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From animals to geography, take a look at these amazing—and slightly strange—facts about our world. ... Check out Weird But True! videos, fun facts, and more ...
- Really Weird Animals
Baird's Tapir. The Baird's tapir has a nose like an...
- 5,000 Awesome Facts
5,000 Awesome Facts. This brain candy-filled book is an...
- Weird But True
Learn amazing facts and watch fun videos about the world's...
- Really Weird Animals
- Overview
- 10) Longest-Lived Vertebrate May Live 500 Years
- 9) Extremely Rare White Giraffe Spotted
- 8) 'Skiing Cat' Filmed in Action
- 7) Caterpillar Drums Its Anus to Find Friends
- 6) Disco Spider Pulsates With Baffling Color
- 5) Two-Headed Sharks Keep Popping Up
- 4) Why This Animal's Pee Smells Like Buttered Popcorn
- 3) Arctic Foxes 'Grow' Their Own Gardens
- 2) Spider That Looks Like a Leaf
From a shark with a sex organ on its head to a spider with a flashing disco ball, we rounded up Earth's oddest offerings of the year.
This was a weird year for many—including Mother Nature.
This year brought us two-headed sharks, anal-drumming caterpillars, and a spider with an internal disco ball—you can't make this stuff up.
For our biggest fans of the bizarre, we've rounded up 2016's strangest animal discoveries. (See the weirdest animal stories of 2015.)
It's no fish tale: The Greenland shark is the longest-lived vertebrate on the planet, an August study found.
The animal, native to the cold, deep waters of the North Atlantic, can live to at least 272 years—and possibly to the ripe old age of 500. (Related: "Meet the Animal That Lives for 11,000 Years.")
Talk about a head-turner: An extremely rare white giraffe calf was spotted in January in Tanzania's Tarangire National Park.
Scientists at the New Hampshire-based wildlife-research group Wild Nature Institute originally reported the newborn Masai giraffe calf in 2015, around the time a local tour guide named her Omo, after a popular local brand of detergent.
1:12
Watch: Skiing With Adorable Adventure Cat Jesperpus
In a March video made exclusively for National Geographic, Jesper—the famous "skiing cat" of Norway—goes cross-country skiing in the snowy wilderness.
Like a sled dog, the cat trots in front of owner Aina Stormo as she skis—and when he gets tired, he rides along on her shoulder. (Also see "How Cats and People Grew to Love Each Other.")
When it comes to finding new friends, this caterpillar busts its butt—literally.
Scientists already knew that masked birch caterpillars rub hairs on their rear ends against a leaf to create vibrations.
1:02
Do You See a Snake or a Spider?
Regularly photographed in Singapore, the creature's pulsating designs are proving a tricky puzzle to solve. Scientists don’t know how the arachnid, in the genus Cyrtarachne, produces the internal movements, let alone what purpose it might serve.
“I haven’t seen anything like it,” Linda Rayor, a spider biologist at Cornell University, said in December. “Really, it is bizarre and interesting.”
Two-headed sharks may sound like a figment of the big screen, but they exist—and more are turning up worldwide, scientists say.
For instance, Spanish researchers identified an embryo of an Atlantic sawtail catshark with two heads, according to a November study, and several have been discovered in recent years.
Binturongs, or bearcats—neither bears nor cats—are Southeast Asian mammals whose urine has a movie-theater aroma.
A study published in April found this strange scent is produced by a chemical compound in their urine called 2-AP.
The little carnivores' colorful dens provide veritable oases in the tundra, scientists announced in May.
With litters averaging eight to 10 pups—some as high as 16—a lot of foxes are depositing a lot of nutrients in and around their underground dens, a combination of urination, defecation, and leftover kills.
This orb-weaving spider, native to southwestern China, is the first one known to mimic a leaf.
The arachnid uses its silk to attach leaves to tree branches and then hides among the branches, according to a November study in the Journal of Arachnology. The researchers still aren't sure why the spider does this, but they believe it's likely to hide from predators or sneak up on prey.
- Christine Dell'amore
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What are the Weirdest Animal discoveries of 2016?
- The loudest animal in the world is a mere 2cm long, prawn. The Pistol Shrimp is capable of snapping its claw shut so rapidly, that it creates a bubble which collapses to produce a sonic blast, louder than a Concorde’s sonic boom.
- Flamingos are not pink. They are born grey, their diet of brine shrimp and blue green algae contains a natural pink dye called canthaxanthin that makes their feathers pink.
- Otters “hold hands” while sleeping, so they don’t float away from each other. And it’s super-cute. Look.
- Hummingbirds are the only known birds that can also fly backwards. They often do this when retreating away from flowers. 3.
Mar 1, 2024 · Salamanders are the only vertebrates that can replace their skin, limbs, tail, jaws, and spines at any age. On the flip side, humans can regenerate lost limb buds as embryos and fingertips as young children. 51. A group of rhinos is called a crash.
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