The dumbest myths you heard about animals

I think urban legends like that make the world a little less small and boring. Once you realize that just about every wild animal is tracked, tagged, counted, and managed with precision that would put ranchers to shame, the world really does feel just suffocating. I understand why people need to make up ghost cats and insist they’ve seen the Lord God Bird. Knowledge is a curse!

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Dragonflies (Devil’s Darning Needles) will go in your ear and puncture your brain.

If a dragonfly lands on your fishing pole, you are about to get a bite, unless you live in Japan, in which case you are inexperienced.

You can tell what fish is going to bite by the type of dragonfly that lands on your pole.

As you can see, I recently read a book about dragonflies. :slightly_smiling_face:

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“The End of Nature,” just as McKibben predicted.

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It’s true, we can eat anything we see an animal eat. It’s just that some of those things, we can only eat once. :wink:

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Very true!

I always find the one about toads odd. Some people think that touching a toad will give you warts??? Like, who came up with that?!

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The guy who saw a toad and thought, wow, those warts must be a way to scare children. :upside_down_face:

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If anything, touching a toad is worse for their skin!

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Hey, it worked on my cousin! Of course, I was the one sticking the toad in his face. Revenge of the Bookworm!

(Adult me is sorry for the stress inflicted on the poor toads by pre-teen me, but at least I made sure that my hands were clean when I picked one up.)

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I have known people to believe that they would give you warts! I bet lots of children are scared of picking them up, although, I guess if kids don’t pick them up then the toads don’t get human oils on them… Maybe it was a toad lover who made this folklore…

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Of course not! I’ve bet those Russian ads are some sort of parody or something.

So touching amphibians is bad for them, not for us.

Yeah. The oils on our skin can cause them to have trouble breathing, as they cover the breathing holes on the toad’s skin. OR at least that is what I have heard.

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Same here, so, basing on consensus, it very likely is true.

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There are some pretty funny and bizarre myths about animals out there. Here are a few: 1. Bats are blind: Many people think bats are completely blind, but in reality, they can see quite well. They use echolocation to navigate and find food, but they also have functional eyes. 2. Goldfish have a three-second memory span: Goldfish are often said to have a memory span of just a few seconds, but research shows they can remember things for weeks and even months. 3. Owls can turn their heads all the way around: While owls can rotate their heads significantly, they can’t spin them 360 degrees. They can turn their heads about 270 degrees in either direction. 4. Wombat poop is cube-shaped: It’s true that wombat poop is cube-shaped, but it’s not because they’re trying to be unique. The shape helps prevent the poop from rolling away and is a result of the unique structure of their intestines. 5. Elephants are afraid of mice: There’s no scientific evidence that elephants are afraid of mice. This myth likely stems from a misunderstanding or exaggeration of their reactions to small animals. 6. You can “hypnotize” a chicken by drawing a line in front of them: The idea that you can hypnotize a chicken by drawing a line and having them stare at it is more about confusing them and not actually inducing hypnosis. 7. All snakes are venomous: Not all snakes are venomous; many are completely harmless. Of the thousands of snake species, only a small percentage are venomous to humans.

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Better yet, I’ve heard that all snakes are poisonous. :roll_eyes:

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I have heard every single on of them! Kids at my school always talk about Goldfish having three second memory, and I am always like, why does that make sense to you?

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Ha ha.

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Well, elephants are afraid of mice, I have heard, comes from the fact, that elephants don´t have very sharp eyes. As an animal of that size ist seen from all others, there is no need to be sharp-eyed as well. And so they might be confused by something moving, too small to be identified. as are small animals. The mice are just the most common of these species.

Aha! Another misconception! Non-avian dinosaurs were dead before the first humans.

Artwork of Jesus with avian dinosaurs is of course completely standard (but not usually as cute).
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