30 fascinating facts that will make you look at the world differently (31 photos)

Our world is much richer and more interesting than we are used to thinking. Today we want to share with you a selection of interesting facts. It is possible that you will enrich your knowledge, and this is always a pleasant activity.





1. African buffalo make decisions by voting



African buffalo herds use a clever way to make decisions: voting. When it comes to choosing a direction, females take turns standing up and facing a certain direction, then lying down. If the votes are evenly divided, the herd may temporarily split up. Only adult females have the right to vote.

2. Each winter, reindeer change their eye color from gold to dark blue





These animals' eyeballs are able to adapt to changes in light. They turn blue to help them see in the lower levels of sunlight that characterize polar winters.

3. Bats Save Billions of Dollars a Year



They are so good at controlling pests that they help American farmers save at least $3.7 billion a year on pesticides.

4. Goats adopt an accent when they get to foreign relatives



5. Fennec fox ears act as a thermostat and prevent the animal's body from overheating



6. Self-medication orangutans



Scientists have witnessed how a Sumatran orangutan in Indonesia self-medicated. He made a "paste" from medicinal plants and treated a wound on his cheek for several days.

7. A thread of spider silk is thinner than a human hair, but five times stronger than steel



A thread of silk 5 cm thick can stop a Boeing 747.

8. Elephants "forget" nothing.



It turns out that elephants have better memories than most animals. All mammals, including humans, have four different lobes in the cerebral cortex: the occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal. Each lobe plays an important role, from learning language to processing auditory information. In elephants, the temporal lobe is larger and denser. It is responsible for the process of memorization, which allows elephants to have excellent memories.

9. The tiger's skin is covered in stripes



On a tiger's skin, dark hair follicles are easy to distinguish from light ones. Snow leopards and other large cats also have markings on their skin that match their fur.

10. Male Humboldt and Adélie penguins offer females pebbles as a marriage proposal



Pebbles are valuable because penguins use them to build nests, and they can be hard to find on the barren Antarctic coast. If a female accepts a pebble, the pair bonds for life.

11. Crows remember faces



Researchers have discovered that crows recognize our faces and remember those who offended them. Moreover, they pass this information on to their fellow crows.

12. The Loudest Animal in the World - the Pistol Shrimp



The large claw of this tiny creature produces a loud clicking sound, emitting a powerful wave of bubbles that can stun large fish and break a glass jar. Colonies of pistol shrimp can interfere with sonar and underwater communications.

13. Cows kill more people than sharks



Sharks kill an average of 5 people a year, while cows kill 22. It's worth noting that humans kill about 100 million sharks a year!

14. There are animals that can live forever



The Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish is the only known species that can turn back into a polyp at any stage of its life and rejuvenate itself. And this cycle can continue indefinitely.

15. The platypus sweats milk



Platypuses concentrate milk in their bellies, then sweat and secrete it from their folds.

16. Trees Can Defend Themselves



Trees can produce chemicals, phenols, to repel insect pests. They also have defense mechanisms, similar to our immune systems, that help them resist disease.

17. Polar bears accumulate so much vitamin A that eating their liver can be fatal



One liver can kill 52 adults.

18. The snow leopard's paws serve as natural snowshoes



The snow leopard's wide, furry paws serve as natural snowshoes, helping to distribute its weight across the soft snow and protecting it from the cold.

19. Sloths defecate only once a week



Sloths come down to the ground only in two cases: to relieve themselves once every five to seven days or when they cannot climb up the branches to a neighboring tree.

20. Hummingbirds can fly forward, backward, and sideways, and hover in the air



The bird's metabolism is so fast that just a couple of hours without food kills it.

21. The smell of freshly cut grass is a kind of distress signal



The smell of freshly cut grass may be synonymous with summer, but the reason for its appearance is not so joyful. The scent is actually a "cry of terror" that other plants and animals can hear. When grass is damaged, a variety of molecules called "green leaf volatiles" are released. All plants produce them.

A study conducted in corn fields found that when predators eat corn, the volatiles stimulate the crops to produce substances that make them less palatable to predators. This suggests that this is how plants warn their fellows of a potential threat.

22. 99% of the panda's diet - bamboo leaves and shoots - have little nutritional value



The digestive system of pandas, like that of predators, is not designed to digest such a volume of plant food. This is why the black and white bear leads a sedentary lifestyle.

23. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant!



Hedgehogs should not be fed milk. If you want to feed your little one, wet cat food or hedgehog food is best.

24. Manatees regulate their buoyancy by farting



They release gas to dive deeper, or store it to rise to the surface.

25. Dolphins Give Each Other Names



It is well known that dolphins are social creatures. They usually travel in pods, which can consist of 2 to 30 individuals. It is also well known that dolphins are extremely intelligent. It turns out that these creatures call each other by name - they use a characteristic whistle to identify each other. When a dolphin hears its own "name", it responds.

26. Honey Doesn't Spoil



Archaeologists have discovered pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old, but the contents are still edible.

27. When a female clownfish dies, the male changes sex and then copulates with his own offspring



28. Pigeons sense the Earth's magnetic field



These birds use the magnetic field to navigate, a skill that humans have admired and used for centuries.

29. There are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way



Scientists have determined that the number of stars in the Milky Way ranges from 100 billion to 400 billion, and there are 3 trillion trees on Earth.

30. A killer whale's pregnancy lasts 17 months