this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
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-Elephants can't jump.

-Starfish don't brains.

-Cheetahs are almost literally giant housecats: they purr, they meow, they don't attack humans and are surprisingly easy to tame.

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[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Chimps will gang up and murder tyrannical leaders, we could learn so much from them. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119677-chimps-beat-up-murder-and-then-cannibalise-their-former-tyrant/

[–] phx@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Cheetahs sound fun until I consider how many cords my cats have chewed, furniture they've scratched, and litter boxes they've populated.

Then suddenly a giant tame housecat seems less appealing.

[–] choihanna@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Cheetah are extremely anxious animals, most other felines are very "lazy" animals but cheetah are active. Their hunting strategy is an outlier in felines, they don't stalk and surprise, they outrun their prey.

Another issue is that even tho they're more tame than other cats including the Serval they still can pretty much kill you. Tamed cheetah don't usually harm their owners but there have been catastrophic incidents with kids.

[–] portnull@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

As a platypus lays eggs and produces milk, it's the only mammal that can make its own custard (plus the enchidna which can also do the same)

Dolphins don't dream. Their cortex is large enough to not need to

Sharks are older than the star polaris

[–] m0darn@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] benderbeerman@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

I was thinking enchiladas, but echidnas make way more sense. Even if less tasty. I'm probably just hungry

[–] portnull@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

Thank you. TIL

[–] TipRing@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Most giraffe sex happens between two males.

Humpback whales are able to navigate exceptionally well and I don't think science knows how.

Humpback whales travel by picking a direction and traveling in that direction. They can maintain a true course to within a degree of accuracy for hundreds of miles regardless of location on the planet, ocean currents, magnetic variation, day or night, though open empty ocean.

I know how to do that, but I need stuff the whales don't have like visual reference to a solid surface, accurate charts, radio-based navaids, winds aloft forecasts, and/or gyroscopic instruments. Most of the time, most creatures either navigate by landmarks, some are able to navigate magnetically, some can home, ie they can sense a destination and point their noses at it and go that way, as forces such as winds, ocean currents, Coriolis force etc. push them off course they steer to keep the destination dead ahead, tracing a half-teardrop course.

But humpbacks can pick a direction and go perfectly straight. Somehow.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

uhh i've seen a cheetah attack a lady some years ago, tbf it was a pissed off one, on a leash, that she wanted to pet or pose with for a photo

[–] fiqusonnick@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Female spotted hyenas have pseudo-penises and no vaginal opening. They instead dock and give birth through their dicks

[–] choihanna@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

It's a retractable pseudo penis tho, they shrink it so it's easier for the male to penetrate her even if her vagina isn't very conventional.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

the sounding community seems to leak again...

I learned a NSFW animal fact the other day. There are some fish that care for their young by holding them in their mouth, it's called mouthbrooding. That's not the new or NSFW part though.

The NSFW part is the fact that

for some fish, the fertilization occurs in the mouth. The female lays her eggs and scoops them up into her mouth. Then the male fertilizes the eggs directly in her mouth. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. A male fish cums into a female fish's mouth, and that's how they normally reproduce.

Ahh, nature. So beautiful. So like us.

[–] hedge_lord@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A centipede's 'fangs' are actually weird legs that can inject venom, and they're called toxicognaths (which is one of my favourite words)!

"Bartender! I'll have a toxicognath, thanks".

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

There are 25-million ants for every person on this planet.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

Ant-Man summoning all the ants would be way scarier than Spider-Man summoning all the spiders.

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

I don't want mine.

Where do I go to claim them?

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Wasps and bees are closely related to ants, ants really go crazy for honey.

[–] showmeyourkizinti@startrek.website 37 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Cheetah’s went through a genetic bottleneck somewhere between ten and twelve thousand years ago. There may have been less than ten left at one point. Dating the Cheetah Genetic Bottleneck
My totally silly theory is that humans in fact where adopting kits at that time and help saved the species, and that’s why they’re so almost domesticated.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

Or how it happens with african tribes; aggressive lions get killed by the whole tribe. And at some point there were almost no cheetah...

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

There is almost no genetic diversity among them. You can skin graft or transplant organs between any two cheetahs without fear of rejection.

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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 5 points 2 days ago

I never knew for ages they’re part of the house cat branch of the feline family rather than the big cat branch with the lions and tigers, so that explains why they’re just floppy doofuses.

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[–] Enekk@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago

Wild bees (often solo) will sometimes "bed down" in cactus flowers. The flowers close in the evening providing protection for the sleeping bee.

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 31 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Pigs can't look up. Sharks are older than trees. The duck billed platypus has no nipples; milk just oozes from the skin. All mammals have the same number of cervical vertebrae.

[–] mech@feddit.org 33 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Sharks are as old as fire.
They evolved around 450 million years ago, which is also the time oxygen levels in the atmosphere first got high enough to sustain fire, and land plants appeared that could catch fire.

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[–] YaksDC@sh.itjust.works 31 points 3 days ago (7 children)
[–] gazter@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

And their primary defence is crushing the skulls of their enemies against the roof of their burrow. Using their butt.

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[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Meerkat mobs are led by a dominant female. She's identifiable by looking for the biggest butt.

[–] AlabasterQueen76@discuss.online 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So what do I do? I now have some meerkats following me home.

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Grooming them for parasites is probably a good start.

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[–] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Opossums are essentially immune to rabies and eat ticks.

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[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Sharks have existed on earth longer than trees and grass.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

You can see a good portion of the back of many owls' eyes if you look in their ears.

[–] Thordros@hexbear.net 19 points 3 days ago

-Starfish don't brains.

Starfish ALL brain! Decentralized nervous system means it's brain all the way down, baby!

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Humans can throw objects in excess of 100 mph (40 m/s), and hit a target from over 60 feet (20 m) away

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But they still can’t take criticism.

[–] Geobloke@aussie.zone 7 points 2 days ago

You've just made an enemy for life!

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 17 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Starfish don’t brains?

I like that cats know their own names, understand why we’re saying them, yet choose to ignore us on purpose.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

No, starfish just.

We had five cats, and they all knew each other's names.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The octopus has 9 brains, one central brain (donut shaped, around the esophagus), and one in each of the 8 arms.

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