Buzz
Many of the things we believe about animals are simply untrue. Despite being disproven by studies and myths being debunked, we continue to share inaccurate information that has endured over time. Here are 10 popular animal 'facts' that are far from the truth.
10. Zebras
The black-and-white stripes of zebras have long been believed to serve as camouflage. This theory has been widely accepted since we first encountered zebras. However, research has since disproven this idea, and we are still unsure of the true purpose behind these stripes.
The misconception arose because we were viewing zebras from our point of view. The confusing stripes appeared to be a strategy to help these animals blend into their environment.
However, studies conducted by researchers from the University of Calgary and UC Davis revealed that this doesn't apply to the zebra's natural predators. Lions and hyenas, the primary hunters of zebras, can easily spot them in nearly all types of lighting. Additionally, these predators can smell zebras long before they see them, making camouflage irrelevant in most predator-prey interactions with zebras.
The researchers found no evidence that the stripes provide social benefits to zebras within their group. Yet, prior studies suggest that the stripes may serve as a defense against biting flies.
9. Piranhas
Despite their terrifying appearance, piranhas have been unfairly portrayed over the years. The mere thought of entering waters inhabited by piranhas is often considered a certain death, a fear so strong that entire films have been made about it.
While it's true that piranhas have sharp teeth and can strip the flesh from their prey, the idea that they actively hunt live animals, including humans, is mostly a myth. Sure, they’re capable of doing so, but so are many other animals with teeth.
There are no confirmed cases of piranhas attacking or killing a human intentionally. Isolated bite incidents have occurred when fishermen accidentally caught piranhas in their nets, which is understandable.
Contrary to what movies might suggest, piranhas don't hunt mammals for food, as their usual diet consists of decaying or dead animals. In rare instances where piranhas need to hunt, they typically target insects or other fish, not large mammals like the widely believed stories stemming from Theodore Roosevelt's Amazon expedition.
In fact, people living in the Amazon frequently swim in piranha-infested waters. Some have even attempted to provoke piranhas by entering tanks filled with them. These individuals walked away with just a few bites, not the gruesome, stripped-to-the-bone scenes we've come to expect from piranha attacks in popular media.
8. Komodo Dragons
If we were to select the most frightening reptile based on facts and cold, hard data, crocodiles would likely take the crown. However, when it comes to pure terror and the ultimate horror factor, nothing quite matches the Komodo dragon.
While their appearance is terrifying enough, Komodo dragons also kill in a truly unsettling manner. They bite their prey, introducing deadly bacteria from their mouths, and then simply let the infection do the work. But is that really how they operate?
Komodo dragons don’t actually rely on a lethal army of bacteria to bring down their prey. Instead, they kill in the traditional way by injecting venom. The discovery of their venom glands was made by a researcher from the University of Queensland in 2009.
The person who started the myth was Walter Auffenberg. After noticing that prey seemed to develop severe infections after being bitten by Komodo dragons, he assumed that these reptiles killed using bacteria. Thanks to his book The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor, nearly everyone today believes the bacteria theory without testing it.
7. Penguins
Because we have limited direct interaction with penguins, we tend to view them as charming creatures that lead equally charming lives in some of the harshest environments on Earth. Even their walking style seems endearing and reminiscent of human movement.
The idea that these creatures are, in fact, terrible beings that partake in some of the most morally questionable acts in the animal kingdom is hard to accept for most of us. Unfortunately, we've been misunderstanding these animals for far too long.
For instance, male Adelie penguins in Antarctica often engage in necrophilia and sexual assault. This behavior was first observed by a British scientist during an expedition to Antarctica from 1910 to 1913.
When the scientist later published his findings, the section detailing the penguins' sexual behavior was considered too disturbing to publish. He remarked, “There seems to be no crime too low for these penguins” in the now-banned four-page pamphlet shared among a small group of biologists at the time.
This behavior is not limited to male penguins. Female emperor penguins have been known to abduct other penguins' chicks to compensate for their own infertility. When challenged, they resort to outright aggression.
It doesn’t always involve other penguins. At times, female emperor penguins have stolen chicks from entirely different bird species and attempted to raise them as their own.
6. Pigs
Quick, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions the word “pig”? Most likely, it’s an image of a fat, sweaty creature rolling around in mud. There’s even a phrase, “sweat like a pig,” referring to excessive sweating.
However, pigs don’t have functional sweat glands. That’s why they cool off by lounging in the mud. Contrary to common belief, pigs are actually quite clean animals.
We’ve already covered the remarkable intelligence of pigs. They can even outdo the cleanest humans in terms of cleanliness. Our misconception about their hygiene comes from seeing pigs on farms where they’re forced to live amidst their own waste.
In the wild, pigs avoid passing waste near their living area. Some wild boars even go so far as to wash their food before eating, something most of us don’t do.
5. Earwigs
Since the name of this creature includes the word “ear,” many believe that earwigs crawl into human ears to lay their eggs. However, there have been no documented cases of an earwig residing in a human ear.
Their wings aren’t suited for effective flight, and human ears are often difficult to reach without wings. Additionally, earwigs provide more maternal care to their young than many other species.
This requires the mother earwig to stay close to her young during their early stages, something that would be quite difficult if the babies were tucked away inside the ears of an unsuspecting human.
Some researchers have proposed that the origin of the myth lies in the shape of earwigs' hind wings, which, when folded in a particular way, resemble a human ear. However, this theory is not widely accepted by most scientists.
4. Praying Mantises
When it comes to sexual behavior, there are few creatures as disturbing as the praying mantis. As made famous by the Discovery Channel, the mating ritual of the praying mantis supposedly isn’t finished until the female devours the male’s head.
However, when biologists investigated this well-known belief, they found that it wasn’t generally true. The praying mantises that had eaten their mates' heads did so in captivity.
This setting was entirely unlike the environment in which the creature typically prefers to mate—an enclosed, private space. Instead, the praying mantises were subjected to having people in lab coats observing their every move, watching intently.
The praying mantis pairs used in the early experiments were also underfed, so the males were just as likely to consume their mates as the females were.
However, when scientists recreated conditions more akin to the natural mating environment of praying mantises, the results were quite different. Of 69 experiments, only one female mantis consumed the male after copulation.
In the wild, the female mantis very rarely eats the male during or after mating. While it does occur, it is considered more of an exception than the norm.
3. Sloths
Across many cultures, sloths have long been associated with laziness. The saying “sleep like a sloth” even appears in references to the seven deadly sins. This perception was reinforced when researchers found that sloths sleep for around 16 hours a day. However, the study was conducted on captive sloths, not those living in the wild.
In contrast, a different study conducted in the sloths’ natural habitat revealed that they actually sleep for about 9.5 hours a day. The reason for the discrepancy is clear: captive sloths lack the survival challenges that their wild counterparts face every day.
Sloths may still move at a glacial pace from one location to another, but their lack of speed is not an indication of laziness. In fact, many other creatures are even slower than sloths, yet no one accuses them of being lazy.
2. Dogs
When it comes to training dogs, many of us are familiar with the idea of the alpha dog method. This approach suggests asserting dominance and showing your dog who’s in charge, based on how it’s believed to work in the wild.
The method is rooted in the belief that wolf packs have a single alpha wolf, a dominant figure who calls all the shots. This thinking implies that training your dog should follow a similar structure.
As you might have already suspected, this is a harsh way to train your dog. It also reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how wolf packs actually operate. The concept of the ‘alpha male’ comes from early studies of pack behavior in unnatural environments, but more recent research in the wild has debunked these conclusions.
In reality, wolf packs don’t follow a strict authoritarian model, as their social structure is closer to that of a biological family than a regime like North Korea. Furthermore, studies of wild dogs—sometimes considered distinct from wolves—show that pack leaders are typically more experienced, older animals, rather than a rigid alpha male.
1. Cockroaches
The idea that cockroaches are the sole survivors of a nuclear catastrophe has long been a part of popular culture, circulating through social media, casual dinner chats, and even appearing in movies.
This myth likely originated after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where some cockroaches managed to endure the radiation. However, they weren’t the only ones to survive the horrific aftermath.
While cockroaches do possess a higher resistance to radiation and a better chance of surviving mass extinction compared to many other creatures, recent studies suggest that they would actually be among the first insects to perish in a large-scale nuclear event.
It turns out that flour beetles are the most likely survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. In fact, many species of microbes would probably also manage to endure such a catastrophe.
