10 misconceptions about animals you shouldn't believe in

1. The most powerful creature in the world is an ant

Sometimes adults, wanting to test a child's intelligence, ask him a question: "Who do you think is stronger - an elephant or an ant?" When the baby is quite expected says that proboscis are stronger than insects, an intelligent-looking adult says that an elephant cannot lift an elephant, and an ant raises from 20 to 100 of its own masses. So in relative comparison, he is the most powerful creature in the world.

So, this is nonsense. Sri Lanka logging elephants carryThe world’s strongest animal can lift staggering weights, ELEPHANTS IN LOGGING OPERATIONS 3-4 tons of wood daily, using their tusks and trunk. Let ant will raise the log with the muscles of the upper lip, then we'll talk.

But even if you make a choice, comparing the ratio of the carried weight to body weight, then the most powerful creature in the world will not be an ant, but the two-horned beetle Onthophagus taurus. It is also called "kaloed-bull".

He is capableSuper Bug! World's Strongest Insect Revealed, The most powerful insect namedlift a weight 1,141 times its own weight, which no ant can.

This power beetle uses in fights with rivals to get the right to mate with a female. True, the most pumped-up wrestler does not always get access to the female body. OftenBeetle Horn Dimorphism: Making the Best of a Bad Lot more frail males, ignoring the rules of fair fight, lie in wait for the female in her burrow, rape and crawl away before a powerful adversary comes to fight them.

2. A blue whale can swallow a human

In biblical mythology, the whale swallowed the prophet Jonah, and he was in his stomach for three days and three nights. But in practice, such an event is highly unlikely.

Whales are unable to swallow humans. Their throats are too narrow to eat plankton, small fish, squid, octopuses, krill and other crustaceans.

In fact, as he writesToday's Science Message, The Book of General Ignorance researcher John Mitchinson in his book The Book of General Ignorance, it will be difficult for a whale to even cope with a grapefruit.

Here is a sperm whale theoretically capableCAN WHALES SWALLOW PEOPLE?, Could a Whale Accidentally Swallow You? It Is Possible swallow a man, but these giants swim so deep that most divers do not get there. And killer whales, for example, can attack people in extreme cases, but they only kill them, not eat them.

3. Chameleons are masters of camouflage

It is believed that chameleons change color in order to disguise themselves - to become invisible on rocks, trees or rocks. Therefore, actors transforming into other people, or military equipment with advanced camouflage, are compared with these animals.

But in reality, chameleons use their abilitySelection for Social Signaling Drives the Evolution of Chameleon Color Change, Chameleons communicate with complex color changes during contests: different body regions convey different information, Defeated chameleons darken dynamically during dyadic disputes to decrease danger from dominants changing skin color is not to ambush or hide from predators. This is how they communicate with each other - they show their aggression or, conversely, peacefulness.

Color change also helps to control body heating - this is how chameleons avoid heatstroke.

As for predators, these lizards do not hide from them (except for very small ones, like a dwarf chameleonChameleons fine-tune camouflage to predator's vision Smith). On the contrary, they are painted in bright colors and intimidateThe Adaptations of Chameleons aggressors with their terrible appearance.

4. The leader leads the pack of wolves

In all books and films, wolf packs are ruled by the strongest and most experienced wolf-leader, and the rest obey him unquestioningly. Think of Akela from The Jungle Book. And as the leader gets older, the younger candidate challenges him to become the new alpha.

But the realWhy everything you know about wolf packs is wrong wolves in the wild live more like human families: there is no clear division into ranks. And there is noAlpha status, dominance, and division of labor in wolf packs alpha male at the head. Adults wolves lead their young puppies while they are inexperienced, and then, when they grow up, give up leadership to them. The struggle for dominance in the pack does happen, but it is situational - just small random skirmishes between family members.

5. Old elephants have a special place to die

When an aged elephant feels that it will soon die, it leaves its relatives and goes to the elephant cemetery to find peace there. It is a distant, gloomy place dotted with the skulls and tusks of the once mighty giants.

It sounds scary, beautiful and even poetic, but the elephant graveyards are just another myth. The old proboscis do not look for any special places to die there. Sometimes they separate from the group because they lack the strength to migrate with the rest. Then they tryAnimal planet stay close to water and thickets to survive. And if such elephants die, then their bones remainDo Elephant Graveyards Exist? lie at the watering hole.

And if other elephants stumble upon the skeleton, they will carefully sniff and examine it - perhaps to understand if there is a danger nearby.

But these animals don't know howResearch shows elephants “remember” the dead identify the skulls of their relatives, so that their actions are not at all a touching farewell to the dead.

Sometimes elephants die together, and then their bones lie in great heaps. This is due to drought or lack of food. And sometimes - because of the actions of poachers who houndZimbabwe elephants poisoned by poachers in Hwange elephants with cyanide.

6. South American catfish climb bathers penises

Don’t pee in the water: Normally, Candiru fish swim upstream and latch onto the inside of fish gills pic.twitter.com/Da2b0sMvaI

- Uncharted Amazon (@UnchartedAmazon) April 16, 2014

In all sorts of "interesting facts" on the Internet, you can read about the terrible Candiru catfish (or mustachioed vandellia), which lives in the Amazon basin in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. These small underwater inhabitants, which are no more than 15 centimeters in length, parasitize on other fish. They swim into their gills, thrust sharp thorns into them and drink blood. And when they get drunk, they leave the owner.

They tell terrible tales that these catfish swim into the anuses, vaginas and urethra of people who dare to swim in their habitats.

They are believed to be attracted to the smell urine. Representatives of some tribes told about this in 1855On the alleged penetration of the human urethra by an Amazonian catfish called candiru with a review of the allied habits of other members of the family pygidiidae part I to the French naturalist Francis de Castelnau. They argued that it is dangerous to relieve natural need in the Amazon water: the fish allegedly rises up the stream of urine and penetrates the urethra. Needless to say, this will happen in spite ofWould the candiru fish really eat your genitals? to all the laws of physics?

In general, more recent studies have demonstratedExperiments on the Feeding Behavior of the Hematophagous Candiru, Vandellia cf. Plazaii, Is There Really a 'Penis Fish' That Swims up the Urethra?that the smell of urine does not attract catfish, they cannot get into the urethra due to their size, and in general they do not show human genitals special interest. We could only count on something if we had gills.

And the scary stories about a parasitic fish swimming in the bladder and spawning in the scrotum were most likely just storiesCandiru — A Little Fish With Bad Habits: Need Travel Health Professionals Worry? A Review .

7. Spiders, scorpions and centipedes are insects

This is a very common misconception. For most people, an insect is all small, unpleasant living creatures that have more than four limbs. Besides crayfish and crabs, of course, because they live in water and are delicious with beer.

But in terms of zoology spiders, scorpions and centipedes are not insects. Yes, these are also invertebrates belonging to the arthropod type. But they are very differentMyth: Spiders are insects from insects by the structure and number of body parts, paws, eyes, the absence of wings and other features.

Arthropods are subdividedArthropoda into classes: insects, crustaceans, arachnids and millipedes. And you should not confuse them with each other.

8. Porcupines shoot needles

For some reason, some people are sincerely convinced that a porcupine can shootPorcupine with your needles. Supposedly enough for himHow are porcupines different from hedgehogs? strongly shake the backside, and arrows will fly into the face of the attacking predator. And this myth is firmly entrenched in comics and video games.

Actually porcupinesPorcupines, Spines and Quillsnaturally they don't. The needles are easily separated, and if a predator tries to grab a rodent (yes, these cuties are rodents), it will be covered all over with them and risk even earning suppuration. But they themselves will not fly into the enemy.

You might as well try to attack someone with your hair from your head.

Animals that can shoot all sorts of unpleasant things - poison, water, urine and even their own poisoned blood, there is enough in the world, but porcupines are not one of them.

9. Hedgehogs carry apples on their backs

There is another misconception about thorny creatures - this time not about exotic porcupines, but about hedgehogs that are quite familiar to us. By the way, they are not relatives at all.The Differences Between a Porcupine and a Hedgehog: the first are rodents, and the second belong to the hedgehog from the order of insectivores.

This delusion lies in the fact that hedgehogs allegedly purposefully place apples, mushrooms and other food on their backs. Some believe that the animals in this way make food supplies, taking them to their holes or simply carrying them with them. Others even suggest that hedgehogs are trying to get rid of parasitessoaking the needles with apple juice.

This myth is so old that he wrote about itHabits of the Hedgehog even Pliny the Elder, but nevertheless it's just a story.

Hedgehogs are predators. They may occasionally consume fruits and berries, but prefer insects, slugs, and meat and cat food. And they don't wearWhat Do Hedgehogs Eat? Food, Diet, Treat, & Snack List food on the back and do not make any reserves for the winter - except for the reserves of subcutaneous fat.

The theory that apple juice helps hedgehogs get rid of parasites is not supported by anything. They use much more efficientlyGender, age and seasonal dependent self-anointing in the European hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus, Hedgehog, Why Hedgehogs Self-Anoint: Foaming at the Mouth and Licking for this your own saliva. Although this behavior can also be an attempt to mask your smell.

So if an apple, mushroom or leaf is stuck on the hedgehog's needles, then it happened by accident and the animal simply could not shake it off.

10. Goldfish have a bad memory

When we want to reproach someone for his forgetfulness, we say: "Yes, you have a memory like a goldfish!" However, the paradox is that these creatures have it very good and with cognitive abilities everything is in okay.

ResearchThe whole truth about fish: they are quick-witted like monkeys show that fish are no more stupid than land animals, and in some ways even surpass them. They are able to remember the surrounding space, recognize the faces of people and even count.

Experimentally provenGoldfish three ‑ second memory myth bustedthat goldfish can remember the place where the person fed them for at least three months, and unmistakably find it. Scientists taught them to push the lever, but only at a given time and for a reward with food. The fish were up to the task, proving that they can even determine what time it is. Not bad for a creature credited with three minutes memory.