Pigeons Are Major Procrastinators

It is possible that you’ve been around Pigeons here and there in life. They are all over the place, especially cities for some reason. Have you ever wondered why they seem to walk on the ground a lot rather than fly? How about their seemingly weird inability to move when something is coming at them? In one of the strangest animal habits we’ve ever seen, it seems that Pigeons are apparently the worst procrastinators.

When studied, researchers found that when a Pigeon knew something had to be done such as a task, it would fly away from the situation rather than handle the problem. The issue here is that when they need to do something, the problem only grows into a bigger one. Pigeons cannot seem to handle all of this happening at once. This is why you might see a Pigeon refuse to fly away when a car is coming straight at them. Inside their little bird brain, they are too freaked out to think of the best move.

Cuttlefish Are Masters Of Disguise

There is a huge problem that can occur in life. Say you’re some dude who sees a pretty girl you want to talk to. Yet you’re not the only one who might want to talk. If you try to talk to her, another dude might interfere, thus stopping you from having a talk with your future wife. Cuttlefish have a way of avoiding this problem, and it’s one of the strangest animal habits that has ever been observed by science.

When they see a prospective mate, male cuttlefish will morph half their body to look like a female. This allows them to go up to a female cuttlefish with their male side facing them. Meanwhile, other male cuttlefish see the other side and what appears to be two females. This allows the male to court the female without dealing with potential competition from other males. By doing this, the male can ensure he’ll get to mate with the female before other males get the chance.

Crows Remember The People Who Hurt Them

While some people think birds are dumb, Crows prove this to be completely untrue. In fact, they are some of the smartest animals on the planet. Moreover, they have memories on par with human beings! Researchers found that crows remembered their abductors. We know they did because they dived at them in an attempt to attack. To further test this, researchers had other crows captured by abductors who wore a “threatening mask.”

Over the span of four weeks, researchers would have people feed the crows wearing “caring masks.” The idea was that the crows should feel like the people wearing the caring mask were good while those with threatening masks were bad. As a way to test the theory, the crows were shown the two faces and then given a brain scan. When shown the caring face, Crows acted neutral. Meanwhile, when shown the threatening face, they were distressed. Meaning they remembered both. More than this, they only saw the threatening masks once (the day of their abduction), so they remembered those who wronged them.

The Great Bee/Hornet Battle Of Japan

You might think you’ve seen some of the strangest animal habits thus far, but one such issue in Asia might shock you. Over in Japan, there are major problems between Native Bees and the infamous Asian Giant Hornet species. Essentially, the Hornets like to get inside Beehives and murder pretty much every bee they come across. If more than one breaks in, they could slaughter about 20 bees per second. Resulting in thousands in a mere few hours.

The only way the Giant Hornets can do this is by first sending a scout out to find a potential Beehive to break into. Yet the Japanese Honeybees are wise to this. They will often capture the Hornet Scout and then cluster around it, vibrating incredibly fast. As you might know because of, well, science, vibrations moving at a high speed can generate heat. In this instance, the bees are generating so much that they literally cook the Giant Hornet to death. Preventing it from going back to his clan.

The Fainting Goats

Sometimes, humans can get such an immense level of emotion that we might pass out. This is often triggered by a potential issue such as low or high blood pressure. Both can result in a person passing out. Humans should not feel weird about this issue, however. Another species happens to be famous for its fainting problems. They are called the Myotonic Goats. While they were not originally from Tennessee, four of these goats were brought there in the 1880s.

The goats apparently “got busy,” and resulted in quite a few being born. They are still relatively endangered, however. They are often referred to as “The Fainting Goats” or the “Tennessee Fainting Goats” due to their issue. When these little guys get startled, their bodies will freeze up for roughly 10 seconds. This results in them falling over, appearing to faint. Described in 1939 as “congenital myotonia,” it would later be found to be a mutation in their genes in 1996.

Cuckoo Birds Are Horrible Parents

One of the strangest animal habits known is also one of the most destructive to all bird species. The Cuckoo Bird is known for doing some absolutely horrible things. Females will lay their eggs in other nests that do not belong to them, and will then abandon those eggs entirely. Like leaving a baby at the entrance of a Hospital, Fire Department, or Adoption Center. Most of the time, the baby birds are eventually raised and fed. They might even indirectly kill their “fake” siblings.

Cuckoo Birds are naturally bigger and pretty loud compared to others. This results in the Cuckoos being fed more and they’ll even steal food right from their “mother’s” mouth. Once the bird grows up, they will leave the nest. Females will then go lay another egg in yet another nest that does not belong to them and become a problem for yet another mother. Keep in mind, Cuckoo Birds do not just do this with other Cuckoo nests. Meaning a Robin could just as easily have a potential Cuckoo child to raise. This act from the Cuckoo Bird is known as Brood Parasitism.

Clownfish Transition Sexes, Sometimes Faster Than They’d Like

While human beings can only transition our genders, other animals can transition their sex. This is not common among most animals, but it does happen with all Clownfish. When the Matriarch of the Clownfish clan dies off, a male Clownfish will take its place and become the new female. Usually, this occurs with the largest male in the clan. Potentially, due to the fact that Female Clownfish need to be a bit larger for all the babymaking.

Since Clownfish will have usually just one female around compared to several males, they will live in a Polyamorous society where there will be several Brother-Husbands. The female will only take one mate at a time, so males have to move up in the hierarchy. However, all Clownfish start out as males. Of course, Clownfish are sequential hermaphrodites. Meaning, they start male but will eventually transition to female in their lives. All of them. Finding Nemo is somehow weirder to watch now.

Koko The Gorilla’s Incredible Communication

When we say that there might never be another creature more important to their species than Koko the Gorilla, we truly mean that. She sadly died in 2018, but when she was alive, Koko was able to show a level of intelligence that would impress anyone. We know that Gorillas cannot speak English or any other known human language. However, her instructor and caregiver Francine Patterson realized she could teach Koko sign language to communicate with humans.

While it was a version of Gorilla signing, Koko learned more than 1,000 signs to communicate with. That put her on the same level as a three-year-old human. Koko also was able to understand around 2,000 words of English, in addition to Sign Language. Perhaps, the most amazing thing was her recognition skill. When meeting Robin Williams, Koko remembered him from a movie she watched, identified him on the cover of the tape, and was excited to interact with him personally.

The Virgin Dragon Birth

While there are some asexual creatures, mostly in the ocean, most of the time you need a mate to create new life. Yet due to problems with a species, some creatures are unable to mate for one reason or another. This led to some animals developing an evolutionary response. In one of the strangest animal habits in history, a Komodo Dragon surprised her caregivers at the London Chester Zoo when she ended up laying eggs.

This would have made sense if the Dragon had a mate, but she didn’t. In fact, she had not been around a male Komodo Dragon in quite some time. You could see how it would surprise everyone. What ended up happening was a “virgin birth,” where the female dragon laid exact clones of herself. The children are literal clones of their mother, down to their DNA. This last-ditch evolutionary response to pass along genes can also be found in Pythons and Swellsharks. Each time, it’s absolutely incredible.

Where did we find this stuff? Here are Our Sources: 

National Geographic

 San Diego Wildlife Alliance

 Stanford University

 University of Washington

 National Institutes of Health

 American Physiological Society

 Scientific American

 BBC

 USA Today

Smithsonian Magazine

Live Science

 The Guardian

 Nature.com

 Phys.org

 TreeHugger.com