go and murder her daughter's babies (yes, her own grandkids!) kinda made me realize nature gets pretty metal pretty fast."
- Uceninde
"I was about to mention meerkats, but because they eat little chicks (baby chickens.)"
"At least they do at my local zoo. That's one way to permanently scar my little niece."
- nyanbran
"Meerkats aren't these sweet little things that only eat apples and pears."
"It was feeding time at the zoo, this one meerkat caught a full (dead) mouse and happened to run right up to the glass fence in front of a crowd of 40 people."
"He looked right at us then used his sharp teeth to rip the head off the mouse in one go, while maintaining eye contact. Metal as f*ck lol."
"The whole crowd went 'ewwwww!' Really loudly and now they are fed their meat later in the day when visitors aren't there lol"
- wizard7846
GiphyFlutter
"You ain't never seen butterflies drinking the fluid from around the eyes of a dead deer.""
"I have. I have."
- rvralph803
"Males of lots of butterflies will flock to dead or rotting meat."
"It's one of the few sources of sodium available to them, which they bundle up in their sperm packets as a 'gift' for the female during copulation. It's a bit sweeter when you look at it that context."
- scipio323
"This is called puddling!"
"Mostly male butterflies do this to get the salt and other nutrients to give to females during mating. But females will do it too to get the nutrients themselves."
- ER1536
"Butterflies are not herbivores!"
"They will drink your sweet, sweet, decomposing body juices. The next time a butterfly lands on you, take a closer look, realize how creepy they look, and that it would happily stick it's little tube tongue into your veins."
- Apageo
GiphyThe End Of 'Horse Girls'?
"I once saw a horse eat a live chicken."
"I was one of those little girls who adored horses up until that point so it was kind of traumatic, but I guess the silver lining is that it saved my parents from having to pay for a very expensive hobby."
"I just couldn’t see them the same way after that."
- Elvis_Take_The_Wheel
"My mom had a horse that was straight up demented about his love for eating baby chicks."
"If he saw a chick had gotten out (it was very hard to contain them when you were going in and out of a coop to feed and clean) he'd stop whatever he was doing and run over to eat it."
- imcoolthankstho
"There was a vid on Reddit of horse munching little chicken. Just pop and its gone. I don't think hen even noticed."
- ExcellentHunter
"I used to feed my horse ham."
- BobertoM
GiphySnack Attack
"Bears will eat you alive instead of killing you first."
- Zestyclose_Seaweed74
"Predators subdue their prey as much as possible, but they don't always waste the time or energy to completely kill."
"They have to eat as quickly as possible to get their meal in before scavengers come running in. The point to which they subdue their prey would be 'til the point the prey can’t fight back effectively anymore (i.e. kicks can’t hurt)."
"They usually don’t kill them outright before they start eating."
- Stagamemnon
"I heard a story where the bear put it's weight on a part of the person so that it could chew them casually."
"I don't remember where, but this reminded me of that."
- Plus-Creme
"This is the case with most large predators."
"They don't kill you to kill you so much as disable you so you'll stop resisting being eaten. I've seen enough wildlife kills to know they don't wait until you're dead."
"They are in a hurry to eat as much as possible as fast as they can before some scavengers or other predators show up to start something."
- -_Empress_-
GiphyKittens...
"Everyone talking about natural predators and other wildlife. Time to bring home reality."
"Kittens contain multiple viruses and bacteria which are transferable to humans, usually through a scratch. If left untreated, these can really screw a person up, even leading to death."
"Cat Scratch Fever is a legitimate medical term, and requires proper care to diagnose and treat. Symptoms are very closely related to the common cold, but can persist due to the bacteria."
"A more terrifying dark fact is cats can hide symptoms of rabies far longer than most other domesticated animals due to most people believing they may have cat scratch fever instead of rabies."
"This unhinged fact is why so many cats were killed during the Black Plague days, as people feared they were spreading the disease. Turns out, it was fleas via rats, which was discovered once the cats were killed but the plague spread even faster."
"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to apply some antibiotic ointment on my recent scratch since I only learned of all this after adopting one."
"Enjoy!"
- WhiskersWithClaws
GiphyTrying To Help A Baby
"Bush Babies calls sound like, well, babies."
"An unsuspecting person might head toward them thinking there’s a crying infant that needs help and end up with half their face ripped off, deep skin lacerations, and they’ll be tripping balls."
"Bush Babies (particularly the galago is what I’m referring to) are highly defensive and territorial little menaces."
"They have needle-sharp teeth and grippy little fingers that can peel you apart. Their saliva is so toxic it is considered by many to be a 'venom.' "
"There have been reports from those envenomated to experience symptoms like they’ve been poisoned. Fevers, dizziness, sweating, nausea, rapid heart rate, audio and visual hallucinations."
"And what’s worse? For some, some of the symptoms don’t go away ever."
"In some cases, they’re left in a state of anxiety, depression or a post traumatic stress disorder-like reaction with vivid nightmares when they sleep, random bouts of anxiety, sweating and shaking, etc."
"I have a former coworker who worked with the primates alongside me at a zoo who was attacked by the bush baby who now has crazy nightmares and is now medicated for depression when he claims his mental health was fine before he was attacked. It’s scary stuff."
"They’re adorable but people wear full protective gear when they go in the enclosure now."
"They also piss all over each other to communicate. So they be stinky. And you end up stinky too. Insult to injury."
- wilder-side-pod
GiphyPenguin Presentation
"Necrophiliac penguins."
"Apparently, a face-down dead female penguin doesn't look sufficiently different than a presenting female penguin, and the males just go for it..."
- Zebirdsandzebats
"Adelie penguins will mate with ANYTHING."
"Dead females. frozen dead females, the decapitated head of a dead animal, their own offspring, fish, and even the ground. THE GROUND. To them, even baby seals are fit mating."
- NegativeAd99
penguin swimming GIFGiphyBaby Bunnies
"Bunnies will kill their own babies due to any amount of stress..."
"... or if anything goes slightly wrong, or if they are in a bad mood."
- GenderNotFound
"Weirdly enough, in domestic rabbits you can feed a pregnant doe some raw hamburger shortly before the birth and she usually won't try to snack on the babies."
- Askater_620
Sweet Kisses Bunnies GIFGiphySo Cute!
"Slow lorises are venomous. Their venom glands are in their armpits."
"So when people see this cute little primate put their arms up they think to themselves 'OMG SO CUUUUUUUTE!!' but it's not cute."
"They are, in reality, activating their defenses. At this point they are actively secreting venom which they then lick, the venom mixes with their saliva to make their bites toxic."
"This has only been observed as a defense against other slow lorises, which have been observed with rotting flesh around the site of venom delivery. One case researchers observed one with half their face 'melted.' "
- senatedestroyer
tummy loris GIFGiphyAdorable Death
"Black footed cats are the most successful feline hunters. More than 65% of their hunts are successful."
"They hunt rodents, lizards and other smaller animals, but they are quite aggressive so when threatened they might even attack humans."
"But they are only a a little bit bigger than house cats and REALLY CUTE, so they aren't a threat to humans."
"To anything smaller, they're death incarnate. To adult humans they're just adorable sassypaws."
- folgore248
GIF by SkabGiphyAnteaters Are Extreme
"Anteaters are some of the most homicidal and dangerous creatures in the animal kingdom and can scare off predators easily. They are near-totally blind and react to movement by attacking anything that comes near it."
"They happen to live in the same environments as jaguars who are considered some of the best hunters among the big cats and regularly hunt alligators, but jaguars won't go near them."
"This is because anteaters have huge claws that will utterly wreck anyone who tries it - either by cutting a major artery or just gutting someone. One unfortunate zookeeper was attacked by an anteater while cleaning its cage and her coworkers weren't sure whether she would die on the way to the hospital or before the ambulance even arrived."
"And the way they eat is also pretty messed up. Anteaters don't have stomach acids strong enough to digest their prey so they crush up ants and digest them in the ant's own digestive juices."
- res30stupid
hungry planet earth 2 GIF by BBC EarthGiphyThose Beautiful Birds
"Storks sometimes (not always) will pick the weakest and youngest chick and fling him out of the nest to die if they consider that there’s the possibility of scarcity of food in the future."
"I know they are not evil, this is instinct and probably the best chance of survival for the other siblings and all. But when I found out I was disturbed and never looked at those beautiful birds the same again."
- cerenir
white stork bird GIF by Head Like an OrangeGiphyIf It's White, Say Goodnight
"Polar bears are one of the most deadly apex predators on the planet."
"There's a saying about bear attacks: 'If it's black fight back, if it's brown lie down, if it's white say goodnight.' "
"Black bears attack mainly for food and are easily frightened (basically they're big raccoons) so if you make yourself seem not worth it they'll give up."
"Brown bears mainly attack out of fear / defensiveness and will leave if they think you're not a threat or are dead."
"Polar bears, though? They see humans as prey, are several times stronger than any other bear on the planet, and if one sees you you're pretty much as good as dead."
"There are places in the arctic where it's illegal to leave settlements without a firearm to defend yourself from polar bears."
- minnieboss
"Polar bears are not cute, fluffy little creatures that drink Coca Cola. They are one of the few species that seem to kill humans for fun."
- FraudulentCake
scratching polar bear GIFGiphyGod Help You
"A Cassowary's existence is dark enough."
"It looks like a pretty Emu, but it's more like if you mixed an Emu with a coked-up T-Rex."
"They got a reputation as the world's most dangerous bird, and may god help you if you ever accidentally piss one off."
- IceFire909
Australia One Planet GIF by BBC AmericaGiphyBubbles
"Chimpanzees."
"Case of humans trying to successfully domesticate chimps do not always go so well. The older the chimp gets the more aggressive it can become."
"In one case, a chimpanzee known to be friendly throughout the neighbourhood by everyone suddenly turned a corner one day and savagely attacked the owner’s friend."
"Not to get too graphic, but some limbs were removed and surgery was required."
- W4T3RM3LONS
"It didn't work for Michael Jackson and Bubbles, it's not gonna work for anyone."
"Not that Michael was some sort of primate expert, but he had more than enough money to afford care and access to every specialist he wanted. Chimps are wild animals, they are not pets or babies - Bubbles got way too aggressive and had to go."
"They're scary-strong and can rip your limbs or face off quite easily. It's happened more than once."
- [Reddit]
baby animals chimp GIF by BBC EarthGiphyCute Little Clocks
"Do you know about the cuckoo?"
"These little jerks go around to other bird's nests and replace the eggs that were there with their own eggs. Then the 'foster' parents raise the cuckoo as its own."
"Evolutionary genius? Perhaps."
"But why the f*ck do we make cute little clocks about these insidious a-holes?"
- Loki_Dar
GiphyThis whole thread deserves a collective:
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang Nature, you scary!"
Now that you're thoroughly horrified, or at least concerned for your mental health after a Bush Baby attack (which is a new thing I have anxiety about now, thanks!) it's your turn to spread some trauma!
What's an awful animal fact you know?
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One reddit user asked:
Girls of reddit, what's the cutest thing your s/o has done for you?
And yeah, there were some grand-gesture kinds of responses but most of them focused on "the little things" - seriously if we had you guys play a drinking game where you had to do a shot every time someone in the comments said "little things" ... well ... just don't do it. I don't think our liability insurance covers cuteness-induced alcohol poisoning for our readership.
Under The Stars
GiphyThis is a long story but I'll never forget it. My very first boyfriend, we were around 15/16 at the time, was a hopeless romantic if I ever knew one. He was a very shy, sweet, dorky guy but just so in awe about everything around him and easily inspired/entertained by even the smallest things that life had to offer. He wasn't afraid to be vulnerable, but would stand up for anyone he thought was being wronged without question. People admired him and he was liked by everyone that knew him. Just a genuinely good guy who was raised right.
I was a tomboy who loved nature and books, wading through creeks to hunt for old bottles, wasn't afraid to get dirty, and generally didn't care much for relationships at the time. My mom had always told me that if you want something real you need to work hard for it and that life doesn't ever hand you love like that. But deep down, as most girls do, a small part of me wished for a tiny taste of that love at first sight feeling that would make any girl feel like they were the protagonist in a cheesy romance novel.
I remember seeing this boy and how well received he was by our classmates and I hated to admit that he really was charming and just had a way about him that was so innocent and hard to describe. I tried so hard not to have feelings for him because ALL the girls at our school did. But somehow we became fast friends and even faster lovers and he introduced me to a whole world of beauty I never really knew existed. The world was always the same, but the way I perceived it changed completely because of him.
I remember lying in the grass looking at the clouds with him at the local park and I confessed in the most awkward way possible that I thought I had feelings for him as more than just a friend. And he just paused for a second and rubbed his face roughly with his hands and exclaimed "Oh thank god, I like you too" and we just giggled about it for a long time. He asked me on a real date and asked what I might want to do. I told him how I had always wanted to do a date way out in the country where the street lights were dim enough and far away enough to where we could get a good view of the stars and just watch the sky for a while.
Around a week later he said he had a surprise for me and drove me 2 hours away from the city late at night and I was confused where we were going the whole time and kept pestering him about where we were bound to end up.
Well by the time we got to our destination, the weather had turned from a warm and breezy evening to a cold drizzle and clouds muddled up the evening sky. We had parked outside a freshly plowed cornfield and he seemed so upset that the sky had clouded over and expressed he had hoped to fulfil that dream date of mine under the stars.
I told him it was ok and tried to console him and got out of his clunky van to gauge the weather and see if it'd maybe clear up. After walking around for about ten minutes I came back and prepared to disappointedly tell him that he might have wasted the trip coming out here, but when I opened the door he was in the back of the van and it was pitch black back there. I asked him what he was up to and he says "just come back here with me real quick". He sounded borderline excited and hesitant, so I curiously crawled in the back to see what was up.
Not being able to see anything I reached out and he said to just wait for a second. And a moment later he turned on a flash light and shined it through an empty soda box that had a bajillion holes stabbed into it and pointed it at the ceiling of the van. I just stared in complete surprise and he started stammering about how he was sorry it wasn't the real thing but he hoped this could be a good stand in for now until he could take me to see the real stars.
It was honestly the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me and to this day no one has been able to top the thoughtfulness, the kindness, or creativity this boy had to offer. In the end, after a year and a half together, we ended up separating because his family had decided to move across the country and he had no say in the matter. This was before cellphones were common place so we lost touch and never heard from each other again after he moved. My heart still hurts when I think of him and I've wished we could see each other again ever since that day. Wherever he is, I like to believe he's doing amazing things and I hope he achieved everything he ever wanted in life.
On the wildest chance that you ever read this Sebastian, I miss you so much and wish you nothing but the best.
One Man Show
I got him a Millennium Falcon plush for our first valentines day together (we were together for nearly a year by that point) and he gave me a one man show of the scenes from Episode 5 with the Falcon, completely unprompted. May be weird but it will forever be one of those cute moments that made me fall in love with him
The Little Things
The sweetest things were the small gestures like bringing me soup when I was sick or waking up very early to drive me to school or just buying me a gingerale on his way to meet me. Just things that I wasn't expecting and never took for granted.
A Long Distance Love
We're long distance so we can't really have any physical contact and I was having real trouble with my PTSD flaring up and me getting really bad flashbacks and having too many mundane things trigger panic responses. He sent me a surprise gift teddy bear to cuddle and hold ... best part is that this bear was wrapped in one of his shirts that he actually wore for a couple days so the teddy even smells like him because his smell really comforts me.
Pinata
GiphyOnce, on my birthday, he stuffed a pinata with lots of little gifts and hung it outside the house. Nothing expensive, but stuff like ponytail holders, my favorite candy, chapstick, a new brush, just little things. But I will always remember it, even after 25 years.
Why I'm Marrying Her
I was having a bad anxiety day and was incredibly overwhelmed. I came home to find my fiance had run a hot bubble bath for me.
After my bath, I went to our room to see she had transformed it into a giant fort, complete with a blanket nest and all the pillows in the house.
She had put one of my favorite games on (Resident evil 4), had her laptop open and playing my favourite show (would I lie to you?) and had surrounded the blanket nest with snack food and a cup of tea.
This is why I'm marrying her.
Pack Mule
My husband performs love acts of service when ever it occurs to him and this is my love language.
He carries my water and nutrition for endurance mountain bike rides. This helps me bike longer so I can see more remote locations. He calls it being my pack mule.
Welcome Home
Once, I had to go out of town to see my psychiatrist and I was very sad because we hadn't seen each other in a while and that was the only day he had free. I spent the day all sad and wishing I was with him. When I got home, he was waiting for me in my room with a handmade sign that said "Welcome Home".
3 years after that and we're still together
- Poty_
Constantly Busy
My s/o is constantly busy. He keeps his mind occupied with new projects after another and runs a successful company on the side. I often feel a bit afraid of his fixations and activity on things as I'm one with ADHD and just unable to comprehend how his mind works. I struggle taking a shower because on the way to the shower I see 10 other things I could do which in turn gets me overwhelmed and I sometimes end up doing none of those things because 'everything is just too much right now'. It often makes me feel very alone, when he's in his own world, only inches away from me but out of reach because it's impossible to try and distract him from what he's fixated on atm.
But then in the middle of all this he suddenly gets up and makes me sparkling water because I might be thirsty, heats up a hot pillow and places it under my feet because maybe my feet are cold or reaches out a hand to stroke my head if he's sitting next to me while working because for the next 3 minutes he doesn't need his other hand. Sometimes he runs downstairs because he ordered us surprise Starbucks and hands me my favorite drink. In the middle of a meeting call he puts the conversation on the speaker and jumps in to cuddle me on the couch.
To me, these little actions are enough to make me cry, because even though I sometimes feel disconnected of him constantly keeping himself busy on something, I know that all along I was there on his mind as a priority, not something pushed to the back of his mind, under all the million things he wants or needs to do.
The cutest thing ever? He drops everything if I don't feel well. Be it physically or emotionally, he drops absolutely everything to be there to support me. I'm having a panic attack? He buries my face in his chest to calm me down (which works for me, doesn't work for everyone). I'm getting sick? I'm tucked into bed with an endless supply of anything I might need and a 12 hour chicken soup on the way.
- skizjo
After Mama Duck taps on the glass to let hospital staff know she and her brood want to get out of the courtyard (the babies can't fly yet, of course), staff let them in and direct them through the hospital safely.
They parade their way through the M. M. Ewing Continuing Care Center, the hospital's long-term nursing and rehabilitation facility.
North American Mallards building nests near human construction is actually fairly common.
They are comfortable being around humans, and our structures often provide convenient nesting sites.
The hospital shared the event in a Facebook post, and people are loving it.
This year, she had an enormous brood of 13 little ones to lead on the annual trek.
Hospital staff guided them through the facility with large pieces of cardboard to act as walls.
Then a nurse, Assistant Nurse Manager Betsy Willard, held the door for the group to exit.
CNA Mollie Dey and resident Wilma Gibson followed the ducks out and watched them make their way away from the hospital.
Wilma's family and friends thanked hospital staff for the mother's experience on Facebook.
Louisa G Johnson/Facebook
Julie Gibson/Facebook
Karen Gibson/Facebook
Rob Davis/Facebook
Reactions to the hospital's Facebook post were overwhelmingly positive, with many fawning over the adorable little duckies.
Patti Huetti/Facebook
Jennifer Gray Cheyney/Facebook
Pam Vincent/Facebook
Sue Jovanelli/Facebook
Some were astounded by the number of ducklings.
Sherry Yancey/Facebook
Cathy Johnson/Facebook
Others were thankful for the hospital staff taking time from their busy days to help the ducks out and give the elders living in the facility the chance to see them.
Michelle Lee Goodman/Facebook
Daphne Davis/Facebook
Ducklings are always cute, but seeing them parade through a hospital with the help of humans is just heart-wrenchingly adorable!