Animals do some pretty strange stuff: flamingos stand in the water on one leg, ostriches hide their heads in the sand... Or do they? There're a lot of false facts about animals and we're getting to the bottom of the common misconceptions in this video. I've googled popular animals myths to debunk them for you.
Can blue whales swallow a car? What do you think is the largest thing a blue whale can swallow? We're talking about the biggest animal in the word to have ever lived on our planet. It can grow to up to 100 feet. So it's possible to imagine a blue whale swallowing something big like a car. But can it really?
00:00Now, one of the most common animal myths is that mice love cheese.
00:06It popped out a long time ago, probably as early as when people started storing food.
00:11Since mice are regular visitors to human homes, they were constantly looking for food they could eat.
00:17People used to store grains in glass jars.
00:20They also kept their meat hanging up high.
00:22But they'd lay the cheese on the shelf, which was an easy target for all the unwelcome pantry visitors like mice.
00:29So they ate it, because they couldn't reach anything better.
00:32But a mouse will definitely more likely go after chocolate or some other sweet thing than the cheese.
00:38Who can blame them?
00:40Now, flamingos don't really stand in the water on one leg so they wouldn't get cold.
00:45This is just a simple way for them to spare the effort.
00:48It's exhausting for us humans to stand on one leg.
00:51But for them, this is the most stable position possible considering their peculiar anatomy.
00:56This pose doesn't require any muscular work.
00:59Now I'm jealous.
01:03One of the most widespread and oldest myths out there is that ostriches hide their heads in the ground every time they're scared.
01:11A long time ago, researchers thought ostriches weren't very smart because they bury their heads in the ground without being aware the rest of their large bodies are still out there, where everyone can see them.
01:21In fact, ostriches do it when they want to swallow sand and pebbles to boost their digestion, or just turn over the eggs they lay in their nests.
01:30And even then, they technically don't bury their head, but put it near the ground.
01:35Otherwise, with its head in the sand, the poor thing wouldn't be able to breathe.
01:39No reason to think of an ostrich as a frightened bird.
01:42Like some other animals, it will flee if it senses there's a danger coming.
01:46And in some situations, it'll fight back and defend itself.
01:50And that's one angry bird.
01:53What do you think is the largest thing a blue whale can swallow?
01:57Well, we're talking about the biggest animal ever known to have lived on our planet.
02:01It can grow up to 100 feet long with a weight of 200 tons.
02:05It's heart is as big as a car, and its tongue can weigh as much as an average elephant.
02:11It's easy to imagine a blue whale swallowing cars, people, and even small ships, perhaps.
02:16But it's all wrong.
02:18The largest thing it can actually swallow is a grapefruit.
02:21Its throat can take the size of a small salad plate.
02:25Whales feed on small fish, plankton, and marine crustaceans, so they don't need a bigger throat.
02:30But we wouldn't be able to survive the juices inside a blue whale's stomach anyway.
02:35It would finish us within 15 seconds, similar to how long we'd last in space without a spacesuit.
02:41So don't try this.
02:44Camels don't store water in their humps.
02:47We're talking about animals with extraordinary resistance to some pretty extreme conditions.
02:52They can survive even when drinking water only every 8 to 10 days.
02:56But not because they have a secret stash on their back.
02:59It's because, when they have a chance to drink, they will swallow 50 gallons of water at one sitting.
03:05They mostly use it to replenish 30% of their total body weight, an amount they can lose by dehydration.
03:12So, they lose a lot of water but quickly regain it.
03:15Their humps are where they deposit fat.
03:17But it's not for producing water.
03:19The oxygen camels would need to inhale would cause them to lose too much water because it would evaporate through their lungs.
03:25That's why they use fat as a nutritional source for energy.
03:29This helps them survive in arid regions and times of scarcity.
03:34Now, it's a myth that anteaters vacuum ants using their noses.
03:38They don't go around looking for ants and hoovering them through their long snouts.
03:42Anteaters have very long tongues.
03:45Giant anteaters have tongues that go up to 2 feet long.
03:48It's the shape of a strand of spaghetti and covered in spiny hooks and sticky saliva that traps ants.
03:54Up to 160 times in a minute.
03:57Which means they eat up to 20,000 insects in a single day.
04:00That's a lot of bugs.
04:02They open anthills using their claws and then do the rest of the work with the tongue.
04:07They don't have teeth, so they only swallow all the insects they catch.
04:10Movies might have given you a false sense of security when it comes to dinos.
04:16Nope, standing very, very still couldn't save you from a raging T-Rex coming after you.
04:22Uh-uh.
04:22It's a myth.
04:23The Dino King had bad vision.
04:25These beasts may have seen better than modern-day raptors.
04:28They had excellent death perception.
04:31Something present in today's animals such as eagles and hawks.
04:35Even if, by some miracle, the Dino King can't see you or thinks you're just a small tree or some other object because you're standing so still.
04:43They had a pretty good sense of smell.
04:46So, the better option would be to run because the T-Rex is not as fast as scientists used to think, up to 33 miles per hour.
04:54Considering their anatomy, they could move at a speed of 12 miles per hour.
04:57Anything faster than that would have caused serious bone damage.
05:01But this didn't stop them from ruling the animal world because there were plenty of dinosaurs way slower than them, so they didn't have to worry about food.
05:10Another misconception states that owls can spin their heads, neither more nor less than 360 degrees.
05:18Their head spinning does have its limit, 270 degrees in one direction.
05:22Since they can turn 270 degrees to the left and right, owls have a 540-degree range of motion.
05:31Don't worry.
05:32If you touch a butterfly's wings, the animal won't lose its ability to fly.
05:36It will survive, despite the common myth that says the opposite.
05:40Butterfly wings have scales.
05:42When you touch them, some scales might shed off.
05:45But it's not a bad thing, because they shed off naturally, too.
05:48Because of sheddable scales, they can escape more easily if they get stuck and trapped in spider webs.
05:56Now, the next myth has inspired many movies, books, and TV series scenarios.
06:00But no, wolves don't howl at the moon.
06:03They typically howl at night, true, but because that's the period of time when they're most active.
06:08They'll also look up while howling, since this helps the sound travel.
06:13That way, other wolves will hear them from around 6 to 7 miles away.
06:17And that's why they howl in the first place, to communicate with each other.
06:21They make specific sounds for a certain situation.
06:24For example, to help a wolf that lost its pack find its way home.
06:28The moon just happened to accidentally be there while wolves were communicating.
06:33Okay, giraffes only need 30 minutes of sleep a day.
06:38That's another myth.
06:40They sleep about 4 and a half hours daily.
06:42It's not that unusual for animal species that are most active during daylight.
06:47Studies also show giraffes usually lay down to sleep for less than 11 minutes at a time.
06:53Many people believe moles are blind.
06:56These small, burrowing mammals actually can see.
06:59It's just their vision is really poor and only adapted to recognize light.
07:04They're also colorblind.
07:06When they're searching for food and navigating the dark underground,
07:09these creatures mostly rely on their touch and sense of smell.
07:13Now, their sense of touch is sharp, which is why moles can feel nearby vibrations of activity.
07:18This helps them avoid danger or find their next meal more easily,
07:22like millipedes, worms, centipedes, and other invertebrates.
07:25Yum!
07:26They're really fast at digging and can dig a couple of inches per minute.
07:32In the winter, animals hibernate, not because it's too cold for them to be outside,
07:37but because there isn't enough food during that period.
07:40When an animal is in hibernation, its heart rate, body temperature, breathing,
07:44and other metabolic activities slow down significantly.
07:48That's how they conserve energy.
07:49Chipmunks, bats, turtles, snakes, they all hibernate during the winter,
07:55which saves them energy for other seasons when they get more active and are capable of getting more food.
08:01I'd say bears, too, but they're not the true hibernators.
08:05If you try waking one up during the winter when you believe the animal is sleeping,
08:09you might end up having a bad time.
08:12Now, they do slow down, which means they sleep for extended periods of time.
08:15They're still not asleep for the entire winter season,
08:19and you can easily wake them during their sleep.
08:21So, let's not.
08:24Now, don't believe myths.
08:25Earwigs won't lay eggs in your ears.
08:28Yep, despite their name, they're not that interested in your ears.
08:32Well, at least, there's no evidence they'd want to go there.
08:35They prefer to spend their time in dark, moist places, such as under tree bark or in soil.
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