15 Animal Myths You Probably Believe
Many people aren’t exactly ecstatic about animals so there knowledge of them is minimal but the among the things they know there are many outdated facts and incorrect information. This information has been passed down to them and the sad part is, the truth isn’t commonly available. Not many people care enough to try and learn new information about animals because they just don’t matter to them. This information is then passed down to their children and the line goes on and on. There are other forms of misinformation are made recently and are just generally excepted by the public who just don’t know any better. There are also myths people make up in their head because they see nothing against it. That said, here are 15 animal facts disapproving myths even many animals lovers might believe.
- Pythons don’t suffocate their prey
Contrary to popular belief, pythons and other constrictor snakes don’t kill their prey by suffocation. In actuality, they cut off the blood flow to major organs like the heart when they constrict. This makes the death quicker so there is less risk of the snake getting injured while subduing its prey.
2. Rabbits don’t love carrots
Many people, even those who keep rabbits assume that rabbits love carrots but their is no factual evidence behind this except for some cartoons. Too many rabbit keepers think that carrots can be a staple diet for rabbits. The majority of their diet should be hay and grass. They should also be feed a small cup full of pellets and some leafy veggies daily. Carrots are high in sugar but have little nutritional value. Vets urge rabbit keepers to only feed carrots as a snack once in a while.
3. Bettas or Siamese Fighting Fish Can’t Live in a Tiny Tank or Fish Bowl but They Can Be Kept Together
The betta fish is often recommended as a starter pet because they have relatively simple care. Notice how I said relatively, bettas still need your time, attention, and some money to actually thrive. Bettas can’t live in a fish bowl or anything less than a 3 gallon tank (that is absolute bare minimum, I recommend at least a 5 gallon). They do need a filter and a heater. You will need water conditioner. You will need substrate and decor. Most tap water has chlorine and heavy metals that will kill a fish. They need a filter and heater because in nature, there would be loads of bacteria, water insects, and plants cycling there waste. This is why some heavily panted tanks don’t require a filter. They do need a heater unless your house is the same temperature as Southeast Asian rice fields (that can regularly exceed 90 degrees).Decor and plants are not just for the eye, the betta needs something to interact with to keep their mind stimulated and to hide in when stressed. Without that, they will die of stress. Yes in a large enough tank you can cohabitate betta fish. 2–3 females can be kept together in a heavily planted 15 gallon tank.
4. Axolotl’s Aren’t Naturally Pink or White
Those pretty pinkish white axolotls you see online are not found in the wild. I have been asked “How do these white salamanders not get eaten” but the white axolotls aren’t found in the wild. The axolotl’s you often see are usually either leucistic or albino. The wild ones like the one pictured above are generally brown or green with spots. I personally like the wild-type more than the albinos and leucistics but that is just my opinion. They are endangered in the wild due to pollution (they live in Mexico City are are very susceptible to pollution because they have external gills), yet in captivity they are extremely common. Some people argue that the leucistics and albinos shouldn't be bred because having this amount of wild-type axolotl’s would be amazing to create insurance populations and start releasing them into the wild but I think we need to get the pollution problem fixed first before we start reintroduction. I am not fully against people breeding the leucistics and albinos as long as the animals are healthy and bred responsibly.
5. Wolves Do Naturally Eat Some Plants
Unlike cats, wild dogs do not limit their meals to just meat. While plants can not be a staple diet for them wolves do eat berries and fruit from time to time for the extra calories. This doesn’t mean a vegan diet for a dog is okay, dogs do need meat but this shows that wolves and other wild dogs do eat plants in the wild. This means you can give your dog the occasional apple slice, blueberry, or banana and it won’t hurt your dog as long as you don’t over do it. You can use it like a rare treat.
6. Touching a Bird’s Chicks Doesn’t Make the Mother Abandon Them
Touching a birds chicks will not make her abandon them. Their sense of smell isn’t great so they don’t care. She will not abandon her chicks if a human touched them as she is their mother. Her babies are precious to her, she is not just going to leave them to die if you put them pack in the nest. That said, don’t disturb bird nests unless absolutely necessary. It causes lots of stress to the chicks.
7. Sharks Can’t Smell Your Pee and Blood From Miles Away
While sharks do have an incredible sense of smell, this myth is kind off exaggerated. If there is a drop of blood or piss in the water, a great white is not swimming in from 3 miles away to kill you. They can smell a drop of your blood in a body of water the size of an Olympic swimming pool, and while that is still an impressive feat, that sense of smell is not some super-natural sense of smell. However, combined with their still great smell is their electroreception from their Ampullae of Lorenzini also known as their electroreceptors. The senses of a shark are extremely good, but not as crazy as it is in the myths.
8. Bears Don’t Hibernate During Winter
Bears are usually what many people immediately thing of when they hear the word “hibernation”, but they never truly hibernate. They go through a state called torpor. In true hibernation, the body temperature of the animal drops with the outside temperature but for bears it stays relatively warm. While they do not eat or produce waste during torpor, they can be woken up while still in torpor if touched or scared.
9. Komodo Dragon’s Don’t Have Bacteria-Filled Saliva
It was once believed that komodo dragons had a bacteria filled bite. People believed that the infections found in the wounds of the komodo’s prey were from the animal itself. They didn’t take into account that most attacks from these lizards happened is dirty, mosquito larvae and bacteria infested water. This lead to the infection, the komodo’s bite itself had a type of venom that weakened the animal as well as the fact that it just got bit by a powerful, seven foot lizard with razor sharp teeth. That would lead to lots of blood loss for the animal, who then dies.
10. Mice Don’t Love Cheese
Mice don’t go insane over cheese like some people think. Mice much prefer grains and fruit. The origin for this myth was likely that before refrigeration, cheese was the only easy food source to quickly find. People observing mice eat this cheese led to the image of mice loving cheese being spread around. This found its way into most depictions of mice (Tom and Jerry, the general idea we have for what a mouse trap is, many illustrations of mice, cartoons, children’s books). Now, they much prefer other things like the fruit and grains mentioned earlier.
11. Chameleon’s Don’t Change Color for Camouflage
While it is believed that chameleons change their color based on their surroundings, it really is based on their mood or is a display. Chameleons can’t change into any color of the rainbow, they change the shades of the colors they have. When a chameleon is stressed, it will darken up but if it is calm it will brighten up. Male chameleons also change their colors as mating displays to attract females.
12. Snakes Don’t Rattle Their Tails Or Flatten Their Heads to Imitate Cobras or Rattlesnakes.
Colubrid snakes are generally quite harmless, making them an easy target for predators so they use some tricks to make themselves more intimidating. Some people see a bullsnake or corn snake rattling its tail in the grass while in a defensive position and assume the snake is mimicking a rattlesnake. This is not true, the rattling of a snake’s tail makes a loud sound that intimidates predators and has no correlation to whether rattlesnakes do it or not. Rattlesnakes just took this tool of intimidation to another level. People generally assume the same thing occurs with head flattening. Some people see a hognose snake with a flattened hood and assume it is to mimic a cobra. This can’t be true as hognose snakes evolved in North America whereas true cobras (genus Naja, the ones with the intimidating hoods) evolved in Africa and Asia.The flattening head combined with hissing makes the animal look bigger and more aggressive than it really is.
13. Snakes aren’t Deaf
While many people assume snakes are deaf due to their lack of external ears, they actually are not deaf. While they don’t hear like us, they do have a lesser form of the hearing apparatus we have but they re attached to their jaw bone. That means the essentially “hear” vibrations and they can hear low frequency sounds.
14. Snakes Don’t Chase People
Yes, the third snake myth in a row, snakes are highly misunderstood. Snakes do not intentionally attack humans (with the exception of unusually large anacondas and/or pythons who are starving though these occurrences are extremely rare). They have no reason to. Venom takes energy to produce so they prefer not to waste it on something they can’t eat. Snakes also try to warn you before striking (hooding up, rattling, hissing, flashing their mouth open) and some will even mock strike (strike with mouth closed, this is generally the case for cobras). Snakes are also generally pretty slow. If a snake is heading the same direction as you, that means you are blocking the path of least resistance, so it intends to avoid your legs. All you need to do is step aside and let the animal pass.
15. Not all sharks need to constantly swim to breathe.
This myth is partially true for many species of sharks like the Great White Shark but other species can pump water through their gills without having to swim. This is called buccal pumping. This allows less active sharks to respirate while resting on the ocean floor.
Honorable Mentions, these are facts disproving the myths that used to be commonly believed but most people know are false now:
- Camels don’t have water in their humps, they have fat in them.
- Frogs and toads don’t give you warts if you touch them.
- Goldfish can remember things for more than three seconds.
- Giraffes don’t sleep less than thirty minutes a day.
- Ostriches don’t put their heads in the sand.
- Bats aren’t blind
- Lemmings don’t commit mass suicide
