From the eighth century BC to the fifth century AD, the intertwined cultures of Greece and Rome ruled a great deal of the known world. It was the heyday of the Greco-Roman myths of gods and goddesses, great heroes, and fantastic beasts. It was also the start of attempts to catalog the flora and fauna of the world.

These efforts turned out to be very interesting because the individuals writing down the “facts” were listening to people who often hadn’t seen the animals themselves. Even when writing about animals that should have been familiar to the authors, mostly folktales and beliefs were recorded.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, these odd ideas about animals became “common knowledge” for over a thousand years. Here are some of the “facts” that were widely accepted, though we doubt that anyone would believe them now.

10 Bears

Bears mate in the winter, and the female gives birth just 30 days later to up to five cubs . . . oh, but what cubs! A newborn is a white, shapeless mass the size of a mouse. The only discernible bearlike feature is their claws, which stick out of these odd blobs.

Over time, the mother licks at the small blobs, thus forming their legs, bodies, and heads. This is the origin of the English phrase “to lick into shape,” meaning to force someone or something to grow or improve in some way.

Apparently, bears also fall into a very deep sleep—which we now call “hibernation”—but this state only lasts for 14 days each year. During this sleep, the bear becomes “wonderfully fat.” This fat has many medicinal uses, though it mostly prevents hair loss.^[1]

Of course, procuring fat from a bear sounds like a losing proposition. Luckily, while in their deep sleep, the animals wake for nothing, not even being wounded. So you could get the fat from a sleeping bear without it being the wiser.

9 Bees

Bees seem to have bothered quite a few of the ancients and for a simple reason: As bees were never seen having sex, no one was really sure how they reproduced or where they came from.

Sure, there were a few crazy theories about all baby bees resulting from intercourse with the largest bee in the colony—dubbed the “king” by all ancient sources. But this idea was refuted because if there was only one father to all the bees, then why would some bees be “drones” instead of “workers”?

Drones were considered imperfect bees—ones that looked okay but had no stingers and never seemed to work. Therefore, they were the freeloaders of the colony. Of course, if one magnificent male was producing all the bees, none of them should be freeloaders. No, there had to be some other answer to the problem.^[2]

Most of the ancients finally agreed—and this idea was repeated for over a thousand years—that bees were born from the bodies of dead animals, most notably from the carcasses of oxen. The Greeks actually had a word for the idea: bugonia, meaning essentially “ox progeny.”

As it turns out, there is a fly that looks a bit like a bee and lays its eggs on dead oxen. So basic observation confirmed for everyone that bees did indeed come from dead animals.

8 Horses

Young horses are born standing up with a poisonous substance on their foreheads in a lump about the size of a fig. It is called a “hippomanes.” The mother will eat this object immediately, which then leads her to suckle her foal.

If the mother fails to eat this lump, she will neither suckle her foal nor care for it. The substance can be used for love potions or to make horses “quite frantic by the smell” (though no one seems to say why you’d want to do this).

More “spirited” horses plunge their noses deeper into the water when drinking. Apparently, the females were preferred as war horses for the simple reason that they could keep walking while they peed.^[3]

7 Eagles

Eagles test their young by forcing them to stare at the Sun. If the eaglet can do so without flinching, it is treated well. But if the eaglet looks away or if its eyes water, it will be thrown from the nest.

Apparently, eagles also attack deer on occasion. The eagle starts the assault by rolling in dust until covered with it. Then it will fly and land on the deer’s antlers. The eagle will shake the dust into the deer’s eyes while beating the animal about the head and shoulders with its wings. The goal is to get the deer to harm itself as it runs into and across rocks.

Eagles also battle serpents that try to eat their eggs, but it is perilous. The eagle will grab the serpent and fly it high into the sky, presumably to drop it from a great height. But quick-witted serpents will try to wrap themselves around the eagle’s wings. If successful, both will plummet to the ground.^[4]

6 Hyenas

Hyenas have the strange property that they change gender each year—from male to female, then back again, and so on. The “advantage” to this unusual trait is that hyenas don’t actually need sex to reproduce as they become pregnant when switching from male to female. So a lone hyena can beget more hyenas if it just lives long enough.

Hyenas can also imitate human voices. They will hang out near places where shepherds are gathered and wait until they hear one of the shepherd’s names. Then the hyena will call that person by name to get him alone and eat the poor guy.

A hyena can trick dogs, too. The hyena can imitate the sound of a man vomiting, and a nearby dog will come to check on the noise because dogs are so found of humans. When the dog comes in contact with the hyena’s shadow, the canine loses its ability to bark. Then the hyena eats the dog.^[5]

5 Hedgehogs

Hedgehogs store food for the winter. If they see apples on the ground, they’ll roll into one piece of fruit to pierce it with their back quills. Then the animal will pick up another apple in its mouth, allowing the hedgehog to carry two at once to storage.

Around the seventh century to the 10th century, other authors expanded on this claim. They stated that hedgehogs would shake grapes from vines and then roll through the grapes to pick up a whole back full of the fruit to take to storage.

Hedgehogs are prized for their skin and quills. If they see a hunter coming, they roll into a ball with just spikes sticking out. If this doesn’t dissuade a hunter, they have a last line of desperate defense—hedgehogs pee on themselves.

Hedgehog urine is highly corrosive. It causes the animal’s skin to become fragile and easily torn and makes the quills rot and fall off. So the animal might escape with its life because it was no longer of value.

But hedgehogs hate doing this. As a result, they often wait too long and are killed anyway. Besides, savvy hedgehog hunters know to wait until their quarry has already urinated before trying to catch these animals.^[6]

4 Snakes

Serpents in India grow so big that they can swallow stags and bulls. These snakes can move fast enough and stretch high enough to grab birds in flight above them. Boas of the same country grow large enough to swallow children but prefer to suck milk from cows.

Vipers entangle so tightly when making love that they appear to be a single animal with two heads. In this state of passion, the male puts its head into the female’s mouth. Then the female gnaws off her partner’s noggin.

The young hatch inside the female viper in three days, after which she releases them at a rate of just one a day. But if there are too many young, they may grow impatient and force their way out through the side of their mother’s body, killing her.^[7]

3 Wolves

If a wolf sees a man before the man sees the wolf, the animal instantly takes away the human’s voice, which probably isn’t a good thing for the man!

Wolves have a tuft of hair on their tails which has the properties of an aphrodisiac. But good luck getting it. The tuft only works if the wolf is alive and you plucked it straight from the animal’s tail yourself. If trapped, wolves tend to shed this tuft of hair immediately, rendering it useless.

Wolves also have major eating problems. No matter how hungry a wolf might be, if it looks away from what it is eating, it will immediately forget the food is there and go looking for something else to eat. If that wolf goes too long without proper food, it will start to eat dirt to fill its stomach.^[8]

2 Mice

Mice gnaw on metals, silver shields, and iron ingots. They nibble in gold mines, too. When mice are caught in gold mines, their stomachs are opened because there will always be some gold in them. Being visited by a white mouse is a sign of good fortune . . . unless the mouse starts singing.

Mice will not mate with mice from different forests, rivers, or mountains. If mice from many different places are put together, they will fight to destroy each other.

Mice feed their parents and care for them with singular devotion until the older animals conceal themselves and sleep for the winter. When these older mice wake again in the summer, they have regained the vigor of their youth.^[9]

1 Panthers

Whereas plants have odors, animals generally do not. The exception is the spotted panther.

Apparently, these creatures have an easy time catching their meals because panthers have a body odor that assists them. Their scent is so sweet that all other four-legged animals are automatically attracted to panthers. But when these other animals see the panther’s fierce features, they run away.

As a result, panthers have devised a plan. They hide their heads until they detect that their odor has caused prey to come close enough to pounce on before it can run away.^[10]

Also, all panthers have a special spot pattern on their shoulders that resembles the form of the Moon. As the Moon waxes and wanes from full to new, the spot on the panther’s shoulder changes to match the Moon’s nightly appearance.

Garth Haslam has been digging into strange topics for over 30 years and posts his research on varying anomalies, curiosities, mysteries, and legends at his website Anomalies: The Strange & Unexplained. Check it out at http://anomalyinfo.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/anomalies.news.

Most zoo visits happen without incident, but sometimes, things go wrong. Visitors scale enclosure walls, and chimpanzees lure people closer for bad reasons.

However, it is when zoos close for the day that things truly get weird. From strange thefts and maulings to bizarre drills, this behind-the-scenes strangeness cannot beat the time when three zoos stole a herd of elephants.

10 Kaln’s Egg

A sanctuary in Gloucester, England, rehabilitates wild species of birds rescued as pets or captive working individuals. For the past 23 years, the haven has taken care of a male eagle owl called Kaln.

In 2019, he laid an egg. The declaration of motherhood was unexpected because the staff never considered the owl as female. Even Kaln looked surprised by the egg.

The sanctuary cannot be faulted for mistaking the bird’s anatomy. Determining the gender of an owl is difficult. Males and females often look identical, and their chromosomes are similar enough to foil genetic tests.

The sanctuary has no interest in such tests. Their priority is not breeding but rehabilitation. Should a bird behave like a male or female, that is how it is viewed.

Kaln carried on like a guy. She tried to mate with everything and never laid the usual six eggs that female eagle owls deposit during the winter. These days, Kaln is seen as the sanctuary’s “tomboy.”^[1]

9 The Two Dads

The Sea Life Sydney Aquarium homes several penguins. Among them were Sphen and Magic. The gentoo penguins were inseparable. They courted and even built a nest together. They were also both male. Seeing that the birds were devoted to each other, the staff provided them with a fake egg.

They did such a good job that the aquarium gave them a real egg in 2018. Thinking that they were new dads, Sphen performed security patrols while Magic incubated. After a while, Magic guarded the nest while Sphen warmed the egg.

Their foster chick hatched on October 19, 2018. Weighing no more than an apple, little “Sphengic” was doted on by both of its fathers. When it comes to penguins, same-sex pairs are nothing new. However, it remains exceptionally unusual for them to raise a chick.^[2]

8 Santino’s Game

At the Furuvik Zoo in Sweden, Santino is the dominant male of a group of chimpanzees. He developed the habit of pelting visitors with “ammunition.” The latter included stones from his enclosure’s moat and concrete lumps that he pilfered from an artificial island.

His stockpiles proved that chimps could plan a future event, something previously considered an exclusively human trait. Why Santino bombarded people was not a mystery. He likely tried to dominate them. Dominant males from other zoos have done the same.

However, in 2012, Santino did something unexpected. After a zoo guide removed a group of visitors from the chimp’s enclosure for safety reasons, he was left without admirers for hours. Santino decided to lure them back.

He hid his projectiles near the visitors’ area, and when the trusting humans returned, he resumed his rudeness. This was the first recorded instance of deception in chimps. The remarkable part was that Santino had made plans about people he could not see and also predicted their behavior.^[3]

7 The Valentine’s Day Offer

In 2019, the El Paso Zoo in Texas warmed the hearts of revenge-oriented people—more specifically, anyone who despised their ex and wanted to do something about it. The zoo asked for the first name and last initial of an ex. This title was then transferred to a cockroach. The insect was destined to be fed to a meerkat.

Those who submitted the names could watch the live-streamed event on Valentine’s Day. Called “Quit Bugging Me,” the stunt was a success. Soon after the project was announced, over 1,500 names were submitted, a little too much for the zoo’s meerkat population.

The bugs are rich in nutrients, and each mongoose received a single cockroach. To make up for the fact that most of the names would never end up inside a meerkat’s digestive system, the zoo revealed all the names on social media.

Other institutions followed suit. El Paso offered the name-a-cockroach service for free, but those who really wanted to see an ex consumed could pay between $2 and $15 for the privilege at three other zoos.^[4]

6 Zoo Jeans

A pair of jeans remains a fierce fashion choice, although few manufacturers can beat the wild way in which Zoo Jeans makes their pants. In 2014, Mineko Club needed a fundraiser idea for conservation.

The Japanese volunteer group came up with a solution that was both marketable and entertaining for zoo animals. They wrapped tires with denim material as toys for the Kamine Zoo in Hitachi City. The denim wheels were given to tigers, lions, and bears. The predators quickly took to the curious objects and started tearing away at the cloth.

It is no secret that torn jeans are hot favorites, but those mauled to shreds by dangerous creatures are even more so. After the material was rescued, it was sewn up as designer jeans. Buyers had a choice between the lion, tiger, or bear model. The fundraiser held an online auction, and jeans ravaged by a tiger received the best bid of $1,200.^[5]

5 Tilda’s Humanlike Calls

Orangutans utter a wide variety of sounds, but a female called Tilda does something unique. The Bornean orangutan lives at Germany’s Cologne Zoo. When she wants more food, Tilda calls for the menu in two different ways. The remarkable thing is that it resembles human vocalizations.

Researchers who analyzed the noises compared one call with clicking sounds used by the Bushmen of Africa. The second consisted of rapid grumbles that mimicked vowel sounds.

Tilda is the first orangutan born in the wild that learned to “speak human” to communicate her needs to people. How she did it remains unknown. But before the ape arrived at the zoo, she was in show business and perhaps was taught as part of an act.

The research might help to understand the origins of speech. If Tilda’s anatomy allows her to make vowel sounds and other humanlike noises, then so could the common ancestors of the great apes. Further investigation might one day pinpoint when and how the first words were spoken.^[6]

4 The Butt Slapper

Wanted: Man who slapped a hippo’s bottom. True story.

In 2018, a visitor to the Los Angeles Zoo went to the hippopotamus enclosure. Even though entering zoo enclosures is prohibited and punishable by law, the man clambered over a railing and approached the two hippos. He soundly smacked four-year-old Rosie on the butt.

She flinched, and the other hippo—her mother, Mara—was startled by the whole thing. Before Mara could experience parental rage, the man fled. The trespasser’s bizarre behavior was caught on film. Although it became widely circulated on social media and was shown to police, the slapper remains at large.^[7]

In a way, the incident was funny and at least the animals were not hurt. However, a hippo is capable of being exceptionally dangerous. In fact, they are one of Africa’s most lethal—and surprisingly nimble—animals. To take one by surprise, as the man did, is even more deadly.

3 The Monkey Cage Incident

John Owen Casford had a brilliant idea. To impress his girlfriend, he was going to give her a squirrel monkey. As one cannot purchase the tiny primates at Walmart, he decided to steal one.

In 2018, Casford strolled through an unguarded gate at a New Zealand zoo. He broke open two locks meant to secure the monkey cage and entered. After that, the details got hazy.

Things got violent at one point. Not only were the monkeys hurt and traumatized but Casford also had his own problems. The thief was found the next morning with fractured teeth, a twisted ankle, a bruised back, and a broken leg.^[8]

The 23-year-old was charged and sentenced to almost three years in prison. The verdict included punishment for prior crimes that summer, including several assaults on other people. Although Casford was man enough to plead guilty to the zoo incident and explained that he had broken his leg trying to get over a fence, nobody knows how he received the other injuries.

2 A Bizarre Escape Drill

Japanese zoos believe in being prepared. Every year, they hold drills for events like earthquakes and escaped animals. In 2019, the Tobe Zoo in Ehime decided to train its personnel to deal with a lion on the loose.

A local news station captured the training, and the video went viral. Not because the drill was good, but because it was so bizarre. Since Tobe Zoo could not use a real animal, a staff member dressed up as a lion. The giant puppet, looking more like a mascot than an object of serious training, wandered around the zoo.

At one point, keepers cornered it with nets. The lion-guy knocked several of them to the ground and ran away. The staff changed tactics and took off in hot pursuit in a vehicle.^[9]

As they drove by, the fake lion was shot with a fake tranquilizer. The cat keeled over, and the staff demonstrated how to correctly handle a sedated lion. Needless to say, the online community found the whole thing hilarious.

1 The Stolen Herd

In 2016, three US zoos absconded with a herd of elephants. The zoos expressed an interest in removing the animals, stating that the deteriorating conditions in Swaziland were a danger to them.

Indeed, there was a severe drought and removing the elephants would relieve the pressure of finding food for other animals, like rhinos. At worst, the zoos feared that the 18 elephants would be culled.^[10]

Animal rights activists took the zoo officials to court because the activists believed that the herd had to be relocated elsewhere in the African wilderness. A date was scheduled in US federal court, but the zoos decided to make their move anyway. During a daring mission, a large cargo plane touched down in Swaziland. The elephants were sedated, placed in crates, and loaded onto the plane.

When the news broke, the activists were not understanding. Some claimed that it was the most underhanded thing they had ever witnessed. Even so, the US Fish and Wildlife Service provided a permit to import the elephants legally. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums also sided with the zoos.

Animal parks and zoos are supposed to be a source of happiness and entertainment. Ideally, they’re places for people to be educated and enriched, witnessing animal species they normally would not encounter. It doesn’t always work out that way, however.

Lack of funding, opposition by activists, and severity of elements are all reasons that animal parks have closed. The once-thriving locales are left empty, their structures and cages abandoned and overgrown.

10 Warner Brothers Jungle Habitat

One would think an animal park run by Warner Brothers would be an instant success, but animal attacks, escapes, and opposition from locals would eventually lead to the park being shut down within four years of it opening.

Designed in two parts, the Warner Bros. Jungle Habitat contained a zoo which families could walk through, including a petting zoo, reptile house, camel rides, and snack area, as well as a safari area they could drive through. The safari area featured free-roaming elephants, llamas, lions, and tigers, giving guests an up close and personal view of the animals as they frequently stopped next to the cars and sometimes even climbed on top of them.

Shortly after the park opened in 1972, an Isreali tourist was attacked by two lions after he stuck his hand out of the car window and taunted them while driving through the safari attraction of the park. Two wolves escaped their enclosure and wandered into the local town of West Milford, New Jersey. A local television host was scratched by a six-month-old tiger cub while filming a television special. Then, a couple of years later, a woman was bitten by a baby elephant. Finally, a rhino mounted a gray Mercedes-Benz, believing it to be a mate, causing great damage to the car’s rear end.^[1]

Jungle Habitat did not have any rides, and when Warner Brothers tried to expand the park to include a wooden roller coaster, a carousel, and various other rides for adults and kids, they were met with opposition from locals, who did not care for the noise and traffic, and narrowly missed the vote for the expansion. Warner Brothers decided to shut the park down when they were denied the expansion, realizing that without a way to expand, they would not be able to build revenue.

The year after the park closed, all but 400 of the original 1,500 animals in the park had been sold. Unfortunately, nine of the animals contracted tuberculosis and had to be euthanized, leading an investigation into why 19 other dead animals on the property were not buried or disposed of.

The park grounds are now a popular place for people to hike and bike through, with many of the old cages and structures still standing.

9 Catskill Game Farm

Though it opened after World War II as a fun zoo for families to connect with wildlife by petting and feeding the animals, the Catskill Game Farm would quickly get a dark reputation.

Started in 1933 as a private animal farm and first opened to the public in 1945 in Catskill, New York, the Catskill Game Farm was the first privately owned zoo in the United States and was the biggest zoo for some time. It consisted of deer, bison, yaks, llamas, camels, zebras, and antelopes, with an area guests could walk through and hand-feed the animals.

The zoo was a great success when it opened, as the Catskill Mountains were a popular tourist destination, and the zoo’s founder, Roland Lindemann, spent much of his time expanding the zoo to include rare and endangered animals, growing its population to 600 wild animals and 200 tame animal species.

But in the early 1990s, the zoo would receive bad publicity when a news article reported that animals there were being sold to game hunters for “canned hunts,” when an animal is put into an enclosed area, giving the hunter a sure chance of killing it. Inspection records from the Texas Animal Health Commission stated that over 150 animals were shipped to Texas, and no one knows what happened to them after they entered the state. Before the park closed in 2006, protestors swarmed the gates of the zoo to try to get the owners to donate the animals to sanctuaries. When it came time to auction off the animals after the park’s closure, activists tried to buy as many animals as possible, but many still went to the highest-bidding game hunter.^[2]

In 2012, the property was purchased by Ben and Cathy Ballone, with hope to restore the grounds and turn the buildings into an inn and campsite. Recently, they opened the Long Neck Inn in the renovated remains of the old giraffe enclosure, giving the abandoned park a new life and a, hopefully, brighter future.

8 Alligatorland

One would think that in the land of Disney World and Universal Studios, attraction parks in Florida would be of the highest standard, but such was not the case for the Alligatorland Safari Zoo.

Sitting just behind the Gator Motel and a 38-meter-long (126 ft) alligator statue, Alligatorland was home to over 1,600 exotic animals and birds of various species. Guests could walk through the nearly 7 acres of land and view the animals up close.

But the trouble for Alligatorland started in 1982, when Gatorland filed a suit against them for having a very similar entryway to their park. The giant alligator jaws were too similar, Gatorland claimed, to their entry, which had been erected since the 1960s. (Alligatorland opened in the 1970s.)

Then, the whole state of Florida came under scrutiny for the way animals were treated. This led to Alligatorland getting a surprise inspection, during which it was found that enclosures were not up to standards, cages had an abundance of old animal feces, and animals were not being cared for properly. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued Darren Browning, the owner of Alligatorland, a $1,500 fine, which he refused to pay and instead decided to represent himself in court.^[3] During the two-day trial, he questioned the competency of the USDA inspectors and ultimately lost his case. For the next three years, he would continue to lose more court battles against the USDA, and he would eventually sell the property in 1995.

The zoo would reopen shortly afterward under the name of Jungleland Zoo, but after flooding, an escaped lioness, more failed USDA inspections, and the economic turn of the early 2000s, the zoo closed its doors in 2002.

The alligator statue in front of Alligatorland was destroyed in 2014, but the structures and walkways of the park still stand, with hopes to one day be renovated and turned back into an animal attraction.

7 Stanley Park Zoo

How the Stanley Park Zoo in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was founded is quite an interesting story: The superintendent for Stanley Park, Henry Avison, discovered an orphaned black bear cub on the grounds, so he chained the bear, like a dog, to a stump to keep him contained and safe.^[4] Over the coming years, he captured more animals on the grounds that needed help and treatment. By the time the zoo officially opened in the early 1900s, there were over 50 animals, both native and exotic, that Avison had taken in or discovered abandoned, and people kept donating animals to the zoo’s collection, even after Avison’s death.

In 1956, the zoo’s aquarium opened with penguins and otters, and in 1962, polar bears were donated to the zoo and quickly became the main attraction.

In the 1990s, animal activists picketed against the zoo, stating that many of the cages were too small and that Vancouver’s weather was too harsh for many of the animals. To resolve this, the City of Vancouver decided to expand the zoo, but citizens voted against the expansion and called for the zoo to be shut down, so it did in 1996.

Most of the animals were sent to the Greater Vancouver Zoo or relocated to the Stanley Park Children’s Farmyard (which was closed in 2011), but one animal was allowed to stay in the park—Tuk, the 36-year-old polar bear whose health was too poor to be moved. He died in 1997, and the zoo was officially closed.

To this day, the polar bear pit still stands on the grounds and is currently repurposed as a salmon hatchery. Guests can still walk through the overgrown vegetation of where the zoo once was.

6 Belle Isle Zoo

Though Detroit is in the midst of a citywide rehabilitation, there are still many remnants of the years of government corruption and economic depression the city has witnessed.

One such victim to the city’s troubles was the Belle Isle Zoo, closed in 2002 by then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who cited declining attendance and budget constraints as his reasons for closing the zoo, though locals overwhelmingly objected to the closure.

Belle Isle, located in the Detroit River between Detroit and Canada, was once a prominent attraction for locals and tourists, drawing them to the park’s beaches, nature paths, and stunning views, as well as its main attraction, the zoo.

Opened in 1895 with just a bear den and a deer pack, the zoo would grow to over 150 animals in just 15 years and would include tigers, seals, elephants, and exotic birds. When the Detroit Zoo opened, most of the animals were rehomed there, and the Belle Isle Zoo was turned into a children’s zoo before getting a full renovation in the 1980s and being renamed “Safariland.”

The renovation to the park would include the various hut-like structures, wooden paths and bridges, and metal cages that currently stand abandoned on the island, overgrown and graffitied, with fallen trees blocking the paths and vines growing around the metal. Currently, there are no plans to reopen the zoo,^[5] though the state is working on restoring other areas of Belle Isle.

5 Groote Schuur Zoo

Imagine being given a couple of lions and leopards. What would you do with them? If you were Cecil John Rhodes, you would create a zoo to house them.

In 1897, Rhodes created a private menagerie in Cape Town, South Africa, for his large cats, as well as other animals he received as gifts throughout the years. After his death, the state would inherit Rhodes’s estate and his collection of animals. New enclosures were built, and the site was called the Groote Schuur Zoo. Lions, emus, mountain goats, crocodiles, and other animals were kept in enclosures, and the zoo became a popular attraction.

The lions would always be the focus of the zoo, however, having the prominent spot and best enclosure at the back of the zoo. Zookeeper George Booker would be infamous at the zoo for having a special connection with the lions, being able to go into their cages and hand-feed them and even get them to do tricks for guests.^[6] Ironically, he died when he contracted tetanus after being bitten on the finger by a lion.

Sometime between 1975 and 1985, the zoo would close due to an increase in animal welfare standards and financial issues, but people can still roam the overgrown grounds, see the remnants of the concrete pools, pose with the cement lion statues, and view the infamous lion enclosure.

Interestingly, two tahrs, a breed of Himalayan mountain goat, escaped to Table Mountain and bred a large herd, and there is still a population of the goats on the mountain, though they are considered pests to the area, and measures have been taken to control the population, keeping Rhodes’s legacy alive.

4 Wildlife Wonderland

Rosie the Shark became a viral sensation when YouTuber and urban explorer Luke McPherson discovered her decaying remains in a large tank in 2018. The question many raised, however, was why was Rosie there, and who had forgotten about her?

Rosie was part of the Wildlife Wonderland in Bass, Victoria, Australia, a zoo and animal rehabilitation center for Australia’s native species, such as wombats, kangaroos, koalas, and various birds.

Unlike many of the other zoos and parks on this list, which were shut down for alleged animal cruelty, Wildlife Wonderland was shut down because they violated Wildlife Act 1975 and did not have a license to display native animals, meaning that they could not operate as a zoo, causing the owners to give away the animals and close down the park in 2012.^[7]

As to how Rosie ended up in the abandoned zoo, an artist preserved her body after she was caught in a fishing net and donated her to the museum. In 2019, due to vandals causing damage to Rosie’s tank, the shark was finally moved to another establishment in Victoria called Crystal World.

3 Walt Disney World’s Discovery Island

We discussed a failed park by Warner Brothers, but one might be surprised to find Disney on this list.

Discovery Island was a wildlife and nature attraction in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, that included many native and exotic birds and vegetation, as well as a sandy beach for guests to walk on. It operated from April 1974 to April 1999.

Walt Disney scouted the island while buying the land that would become Disney World and had big plans for its 11.5 acres. First named Blackbeard’s Island, he wanted it to be a pirate-themed attraction, complete with shipwrecks, forts, and an inn, but as construction on the park began, he decided to make it more tropical, introducing exotic birds and plants to the island and renaming it Treasure Island.

As the years went on, the island became more focused on the animal wildlife. An aviary was built on the grounds that would breed exotic birds, and the island was once again renamed to Discovery Island.^[8]

Controversy would hit Discovery Island in 1989, when a two-month investigation by state and federal officials led to charges being filed against Disney and five employees for firing rifles at hawks, beating vultures to death with sticks, and destroying nests and eggs. The state report indicated that many of the employees thought they were acting within Disney World’s permits and were carrying out the illegal activities under the direction of the park’s curator, Charlie Cook. Disney settled out of court.

After the bad publicity and with the opening of Animal Kingdom, Disney decided to close Discovery Island in April 1999, relocating the animals to the Animal Kingdom resort and letting the vegetation grow and take over the island.

In 2009, urban explorer Shane Perez and some friends swam, under the cover of darkness, to the island and took pictures of the abandoned buildings and overgrown greenery. They found leftover office paraphernalia and various specimens in jars. Though they did not press charges against the crew for trespassing, Disney did threaten to ban them from all of their parks.

Currently, there are no plans to rehabilitate Discovery Island, making it one of two abandoned parks at Disney World.

2 Southport Zoo

The official reason the Southport Zoo in Southport, Merseyside, England, was closed was because the city council did not allow the owners, Carol and Douglas Petrie, to renew their lease on the zoo, therefore allowing Pleasureland, a theme park attraction that abutted the zoo, to expand and create more attractions.

The more likely reason the city council didn’t renew the Petries’ lease was because they were tired of dealing with the protestors and picketers who opposed the zoo.

Though it was a smaller zoo, holding only 154 species, most of which were birds and invertebrates, the negative attention the zoo received was monumental, with it being listed as one of Britain’s worst zoos by the Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS). Opposers to the zoo claimed they had recorded comments from hundreds of zoo visitors and former keepers that the animals suffered ill treatment, isolation, and understimulation.^[9] The Petries denied these claims, and investigation of the zoo also found no evidence, bringing more scrutiny of how the government picks inspectors, as most of them have ties to the zoo industry.

At the forefront of the campaign against the zoo were chimpanzees Jackie and Jason, whose faces were plastered on pamphlets and posters to attract attention. It was stated that they lived in cramped, isolated cages with no interaction or enrichment. The animals were offered a home at a primate sanctuary in Dorset, but the Petries would not permit them being relocated, saying it was not in the chimps’ best interest.

The Petries would eventually lose their fight defending their zoo in 2004, and the animals would be rehomed to various zoos across England and Wales. The site was reopened in 2010 as “Battlefield Live Southport,” a venue for outdoor combat gaming using guns that fire infrared beams.

1 Nay Aug Park Zoo

The Nay Aug Park Zoo in Scranton, Pennsylvania, was once a source of pride for the community, with children raising money to purchase elephants for the zoo in 1924 and 1935, but before the century’s close, it would be a source of scrutiny and disgrace.

Though the zoo once saw up to 500 visitors in a day, bad upkeep to the animal houses would cause people to question the establishment’s operations. In 1963, the heating system for the zoo would fail, causing four monkeys to die from exposure. The same year, a faulty door in the lion cages allowed a lioness to enter the cage of two cubs, resulting in their death. Other incidents throughout the years included a monkey escaping and biting a zoo attendant, an elephant choking on a stuffed toy that had been thrown into her cage and having to have it removed, and, at different times, an alligator, a monkey, and two black bears escaping from their cages, resulting in all being shot and killed. Parade magazine would call Nay Aug Park Zoo one of the ten worst zoos in the nation.

Citing financial struggles, the zoo closed in 1988, with Toni the elephant being the last animal to be relocated.^[10] In 2003, the zoo would reopen as the Genesis Wildlife Center, but public outcry over animal abuse and the lack of changes to the structures would force the zoo to close again in 2009.

Though it no longer holds exotic animals, the main building of Nay Aug Zoo has been renovated and reopened by the charity Street Cats as a low-cost spay and neuter clinic for cats and dogs, with many cats living in the building while waiting to be adopted.

Tracy lives with her dog in a tourist town where she writes and creates.

Animal culling happens for a variety of legitimate reasons. When it is backed by science and carried out in a humane manner, it can protect the welfare of both animals and humans from greater threats. Yet when science is replaced by public hysteria, and humane killing by bizarre plots, the endgame can mean everyone loses.

See Also: 10 Animals That Surprisingly Benefit From Climate Change

10 Grinding Baby Chicks Alive

It only takes one rooster to tend to several hens, but roughly half of chicken eggs that come to term are male. Common sense would say that the males are butchered, but chickens used for meat are a different variety than those used to lay eggs. Males of the egg-laying type are too lean to be sold in supermarkets for meat, so they have no value in the chicken industry.

Like any kind of waste, they are disposed of. Usually in their first few hours of life. They can be suffocated in plastic bags, electrocuted, but more likely they are macerated and ground up while still alive. Grinding male chicks is actually recommended as the humane way to dispose of them, since the grinding is near-instant. Zipping through a high-speed grinder is presumably less painful than being slowly suffocated.

Naturally, animal rights group still take issue with grinding billions of baby animals alive, no matter at what speed. The chicken industry also has a problem with it too, albeit for entirely different reasons—it’s expensive. They would sooner avoid wasting money.

To this end, researchers are finding ways to determine if an embryo is male or female while the egg is still viable for sale. This would save billions of baby chicks from the grinder, and potentially billions of dollars.^[1]

9 Culling Endangered Species

Not all culling is for humans’ benefit. African wildlife conservationists sometimes kill endangered animals as a means of maintaining the stability of an ecosystem. They aren’t concerned with only one species of animal, after all, but the biodiversity of the entire park.

A large predator population means competition for limited resources. Lions, for example, will kill other species of big cats that are even more vulnerable. Even prey may need to be depopulated. Kruger National Park had to cull many of its hippos after a drought left the population with tool little food to survive.

Still, research suggests that culling should be an option of last resort. Historic elephant culls left survivors without older elephants to teach younger generations typical behaviors like recognizing hierarchy and responding to threats. It even gave them the elephant equivalent of shell shock.^[2]

8 Denver Has Enough of Goose Poop

Canadian geese flying overhead is a common sight in some parts of the world, as is the feces they leave behind. A single goose creates about a pound of poop per day. Aside from the nuisance it creates, and the effort required to clean it, their feces contaminates waterways and can cause disease. Eventually, Denver, Colorado’s Parks and Recreation Department had enough of it.

So they culled them. During the geeses’ early-summer molting season, they are flightless, so it’s easy for contracted federal employees to corral and load them into crates. The geese are then slaughtered, butchered, and sent to food pantries where they can be eaten by those in need. Although it’s a tough kind of meat that requires long cooking times, goose meat was once called the “roast beef of the skies.”^[3]

7 Australia Kills the Wrong Sharks

A series of fatal shark bites in Western Australia prompted the government to protect its beach-goers with drum lines set out to cull great whites, which were responsible for the majority of fatalities. But drum lines don’t discriminate, and the program was controversial because researchers feared they would harm the region’s biodiversity by ensnaring other fish.

The drum lines captured 172 sharks, with 68 meeting the criteria for culling. Out off all the sharks, however, none were actually great whites. 94% were tiger sharks that have not been responsible for a Western Australian fatality since before 1930. Nevertheless, they were still killed.

The culling prompted the Australian Environmental Protection Agency call things off, stating there was “scientific uncertainty” about killing a population of sharks that had nothing to do with the fatalities that prompted the cull in the first place.^[4]

6 Marius the Worthless Giraffe

Marius the giraffe was the victim of an international breeding program designed to expand the giraffe population in zoos. The program was so successful that Marius’ genetic material was no longer of value to any zoo in the program. Letting Marius breed with any one of the program’s giraffes would have caused inbreeding in the population, so Marius was declared valueless and destined for, quite literally, the chopping block.

The decision to cull Marius just because he was of no value to a breeding program naturally caused an uproar. The zoo had allowed him to be born and live on its grounds, but when he was no longer useful, they decided to kill him.

The option of sterilizing him came up, but the zoo said that he would still take up resources that could be used to support viable genetic breeders. Other zoos offered to take Marius in, but the Copenhagen zoo would only share its giraffes with zoos that adhered to certain guidelines in its breeding program. It denied all offers.

So, without any use for Marius, and after refusing to relocate him, the zoo killed him. An autopsy and dismemberment was performed in front of an audience, one that included children. Afterwards, parts of Marius were saved for research while others were fed to the zoo’s carnivores.

Regarding all the outrage, an official said that they did not understand it.^[5]

5 Widespread Human Death

When China’s communist government rose to power in 1949, disease was running rampant throughout the country. It began a vaccines and sanitation campaign that included eliminating the animal carriers of the diseases. It was called the The Four Pests Campaign because it focused on the culling of mosquitoes, flies, rats, and sparrows.

Millions of kilograms of flies and mosquitoes were eliminated, as well as an estimated 1.5 billion rats. By all accounts the campaign was a roaring success, until people realized the ecological disaster that culling 1 billion sparrows created in the countryside. Sparrows were carriers of disease, but they also played a vital role in the ecosystem. Eliminating so many of them left a gaping hole in China’s food chain that had dire consequences.

China had been implementing the Great Leap Forward, where people were ordered to stop agricultural work and begin creating steel. But ignoring agricultural production meant that people did not have enough food. Starvation was already widespread at the time of the Four Pests Campaign, and the elimination of sparrows meant that insects like locusts exploded in population. This devastated what grain was still left after the government’s industrialization campaign. Millions died in what became known as the Great Famine of China.^[6]

4 Emus Defeat the Australian Army

After WWI, Australian soldiers returned home to government-subsidized plots of land they were given to raise wheat and sheep. Unfortunately, some of the land they were given was difficult to actually raise anything on. This, coupled with the start of the Great Depression, made life difficult for the inexperienced farmers.

Then there were the emus.

The thousands strong population of emus did not leave when the soldiers-turned-farmers took over their land. They stayed, and started to eat their crop, which further devastated the struggling farmers’ livelihood. Once protected animals, the emus were reclassified as pests to be eliminated. The government wanted them dead so badly they paid hunters bounties for each emu they brought in.

Emus are resilient birds, though. Despite the culling, they maintained their numbers. The farmers did not have the resources to kill so many birds, so the Australian government brought in the army to begin the Great Emu War.

The army hunted them with machine guns, but the emus scattered so far the soldiers only ever succeeded in killing a few hundred out of thousands. The army tried again and again to mount military campaigns against the birds, but in the end, the emus won the war.

The army eventually just gave up and gave the ammunition to the farmers. Now, properly supplied, the farmers (who, we will remind you, were war veterans) succeeded in culling nearly 60,000 in half a year.^[7]

3 Sewing Rodent Anuses Shut

Nutria, also known as coypu, are an invasive species of rodent on almost every continent. The are native to South America, but international trading and breeding farms saw them spread all over the world. Eventually, some either escaped or were released into the wild, where they bred and spread.

One researcher in Korea came up with a particularly novel idea to be rid of the rodents. He suggested that they capture several nutria and sew their anuses shut. This would stress them, he said, which would cause them to eat their babies. He had once used this very same technique when he worked for a zoo with rat problems. Apparently, sewing their anuses shut had eliminated every single one of the pests.

Despite the technique’s apparent success, animal rights groups took issue with it. They said that causing the animal enough pain to drive it to cannibalism is unethical and constitutes abuse. Unsurprisingly, the researcher’s suggestion fell on deaf ears and his plan was never instituted.^[8]

2 Mauritius Culls Endangered Animal, Makes Things Worse

The Mauritius flying fox is classified as an endangered animal. Since 2015, the government has culled more than half of its population in order to make life easier for plantation owners. The foxes caused around 10% of the loss growers of mangos and lychees suffer each year, so a cull was implemented to stem losses.

The result was a decrease in yearly yield. Ecologists say that the flying fox is an important pollinator for more than half of the island’s flora. Moreover, when the government instituted its cull, it quickly found that shooting the bats that were eating fruit on plantations was extremely difficult, so the hunters went into the mountains and killed them in their native habitat. The flying fox, however, tends to stick to one area, so killing the ones in the mountains meant that they were not actually doing anything to address the loss of the plantation fruit. Some conservationists claim that the government is simply keeping the culling going in order to win votes instead of actually fixing the problem. Conservationists filed a lawsuit against the Mauritius government to halt the culls.^[9]

1 The Complicated World of Canadian Seal Hunting

The Canadian Seal hunt is an annual and extremely controversial event where tens of thousands of seals are hunted for meat, fur, other products, and, some say, population control. But many countries around the world have banned seal products imported from Canada. This helped lead to such an extreme decrease in demand that anti-hunting activists say profits from the hunt are now almost twice as less than what the government spends to monitor it. The Canadian government, however, says that the hunt has other indirect economic benefits and still supports the cull.

One group that claims they do not see these economic benefits is the Inuit. The native peoples of Canada hunt seals as a part of their ancient culture and for survival. International bans on seal products exempt the Inuits, but the demand has plummeted due to the contempt the government-sponsored hunt has brought.

Some are now saying that an expansion of the hunt is necessary in order to protect the local salmon population, since salmon are the prey of seals. Scientists disagree, saying that the seals are only being used as a scapegoat. Regardless, the seal hunt is important to the survival of certain Canadian communities. But opponents argue that if the Canadian government stopped subsidizing it, the free market would let it go extinct as an unsustainable business.^[10]

About The Author: Mike spends his free time at the beach enjoying the sun.

Zoophobia is the overall fear of animals, but why are some people terrified by just one kind such as a fish (ichthyophobia) or even a worm (helminthophobia)? While some feel safe if they stay away from the place this animal is found, others can’t even watch them on TV. Having cynophobia (fear of dogs) and hearing a barking noise outside might make someone terrified to leave their house.

3.5% to 6.1% of the global population have arachnophobia or a fear of spiders and for me it’s the length of their legs and the speed they move that terrifies me. There are some more interesting reasons why people have these phobias that are discussed here. Such as, the parts toads used to play in witchcraft.

Top 10 Unbearable Phobias

10 Ichthyophobia (Fish)

While someone might be afraid of a dog or cat because they were attacked, they’re unlikely to be attacked by a fish so why does ‘ichthyophobia’ occur? Perhaps, they were attacked by a shark when they were young but the chances of this are pretty slim. Galeophobia is a fear of sharks. This is quite a common phobia and probably makes more sense to most people.

One kind of fish is a ‘flying fish’ so maybe this was something that scared them as a child. As fishes are seen by some to be dirty, slimy creatures, one of the most common causes of this problem is the belief that fish spread diseases. It could seem dangerous to eat them or even travel to a water source where they might be swimming around. Although they might be fine to go down to the seaside or near a lake as long as they don’t get in, for some people with the phobia, even going near these sources of water could be seen as life threatening.^[1]

9 Cynophobia (Dogs)

A fear of dogs or cynophobia is not a totally irrational phobia as many people have been chased or bitten by one at some time. Perhaps, when they were a child or if a sibling was attacked and the person witnessed this. Figures have shown that the number of dogs owned in the US in 2017 rose by over 20 million compared to a survey from 2000. It is likely for the person with the phobia to have at least one friend who owns a dog and they might be afraid to go around to their house. They might even be afraid to leave the house as there always seems to be someone out walking their dog. Even the sound of barking or whining could terrify them. A good way of curing this phobia could be to start off by exposing them to a puppy. Or, this could be a kitten, if someone has ailurophobia, or a fear of cats.^[2]

8 Ailurophobia (Cats)

This fear of cats is known by many other names such as ‘gatophobia’ and ‘felinophobia’. Although people aren’t seen out walking their cats, it could still be hard for anyone with the phobia to go around to a friends’ houses if they have one. They’d probably have to ask them to keep it in another room. Sometimes, even a ‘meow’ could terrify them. Cats can be quite vicious and if a young child is scratched by one, this could lead to ailurophobia.

There are some famous conquerors such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great who are believed to have suffered from this phobia. Although historian Katharine MacDonagh states “no record exists of Napoleon either liking or hating cats,” she states in her book ‘Reigning Cats and Dogs: A History of Pets at Court Since the Renaissance’ that there is an old cultural myth that cats have a “magical ability to detect overweening of dictators.”^[3]

7 Alektorophobia (Chickens)

While ornithophobia is the fear of birds, alektorophobia is a specific fear of chickens. This comes from the Greek word “alektor”, meaning rooster. It’s more likely if someone has lived in a rural location all their life and had a bad experience as a child. Perhaps, they got stuck in an area where there was a large flock. Once they’ve grown up, if they still have this phobia they might decide to live in an urban area where they don’t have to worry about farms that might hold hundreds of them.

Eating chicken might also disgust them, as well as other birds such as duck or turkey. It might not be such a good idea to invite them round for a Christmas dinner. An overall fear of birds could be more difficult to handle. Even in a city, some kind of bird is always likely to be lurking.^[4]

6 Bufonophobia (Toads)

Like fish, toads are a species that are found around water and are often seen as repulsive, disease carrying creatures. Toads are more likely to be discovered in forested areas so this might be a place that someone with bufonophobia avoids. There are some species that are poisonous so the person might have heard about this. The giant toad, has the ability to kill humans and animals with the poison it emits.

There is also an association between toads and witchcraft and this could be something that the person with the phobia believes in. Sometimes toads were made part of a potion as a form of poison. There was even a belief that witches could be recognized by a small mark resembling a toad’s foot. Today, these are quite unlikely reasons for someone to be terrified of toads but, there are still some people who continue to believe it. Bufonophobia is part of the phobia ‘batraciophobia’ which is a more widespread overall fear of amphibians.^[5]

10 Insane Phobias That You Won’t Believe Are Real

5 Scoleciphobia (Worms)

Worms are an animal species that keep our plants alive and are a critical part of the agricultural system. However, there are some people suffering from helminthophobia who won’t even walk on the grass because they know the worms are squirming around in the ground underneath.

Living underground, most people see them as a dirty species and not something they like to touch but those suffering from the phobia could insist on always walking on nothing but concrete. Perhaps, they found an infestation in their food in the past and they see worms as a threatening cause of contamination. It is even known for people to refuse to go outside without a bottle of bug poison to spray themselves and their surroundings with. They could even do this in the home, spraying their carpet just in case.^[6]

4 Chiroptophobia (Bats)

While someone with cynophobia might be afraid of going out during the day with people out walking their dogs, people with chiroptohobia, are more likely to be afraid of going out at nighttime. In medieval Europe, if a bat entered the house, this was seen as a prediction of death in the family and coming up to Halloween, no one can go out without seeing one of them stuck to a window or hung up in a shop.

Although they’re not dangerous to humans, they’re still seen by by many as extremely ugly with their black leathery wings. All living in Latin America, there are only three species of bat that actually feed on blood. It seems that most people get their fear of bats watching films like Dracula and seen with red eyes, feeding on humans.^[7]

3 Melissophobia (Bees)

Anyone who’s been stung before or just knows that they sting will naturally move out of the way or try to smack a bee if there’s one flying around. To most people, this just seems annoying, but there are others who could have a panic attack if they even see one or two flying around. Spheksophobia is the fear of wasps and it’s interesting that people with melissophobia could be terrified of bees but not bothered by a wasp.

There are some people suffering from insect sting allergies and if they are stung then this could be life-threatening, explaining why they suffer from the phobia. Others might not have the allergies but hear about people dying as a result of being stung, developing melissophobia. Insect-related phobias are one of the most common types and insectophobia is the fear of all of them.^[8]

2 Equinophobia (Horses)

Horses are unlikely to chase someone like a dog and can’t sting someone like a bee so why are people afraid of them? Horse-riding is a popular hobby and if someone’s had a bad fall after being bucked off this could lead to a fear. Perhaps, they were kicked by a horse and broke a bone. Equinophobia is more likely to occur if this happened when the person was young.

This could lead to a phobia of riding horses or just by looking at one, they could remember being kicked and stay away completely. In some horror films, black stallions are shown as evil creatures with red beady eyes so this could make someone afraid of horses if they’ve watched a film like this at a young age.^[9]

1 Ostraconophobia (Shellfish)

This is the overall fear of shellfish such as lobsters, crabs, squids and crayfish that are more likely to be found in the sea. People with this phobia might have a fear of the seaside but not be afraid to visit rivers. It could be more the fear of eating lobsters or prawns and they might find it impossible to even eat in a restaurant if they’re on the menu. The reason for this could be an allergy to eating shellfish or the memory of eating a meal that was gone-off.

Well-known American “Stock Car Racing” driver Denny Hamlin, suffered from ostraconophobia but sometimes people just don’t know why their phobia has occurred and he stated:

“I have a lobster phobia. I don’t know why. I just don’t like them. I cannot eat dinner if someone beside me is eating lobster. I can’t look at it. So as far as I’m concerned, they need to put it back in the water and let it live.”^[10]

10 Well Known People and their Phobias

Humans have been killing each other in droves since the dawn of times. Wars, massacres, genocides and holocausts are depressingly common occurrences in the history of mankind, as many lists on this site can attest. But there were also many times in history when animals were massacred in large numbers — cats, dogs and other animals that men had under their power, for reasons other than eating (i.e. for superstitious, religious, economic or political motives, or for mere entertainment). Here are some of the most curious and terrifying instances. [WARNING: disturbing content]

10 Absurd Sleep Habits Of Wild Animals

10 The B.C. Sled Dog Execution, Canada, 2011

After the end of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the number of tourists who wanted to take a ride in sleds pushed by dogs diminished considerably. The sled dog tour industry went into crisis, and some companies were not able to continue into business if they did not cut costs – which really meant reducing the numbers of dogs they maintained. One of the companies forced to cut costs was called Howling Dog Tours. It was aptly named, for the dogs howled in desperation as they were chased and shot execution-style, or had their throats slit by the manager and owner of the company, who could not afford to maintain a large number of dogs, at the time more than 300.

Dozens of dogs were killed by him in one single terrible night. The curious thing is that the affair was only discovered because the manager himself filed a claim with the provincial worker’s board asking for compensation for having suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after the killings (he got it, too). Later, mass graves containing the remains of 56 dead dogs were found, although in the claim the number of victims mentioned goes over a 100. The case drew international outrage, and the only positive outcome was that it triggered a task force that toughened provincial animal cruelty laws.^[1]

9 The Puerto Rico Pet Massacre, 2007

In 2007 in Puerto Rico, a company called Animal Control Solutions was hired by the local government to help control the number of stray dogs and cats. Unfortunately, their “solution” involved throwing the live animals from a bridge. Worse, most of them were not even stray dogs or cats, but pets with regular owners, although most were persons who lived in projects in a poor part of the city. As the residents woke up, they found their beloved pets dead or, if they were lucky and survived, with broken bones near the bridge. After the event, thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the streets to protest, and eventually those responsible for the company were tried for animal abuse, something rare in the country. However, they were found not guilty and soon released.^[2]

8 The Ukraine World Cup stray dog killing, Ukraine, 2012

Many animal rights associations denounced a supposed killing of stray dogs led by the Ukrainian government during the build-up for the Euro 2012 soccer championship. As many other more impoverished countries in Eastern Europe, Ukraine has lots of roaming street dogs, and that, authorities feared, reflected negatively on how visitors would perceive the country. So they hatched up a plan to clear that bad image, and clear the streets of cats and dogs. However the plan did not work, for then they got the reputation of puppy-killers. While exact numbers are hard to find, some say that at least 9,000 animals were killed in three different cities. A few photos showing the carcasses of dead animals became viral and, bowing to international pressure, the Ukrainian government announced a six-month ban on the killings and ordered the local municipalities to build more animal shelters for the stray dogs instead of culling them. However, it is not clear if the measures were followed the local authorities or if it was just a way for the government to save face.^[3]

7 The Great Pre-War pet culling, England, 1939

An almost untold story of the Second World War is how after the panic of the oncoming war set in, the British government mounted a huge campaign to counsel citizens to get rid of their beloved pets in order to avoid their death or suffering during the bombings. As many as 750,000 pets were put down in just one week in 1939. While their deaths were humane, some argue that they were not necessary at all and merely represented a symptom of war hysteria.

More than the bombings, the main threat for pets was the lack of food, since there were no rations for animals and food was scarcer during wartime. However, many pets were not abandoned by their owners and were able to make it, and sanctuaries established for dogs and cats functioned during the war and saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals.^[4]

6 The Ueno Zoo Massacre, Japan, 1943

The following is also a story of preventive killing of animals during wartime, only it does not involve cats and dogs but the animals kept in a Zoo. The Japanese government believed that the animals could escape during the bombings and become dangerous, so they devised a plan to destroy them before that could happen.

It was a heartbreaking event, not so much because of the number of animals killed, between 25 and 50, but because of the way in which they died: the larger animals, including three elephants and two hippos, were simply starved to death. It took weeks for the elephants to die. Other animals such as tigers and panthers were poisoned. The event was also used as war propaganda, to prepare the population for the reality of the oncoming air attacks. The animals were described as “martyrs” that were dying for their country, even though they did not freely chose that fate.^[5]

10 Horrifying Massacres In First World Countries

5 The Zanesville Killing Fields, Ohio, U.S., 2011

In 2011, a Vietnam veteran who was heavily in debt, had been abandoned by his wife and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, decided to end his misery. Before shooting himself in the head, however, he opened the gates to liberate all the 56 exotic animals that he kept in his private farm, including bears, lions, leopards monkeys, wolves and 18 Bengali tigers – a species in grave danger of extinction.

The idea of lions, wolves and tigers roaming free among the local human population did not make anyone feel very secure, and soon the police was called to intervene. They attempted at first to shoot a tiger with tranquilizers, but that only made him more enraged, so they decided to shoot to kill. In the final count, 48 of the 56 animals ended up dead, including the 18 beautiful tigers. One monkey was still seemingly at large for weeks after the event, but the police called off the search believing it was probably eaten by one of the felines after the liberation.^[6]

4 The Great Cat Massacre, Paris, 1730

In 1730 in Paris, a group of printing apprentices, as a revenge for what they believed were bad working conditions, tortured and killed all the cats that they could find, including the beloved pet of their master’s wife. This true story is based in the diaries of a printing apprentice, who together with an accomplice killed hundreds of cats in one night. The young men that worked in the printing shop received only crumbs to eat and believed to be generally mistreated, while at the same time they saw their masters pampering their cats. So they decided to take revenge on the felines. Several cats, including the pet of their master’s wife, were captured and put into sacks. Many were killed on the spot with an iron bar. Others had to suffer a mock trial, in which they were finally ‘condemned’ to be hanged, all to the amusement of the workers of the printer’s shop, and to considerable less amusement of the masters.^[7]

3 Cat-burning and cat-throwing festivals, Europe, Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, cats were associated with witchcraft and Satanism, so it was not uncommon for them to be killed in high numbers. In most cases they were burned in giant fires in the main square of the cities, as people danced and cheered around. In one of those occasions, even the King of France took part. In some occasions, however, they suffered other more original forms of death. In the city of Ypres, Belgium, for instance, they were traditionally thrown from the belfry tower into the square below, to the amusement of the crowds. Today the macabre killings are remembered every three years during the Kattenstoet parade, which is however a cat-friendly event in which only toy cats are thrown from the tower, and people dress as cats and dance in the street, perhaps in a request of forgiveness to cats for their former ways.^[8]

2 The Swine Flu Killing, Egypt, 2009

During the swine flu scare of 2009, Egypt ordered the killing of its whole population of pigs. More than 300,000 animals were killed in a short time. While no cases of swine flu were ever documented in Egypt, the culling was announced as a preventive measure, in order to avoid possible contamination. Others, however, say that it was a punishment measure against Christians, since they are the only ones who raise pigs in the country, because Islam prohibits the consumption of swine. Be as it may, none of the pigs killed had the flu, and they were disposed of without their flesh being consumed. However, the measure later backfired badly on the government. In Egypt, the pigs were traditionally fed with the same organic trash that otherwise littered the cities. The swine were basically used as recycling machines. After their sudden disappearance, the streets of Cairo became literally covered with tons of trash, ironically exposing people to all sorts of diseases. It is possible that this added to the general discontent of the population with the government and helped the dethroning of Mubarak during the Arab Spring, a year later.^[9]

1 Gadhimai Festival, Nepal, today

The largest animal sacrifice festival in the world happens every five years in Nepal. It is called the Gadhimai Festival, in honor of the Hindu Goddess of power, Gadhimai. We tend to think of Hindus as vegetarians who would not hurt a cow, which they consider sacred. That may be true for cows, but apparently it does not apply for water buffaloes, chickens, goats, pigs and rats, which are sacrificed in the numbers of hundreds of thousands. In 2009 it is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 animals were killed during the three days of the festival, which was witnessed by at least a million of worshipers. The way it works is that participants bring their own animals to the feast. The animals are then decapitated with traditional khukuri knives by 250 authorized slaughterers. The blood of the animals is supposed to bring good luck. Afterwards the remains are sold to tanneries or eaten. The next Festival will take place in 2024.^[10]

Top 10 Surreal Animals That Really Exist

About The Author: Tom Creus is a freelance writer, translator and teacher. He blogs occasionally at tomwaiting.wordpress.com.

Animals surprise people and scientists continuously. Ongoing research keeps revealing things we didn’t know about specific creatures and some of these findings are truly awesome. While there are way too many awe-inspiring animals in the world to fit on one list, here are 15 facts to show the awesomeness of just some of them.

Top 10 Lesser-Known But Interesting Ancient Animals

15 Goats prefer happy people

A study in 2018 revealed that not only can goats read human facial expressions; they also prefer interacting with people who are happy. A team of scientists at Queen Mary University of London detailed how 20 goats were shown images of both happy and angry human facial expressions and determined that they preferred looking at the happy face images. It was also determined that this happened particularly when the happy face images were on the right side of the goats, causing them to use the left hemisphere of their brains to assist in processing happy emotions.^[1]

14 Whales used to walk on land

Whales are awesome full stop. However, they used to be even more badass back in the day (around 50 million years ago to be exact). Some of the earliest descendants of the modern whale looked nothing like the majestic mammals we know today; they walked on four legs and hunted both small land animals and freshwater fish. Known as Pakicetus, this animal eventually evolved to cope with their changing environment.^[2]

13 Bigfoot may have been a lemur

There is a lot more to lemurs than the Madagascar movie franchise will have you believe. In total, there are a staggering 105 different species of lemurs. And once upon a time they all used to be the size of gorillas. Lemurs are native only to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands and thrive in dry- or rainforests as well as wetlands and mountains. In the late 19th century it was discovered that the lemur had a prehistoric primate ancestor and it was given the name Megaladapis meaning ‘giant lemur’. A very interesting fact about Megaladapis is that it may have started the legend of Bigfoot. When human settlers arrived in Madagascar, the Megaladapis was not yet extinct and it is believed that encounters with the massive creatures may have given rise to the legend.^[3]

12 Crows leave gifts

When Gabi Man was four years old, she was always accidently dropping food wherever she went. Unbeknownst to her, a bunch of crows would swoop in to sweep whatever she dropped. As she grew older, she took more notice of the birds and started leaving food out for them including her school lunches. Eventually the crows started thanking her in a heart-warming manner. They would leave her little gifts such as polished rocks, an earring and a small piece of metal with the word ‘best’ on it. The gifts would be left after they finished off the peanuts left in a birdfeeder by Gabi. By the time Gabi was 8 years old, the birds had left her a whole host of gifts. A crow even once returned Gabi’s camera lens cap to her after she misplaced it.^[4]

11 A zebra’s coat can be used as a barcode

In 2011 a team of researchers came up with an alternative idea to track wild zebras that didn’t involve the use of RFID chips. They developed a system called StripeSpotter with which they were able to isolate a portion of a zebra, photograph it and then cut it up into horizontal bands. Each pixel in the selected portion is converted to black or white and the horizontal bands are encoded to StripeStrings which eventually are made into a StripeCode which looks a lot like a barcode. The information is then stored in a database which researchers can use to identify animals without having to approach them directly.^[5]

10 A fish used to be a Roman party drug

Known as ‘the fish that make dreams’, eating salema porgy heads is known for causing hallucinations. You wouldn’t say there is anything out of the ordinary about this fish just by looking at it, but the Ancient Romans soon figured out its weird secret and ingested this fish as a recreational drug during the time of the Roman Empire. Polynesians also ate the salema porgy during ‘special events.’ In 1994 a man found himself surrounded by screaming animals after eating a baked salema porgy on the French Riviera. In 2006, two men ate the fish at a Mediterranean restaurant and experienced hallucinations, both auditory and visual.^[6]

9 Lulu the kangaroo was a heroine

Lulu the kangaroo was rescued from her dead mother’s pouch in 1998 by the Richards family, who took her into their home and raised her. Little did they know that this act of kindness would prove to be one of the best things they’d ever do. In 2003, Len Richards was knocked unconscious when a tree branch fell on him at his home. Lulu literally raised the alarm by standing a couple of hundred metres away from the house and “barking” until family members came over to see if there was a problem. When they found Lulu, she was standing next to Len and the family rushed him to hospital. Luckily, he wasn’t severely injured and was released the same day. Lulu became an instant heroine and journalists from all over the world called the Richards family to have a story written about the incident.^[7]

10 Absurd Sleep Habits Of Wild Animals

8 A village of wolves

While many adult male animals are aggressive towards their young and sometimes even kill them, it is very different with wolves. It is almost as if they adopt the human saying: ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’ Every member of the pack pitches in, male and female, to help care for and raise wolf cubs. It has also been found that some female wolves in a pack go through pseudo-pregnancies which makes them feel like parenting and therefore they are also involved in ‘rearing’ wolf cubs.^[8]

7 A herd of elephants mourned The Elephant Whisperer

Elephants are emotive creatures with excellent memories. They become emotional when they experience the death of a herd member and sometimes cover their dead with soil or grass. Elephants also grieve when humans, who they have a connection with, die. When Lawrence Anthony, otherwise known as The Elephant Whisperer, died in South Africa in 2012, two elephant herds he had worked with showed up at his nature reserve home shortly afterwards. The herds hadn’t visited the home for 18 months and it took them around 12 hours to get there. They stuck around for about two days and then left again. Lawrence Anthony devoted his life to calming traumatised elephants and he also recued animals from the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraqi invasion.^[9]

6 Crocodiles can gallop

Awesome might not be the word that comes to mind when most people think of crocodiles, but the fact is that they truly are. When they sleep with their mouths open, it doesn’t mean they are waiting to attack; they are actually releasing heat as they don’t sweat. They can sleep with one eye open and they can hold their breath underwater for more than an hour. Even more surprising perhaps is the fact that some crocodiles can gallop. In the early 2000s researchers studied five crocodile species; African dwarf crocodile, African slender snouted crocodile, Cuban crocodile, Philippine crocodile and the American crocodile and found that all of them were able to bound and gallop.^[10]

5 Arab horses have been around as long as the Egyptian pyramids

Horses can sleep standing up or lying down. They communicate their feelings through facial expressions, and they have better night vision than humans. The oldest domestic horse in history was Old Billy who lived to the age of 62. The oldest surviving breed of horse, the Arab, has been around for an estimated 4,500 years. Arabian horses are called so because most experts agree that they originated in the Arabian Peninsula. George Washington, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte and Genghis Khan all owned Arabian horses.^[11]

4 Cows form close friendships

Cows are not only large, placid animals that dot the countryside. They are very intelligent creatures that prefer the company of their ‘best friends.’ A 2019 study saw cows penned for 30-minute intervals, first with a best friend and then again with a cow they did not know. During both intervals, the heart rates of the cows were measured. The results showed that when a cow was penned with a friend, their heart rates were low, and they were less stressed. The study also proved that cows have a level of personality and an urge to form a connection with others of their kind.^[12]

3 Cats have healing power

Cats are one of the most popular pet choices in the world. They meow to communicate with their owners and can jump up to six times its body length in a single leap. Their noses are as unique as a human’s fingerprint and they have three eyelids. What’s more, cats sometimes have the power to heal themselves. A domesticated cat’s purr has a frequency of between 25 and 150 Hertz which is also the frequency at which bones and muscles grow and repair themselves. It might also help humans such as astronauts who experience bone density loss and muscle atrophy during long periods at zero gravity.^[13]

2 Sea otters hold hands while sleeping

Sea otters are very cute little marine animals that have the densest fur of any animal on earth. They use rocks as tools for hunting and feeding and they can live their entire lives in water. The cutest thing about them is that when they fall asleep in the water, they ‘hold hands’ so that they do not drift away from each other. This is quite common with mothers and their pups and shows how intelligent these animals are. Should a pup be too small to hold hands with its mother he hitches a ride on her belly. When the mother goes hunting, she wraps her pups in seaweed to ensure they don’t float off.^[14]

1 Alpacas are water and fire resistant

Alpacas are quirky-looking, fluffy animals with a penchant for continuous chewing and spitting. They are very sociable and should not be kept alone. They are also water and fire resistant; well at least their fleece is! Any products made from their fibre is flame retardant and wicks away moisture. What’s more, being around alpacas is very therapeutic and they are often taken to hospitals to bring healing and joy, especially to children.^[15]

10 Shocking Procedures Done To Animals

Frequently animals working as actors achieve considerable fame, though under the name of the character they portrayed, rather than their own. That hardly seems fair, especially as many animal actors played several different characters over the course of their career. Animal actors work just as their human counterparts do. They need to hit their spots, respond to cues, and convey a sense of reality to their audience.

According to human actors, some are a joy to work with, others a pain, and some even demonstrate the prima donna attitudes displayed by some humans. And many have earned sums over the course of their careers that have made their owners and trainers quite wealthy. Yet their real names remain known to few. Here are ten relatively obscure animal actors whose characters were quite famous.

10. Bamboo Harvester

Mr. Ed was a 1960s television situation comedy featuring a character which originated in a series of short stories written by Walter R. Brooks. The first of the short stories, which featured a talking horse owned by a dipsomaniac, appeared in Liberty Magazine in September, 1937. Eventually he wrote 23 short stories featuring the talking horse, Mr. Ed. In 1961 the series was adapted for television, though the drunken nature of the owner was dropped. For the role of the talking horse, the producers selected a horse named Bamboo Harvester.

Bamboo Harvester played Mr. Ed in the series, though he had no notable acting experience. He was a gelding out of an American Saddlebred mare, sired by an Arabian, eleven year old when the television series began. His trainer, Les Hilton, had been a protègè of Will Rogers. As Mr. Ed, Bamboo Harvester opened the show by saying, “Hello, I’m Mr. Ed”, followed by the program’s theme song. Mr. Ed’s lips moved to appear as if he were actually speaking and though many theories have emerged as to how this was done, though the means have never been officially revealed. .

Obviously, Mr. Ed/Bamboo Harvester did not actually talk, an actor named Allan Lane provided the voiceovers. Bamboo Harvester also had an understudy, a horse named Pumpkin, to pose in his place for publicity stills and occasional personal appearances. But he played the title role of Mr. Ed in all 143 episodes of the show over six seasons before retiring. He was put down in 1970 after a series of illnesses at the age of 20.

9. Pal

Lassie, the character dog in film and television, is a female Rough Collie. Pal, the dog which first portrayed Lassie on film in 1943’s Lassie Come Home (with a young Elizabeth Taylor), was a male Rough Collie. In fact, in feature films to date, the female Lassie was always portrayed by males, many if not most of them descendants of Pal. The same holds true for the long-running live action television series Lassie. The series began in 1954, with Pal filming the pilot, replaced by his son Pal II, renamed Lassie Jr, for the first season. It ran for 19 years and 591 episodes, with several dogs eventually portraying Lassie.

Pal and his many descendants were owned and trained by Rudd Weatherwax. Weatherwax used the earnings from Pal’s successful seven films as Lassie to acquire the rights to the name Lassie and the franchise, which he then helped develop for television. As noted, Pal performed in the pilot television movie for the series, after which a number of Pal’s descendants performed the role of Lassie. Pal thus created a famous character and a long family line of actors, though without achieving the fame of the Booths or the Barrymores.

Pal also performed as Lassie in personal appearances and even on radio where, obviously, he only needed to bark, whimper, or growl on cue, though with suitable emphasis as the role dictated. He retired as Lassie in 1954 and died in 1958. Since his death attempts to cast non-Pal bloodline collies in the role of Lassie have engendered legal disputes and negative commentary. The Lassie trademark was sold by the Weatherwax family (Rudd Weatherwax died in 1985) in 2000 and after changing hands due to mergers and other business dealings is now held by Universal.

8. Popcorn Deelites

The 2003 film Seabiscuit told a fictionalized story about a real race horse which caught the nation’s attention at the height of the Depression in the 1930s. To film the racing scenes, several horses were used to portray Seabiscuit, as well as the horses he raced against. Several real jockeys also took part in the film, including Gary Stevens as George “Iceman” Woolf. But in the scenes with interactions between Tobey Maguire, as Red Pollard, and others where humans interacted directly with Seabiscuit, the famous racehorse was portrayed by a thoroughbred racehorse named Popcorn Deelites.

Popcorn Deelites had a less than stellar racing career, starting 58 races with 11 wins, and just $56,800 in career earnings, racing both before and after filming Seabiscuit. In the paddock and around the barns he was called Pops, the name Tobey Maguire used for him in their scenes in the movie. Gary Stevens spoke fondly of Popcorn Deelites when he learned of the horse’s death in 2022, calling him his “go-to guy in all the big scenes”.

The film Seabiscuit, with its story of a disregarded underdog achieving success and winning the hearts of fans was a huge success in 2003. It was the only appearance in Popcorn Deelites acting career. He returned to racing, with limited success and retired to Old Friends, a thoroughbred retirement farm in Kentucky in 2005. He lived there for his remaining 17 years, forgotten both as a racehorse and as an actor.

7. Spike

Frank Weatherwax, a brother of Lassie’s Rudd Weatherwax, was also an animal trainer who assisted his brother training Pal and his offspring for their roles as Lassie. Another dog he trained was Spike. Spike was a Labrador Retriever/Mastiff mixed breed (sometimes called a mastador), yellow in color and lop-eared. He appeared in several films in the 1950s and 1960s, often uncredited. One such film was a major hit upon its release and again when it was shown on television. It was the story of a stray dog and the boy who found him in post-Civil War Texas, and though Spike played the titular role he was again uncredited.

The film was the Walt Disney production of Old Yeller, starring Tommy Kirk, Fess Parker, and Dorothy McGuire. Old Yeller became a cultural icon of the late 1950s and early 1960s, spawning comic books, merchandise, posters, toys, and other items now deemed collectibles. Old Yeller was rereleased in theaters in 1965 and again achieved considerable financial success. It achieved popular and critical acclaim, and in 2019 the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry. Try watching the end of Old Yeller without tearing up. Only the coldest can do so.

Spike went on to additional films, including appearing in A Dog of Flanders playing the featured dog mentioned in the title, Patrasche, again uncredited. He also appeared in the television series Lassie, The Mickey Mouse Club, and in the Brian Keith series The Westerner, again, all uncredited. He finally received a screen credit for one of his final roles, as Pete in the 1961 film The Silent Call. Spike died in 1962. Old Yeller, his most famous role, continues to hold high approval ratings on streaming and film review sites online.

6. Bruno

In the early 1900s there was a silent film bear actor known as Bruno the Bear. Trained as a circus performer Bruno the Bear appeared in film shorts such as Mack Sennett comedies. The later bear actor known simply as Bruno was born around 1962, though there are several disputing stories regarding his early life. The North American black bear eventually arrived and was trained at Africa USA Animal Ranch in California. From there he was recruited to appear in the film Zebra in the Kitchen, and later in an episode of Daktari.

In 1967 the 650 pound, nearly 8-foot bear (he had been declawed) appeared in the film Gentle Giant and the television series Gentle Ben in the role of Ben the bear. For the role Bruno’s name was changed to Ben, and like other actors he commuted from his California home to the sets in the Florida Everglades while filming the series. He found the humid Florida heat not to his taste. It had little effect on his appetite however, and Bruno was known to eat any food he found around the set, including packs of cigarettes left lying around by the crew.

Bruno eventually appeared in over four hundred roles, usually as a comic relief, and often appeared hesitant to work, due to laziness or heat, or his interest in food rather than work. He appeared as Watch Bear in the 1972 film The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, with Paul Newman and Jacqueline Bissett. In his career he was nominated for three PATSY awards, winning in 1968 for his appearance in Gentle Giant. He also appeared as a guest on television variety shows, including on a 1973 special, Don’t Call Me Mama Anymore, featuring Mama Cass. The date of Bruno’s death is unknown, speculated to have been around 1981.

5. Higgins

The dog actor Higgins first appeared on television as the little dog who lived at the Shady Rest Hotel in the series Petticoat Junction. Trained by animal trainer Frank Inn, Higgins went on to a 14 year career in film and television. 

But back to Higgins. The dog, a Norwich Terrier, won a PATSY award for his role on Petticoat Junction and was featured on a 1966 TV Guide cover, but he was uncredited in the role. Additionally, his character had no name, referred to simply as dog by other characters. Higgins performed in a guest role on Green Acres with Eva Gabor, and with her sister Zsa Zsa Gabor in the 1971 film Mooch Goes to Hollywood, in which Zsa Zsa played herself, one of several actors to have worked with two of the three Gabor sisters.

But it was as the original Benji that Higgins tugged at the hearts of audiences, pairing with his old friend and star of Petticoat Junction Edgar Buchanan in 1974. Frances Bavier, Mayberry’s Aunt Bee, also appeared in the film, and it was the last for all three actors. As in his other roles Hiigins was not credited. By that time Higgins was 16 years old, an advanced age for any dog, and he was unable to appear in any of the sequels. He had by then sired many puppies, and it was one of his daughters, Benjean, who appeared as Benji in the first sequel, For the Love of Benji, in 1977.

4. Skippy

From 1932 to 1947 a Wire Fox Terrier appeared in more than two dozen films, appearing with stars such as Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Katharine Hepburn, William Powell, Irene Dunne, and other stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The dog’s name was Skippy, though he was credited under many names, including the character which he made famous, Asta. Asta was the faithful companion of Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man and its many sequels on film, and a later television series. Skippy was owned and trained by Gale and Henry East, and he became one of Hollywood’s highest paid animal stars during the run of The Thin Man series.

Most animal stars of the day were paid about $3.50 per day for their contribution to the film. Skippy received over $250.00 per week plus expenses and a stipend for his handlers. He could also be temperamental on the set, once biting Myrna Loy during a rehearsal. Beside his role as Asta, it was Skippy who played the dog in Bringing Up Baby who buried a paleontologist’s prized bone fossil. He also appeared as Mr. Smith, the subject of a custody dispute between characters played by Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth.

But he is remembered primarily as the dog who portrayed Asta, in at least the first three Thin Man films. The role is credited to Asta in all of the Thin Man movies, and it is likely another dog filled the later roles, as Skippy would have been too old for the final films. His last role credited as Skippy was in 1939’s Topper Takes a Trip. Beyond that, little is known of the remaining days of Skippy, the dog who created a role frequently used as the answer to crossword clues in newspapers and magazines across the country.

3. Sykes

The story of Sykes, the dog actor, is a true rags-to-riches tale (pardon the bad pun), canine style. Sykes was a foundling, a stray dog with the good fortune to be found by a stunt dog trainer named Gill Raddings. Raddings estimated the dog’s age to be about seven months when she found him in 2004. Trained and handled primarily by the reward with food method, Sykes first appeared before the public in British television advertisement campaigns. A mixed terrier, the dog soon had roles in major motion pictures, including in Curse of the Black Pearl, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Sykes starred in several advertising campaigns in the UK, starting with Every Home Needs a Harvey, a Thinkbox advertisement which extolled the power of television advertising. He played Harvey, a dog awaiting adoption. As a result he became known to the public as Harvey, rather than his real name. He later appeared in two additional Thinkbox advertisements, as well as in an ad with British actor and comedian Peter Kay for John Smith’s Brewery. He also appeared in several British television programs.

He then appeared in several seasons of Midsomer Murders, a British crime drama set in the fictional British county of Midsomer. Sykes portrayed the family dog of the character John Barnaby and was credited as a supporting character for several seasons of the show, a total of 29 episodes. He was replaced on the show with another dog actor named Paddy when Sykes went into retirement following his fifth season in 2016. His character died on the show. Sykes lived in retirement with a foster family, his expenses paid for by Raddings, until he died in June, 2019.

2. Orangey

In the 1958 fantasy film Bell, Book, and Candle, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, the latter as a witch, no fewer than 12 Siamese cats were needed to perform the role of Pyewacket, her cat, and herself a witch. The reason so many cats were needed was the difficulty in training the animals to perform their stunts. That wasn’t the case with Orangey, an orange tabby owned and trained by Frank Inn. Orangey was a professional cat actor that appeared in many films, including as Mouschi in The Diary of Anne Frank, and as Holly Golightly’s unnamed roommate in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Like many actors before and since, Orangey was known to be temperamental on the set, scratching his fellow cast mates and biting from time to time. But he got away with his less than professional attitude to his fellow players through his ability to perform, winning two PATSY Awards, for Rhubarb (credited as Rhubarb), in which he had the title role of a cat which inherits a fortune, and for Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Orangey also appeared on television. He was the cat Minerva in the 1950s series Our Miss Brooks, and also appeared in a 1967 episode of Mission: Impossible, titled The Seal, in which he played a cat trained as an agent of the Impossible Mission Force. His final known appearance was in a two-part episode of the 1960s camp version of Batman, in which he appeared alongside Eartha Kitt in her role as Catwoman. Orangey is the only cat to have won the PATSY Award twice, and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California, along with many other stars of the screen.

1. Terry

Terry was a Cairn Terrier with an impressive list of films on her resume in the 1930s and 1940s. During the filming of her most famous role, as Toto in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, she was injured when her foot was stepped on by one of the Winkies, breaking it. Star Judy Garland kept her in her home while she recuperated, the filming temporarily stopped. During the filming of the movie, Terry earned $125 per week. That was a wage level not achieved by average American workers of the time. It was also more than some of the actors in the movie were paid for their work.

She was credited not as Terry, but as Toto for the film, which became a classic and remains one of the most beloved films of all time. She was credited as Toto again in the film Son of the Navy, which led some to conclude her name had been changed to Toto following the success of The Wizard of Oz, but the claim is undocumented. She, like so many animal actors, became known as the character they performed, rather than for their own identity.

Terry performed with Jack Benny, Nelson Eddy, Joan Bennet, William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and many other A-list Hollywood stars during her career as an actor, always performing her own stunts under the guidance of her trainer, Carl Spitz. Yet she was never credited as Terry. Even on her memorial stone, in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, her name of Terry is shared with her role’s name of Toto. The site is not that of her burial. Her gra

Earth’s magical ecosystems might be on their way out, but they’re still full of awesome surprises — like these ten animal behaviors, each of which is so totally opposite to what you’d expect that they’re practically oxymoronic.

10. Flying squid

Often mistaken for flying fish, there are at least six known species of flying squid and possibly dozens more. But as seeing them in action is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of sight there’s not much for scientists to go on. Most reports come from sailors who find them on deck in the morning. 

Marine biologist Silvia Maciá, however, got lucky. On holiday in 2001, she saw a torpedo-shaped Caribbean reef squid — alarmed by the noise of her boat — shoot out the water and arc through the air. Maciá estimated it reached a height of two meters and covered a distance of ten meters (50 times its own length). But this wasn’t just a jump. The squid “extended its fins and flared its tentacles in a radial pattern while airborne,” guiding its flight like an inside-out bird. As she and her husband later wrote in a paper with other biologists, “gliding” is too passive a term for it; “‘flight’ is more fitting because it implies something active.” One of Maciá’s co-authors even claimed to have seen squid flapping their fins as though wings. They also shoot water jets for extra propulsion, sometimes with enough force to keep up with boats. Sometimes they’re even seen flying in flocks.

We don’t know for sure why squid took to flying, but it probably saves them energy while escaping from predators.

9. Walking bats

Although mammals, bats have adapted so thoroughly to flight that their “legs” don’t allow them to walk. In most species, they’re little more than “attachment points for the surface of their wings.” Even crawling on the ground is an effort.

Of the 1,110 species of bat, only two have a true walking gait: the vampire bat and the lesser short-tailed burrowing bat. For the vampire bat, walking is vital. After landing near its sleeping prey, it has to stealthily creep over to feed on its blood. One type of vampire bat can even run, using its wings for additional thrust.

Less well known is the burrowing bat of New Zealand, whose adaptations for walking include grooves on the soles of its feet, clawed toes, and even pockets for keeping the wings in. In fact, this species is so well adapted for walking, it spends 40 percent of its time foraging on the ground. But it can still fly just as well as any other bat — unlike birds that are adapted for walking.

8. Bat-catching snakes

Since (most) bats can’t walk and snakes can’t fly, you’d think they’d have little to do with each other. But some snakes have actually taken to the air — at least in a manner of speaking. 

In a cave in the Yucatan rainforest, a population of yellow-red rat snakes has established itself in ceiling cracks, dangling to catch bats in their mouths. Given the density of the bat swarms that issue nightly from the “Bat Cave”, as it’s known to locals, it’s a behavior that makes perfect sense.

And, interestingly, they’re not the only species to have filled this creepy niche. 1,000 kilometers away, across the Caribbean Sea, boas grab fruit bats from the air, likewise striking from the ceilings of caves. But even more surprisingly, they do so in packs — coordinating positions to boost their chance of a mouthful.

7. Fish-eating spiders

Although some spiders are known to eat frogs, rodents, and birds, what kind of spider eats fish?

According to a review of the existing literature, it’s not as unusual as it sounds. Species from as many as five genera, and every continent but Antarctica, are listed. In North America, semi-aquatic spiders catch small freshwater mosquito fish by anchoring their hind legs to a stone or plant and “fishing” with its front legs on the surface of the water. 

After dragging a catch onto land, feeding often takes several hours. Why does it take so long? Because, on average, spiders catch fish at least twice as long as themselves.

6. Hornet-cooking bees

Stinging isn’t the only suicide attack deployed by nature’s boddhisattvas, the bees. When a hornet attacks a nest, hundreds of worker bees swarm into a ball around the intruder to roast it alive with their body heat. Surprisingly, this behavior, known as “hot defensive bee balls,” wasn’t documented until 1995 when it was studied in detail in Japan.

By rapidly vibrating their wing muscles for upwards of half an hour, bees are able to reach temperatures of 46 degrees Celsius, which is enough to kill the captive hornet. But while it’s just under bee-roasting point, it does seem to lower bees’ lifespan. It also seems to disinhibit them neurologically, making them more likely to join balls in the future than bees that were never involved.

Some bee species might also deploy non-heated balls to suffocate invaders, or else dance in waves to reflect shimmering signals that warn off would-be attackers. They have to act fast, though, whatever they do. Given time, hornets release pheromones to attract back-up.

5. Sea-faring spiders

You’d think spiders would be wary of water. But many species live close to and even in it. The so-called diving bell spider, for instance, lives underwater in a silken base filled, bubble by bubble, with air from the surface. Once established, oxygen levels remain stable thanks to diffusion from aquatic plants nearby. 

More surprisingly, coastal spiders (Amaurobioides) are able to travel by sea — which explains how they reached South Africa from South America in the Miocene. They also got to Australia and New Zealand. Using their legs as sails and silk as an anchor, coastal spiders can travel the world. 

First described in 2015, this behavior explains the mystery, noted by Darwin, of spiders blowing onto ships even miles away from the shore.

4. Immaculately-conceiving Komodo’s

In 2006 a strange report in the biology journal Nature described two cases where female komodo dragons — both captive at zoos in England — reproduced without mating a male. One laid 11 eggs, eight of which were developing normally, while the other laid 22, four of which hatched. Because the second dragon had actually mated two and a half years previously, researchers initially assumed she’d simply held onto the sperm, as some reptiles can. However, genetic analysis revealed that her offspring was identical to her, only male. The other dragon, meanwhile, had never mated. 

Known as parthenogenesis, asexual reproduction is extremely rare. In the absence of sperm to provide the other half of her offspring’s chromosomes, the mother just doubles up her own. Only 0.1 percent of vertebrates are capable of this feat. The reason komodo dragons are among them is thought to be their isolated habitat, the islands of Indonesia — since parthenogenesis allows (at least in principle) females washed up on an island to found a new colony on their own.

Unfortunately, however, the offspring produced in this way are, being genetically less diverse, more prone to disease. They’re also exclusively male, since, unlike in humans, two of the same chromosomes in komodo dragons (namely ZZ) produces a male. So parthenogenesis isn’t really an advantage for this endangered species of monitor lizard.

3. Bird-catching fish

Sharks aside, the relationship between birds and fish is pretty much always top-down. Fish don’t pluck birds from the air. 

Or do they? In 2014, a group of researchers in South Africa saw a tigerfish leap from a lake and catch a swallow in flight. It all happened so fast, they weren’t sure at first what they’d seen. As it turned out, it was the first ever confirmed sighting of a freshwater fish preying on a bird in mid-air. And it wasn’t their last. Before they left, the team saw as many as 20 such strikes every day. The anecdotal reports were correct: fish preying on birds is common in the region, it’s just not all that well studied.

It happens elsewhere too. Another bird-catching species is the silver arowana, a flying fish that preys not only on birds, but also bats and even mice in what’s left of the Amazon rainforest.

2. Land-stalking fish

Birds aren’t even safe from fish on dry land. On the River Tarn in Albi, France, there’s a small island where pigeons come to preen — and where catfish come to hunt them. 

The European catfish is actually pretty formidable. Usually measuring between 1 and 1.5 meters long but with outlier specimens known to reach 3 meters, they’re the continent’s biggest freshwater fish. And, despite their relatively “primitive” state of evolution, their great adaptability keeps them at the top of their food chain. 

To stalk the pigeons on land, catfish swim nearby, detecting vibrations with their upper jaw barbels (or “whiskers”).Then they flop out of the water and onto the island, grabbing any pigeon that moves before retreating into the depths. The whole thing takes less than four seconds. 

1. Tree-climbing fish

Further making a mockery of the old saying “a fish out of water,” some species actually prefer it. By holding bubbles of water in their gill chambers, Asian mudskippers are able to breathe on dry land for up to two days, taking oxygen not only through their gills but also through their skin — as long as its wet. Specially adapted fins allow them to walk (or hop) along the ground and even their eyesight is better on land.

But humans have known this for a while. A more recent discovery by scientists catching up with local knowledge is that some can also climb trees. The dusky-gilled and slender mudskippers are two of the tree-climbing species. According to researchers, they use a combination of suction, friction, and slug-like secretions, as well as their fins, to make their way vertically up tree trunks.

Even more surprising, though, was their movement across water. Recordings of the dusky-gilled mudskipper in Java revealed it hopping off vertical inclines, such as mangrove roots, onto water, then from the water to another vertical incline on land. Using its body for propulsion, it reached speeds of 1.7 meters per second.

In the evolutionary arms race between predators and prey a huge range of weapons and techniques have developed to give each side the edge it takes to survive. Many prey evolve ways to avoid the attention of their predators, but predators also find stealthy ways to capture their dinner. From camouflage, to play acting, to launching traps life finds ever new ways of fighting in the war of life.

Here are ten of the sneakiest predators to be found in nature.

10 Amazing Mummified Animals We Have Found

10 Assassin Bug vs Spider

Spiders are superbly adapted predators. They dominate their little worlds with their quick movements, venomous attacks, and subtle senses. Generally any little bug that blunders into a spider’s web is in for a bad time. For the Giraffe Asssassin Bug however they actively hunt down spider webs, and turn the tables on the web-spinner.

When the spindly assassin bug spots a spider in a web they head straight for it. A spider can detect vibrations from its web silks as small as a millionth of an inch. This gives it both time to grab prey and flee from any predator that may be coming. The assassin bug manages to cut its way towards the spider without alarming it.

It does this by grasping individual strands of silk and slicing them. It then releases them with the minimum amount of disruption to the web. Even as the assassin bug is climbing the web the spider remains unaware of its danger until it is stabbed by the assassin’s sharp needle mouth that will suck the spider dry.

9 Anglerfish

Anglerfish are notably ugly animals. This doesn’t much matter to them as they live in the darkest parts of the ocean. In the pitch black regions of the ocean there is not only no one to see them there are also relatively few prey for them to eat. If the anglerfish wants to eat it must attract animals towards them. It does this by working with bacteria to create a luminous lure.

The bacteria live inside the anglerfish and produce an eerie light via bioluminescence. The fish provides the bacteria with nutrients while the bacteria brings in the prey. When fish or squid see the glowing lure they head towards the anglerfish. As soon as they are within range of the fish’s long teeth it opens its large jaws and grabs whoever has strayed too close. When the large, distended stomach is full the anglerfish can hide its lure away and lurk in the dark to slowly digest its meal.

Only the female anglerfish has a lure. The males of the species can be hundreds of times smaller than the female but are equally sneaky. Using a large sensory organ they sniff out the females and race towards them. Once near the males bite the female and dissolve their own heads to merge with the female. The male gives up his independent life and remains bound to the female, occasionally pumping sperm into her.

8 Photuris firefly

Watching the bioluminescent dance of fireflies in a twilight wood is one of the most beautiful sights in nature. While their displays may spark romantic feelings in humans they do the same in other fireflies. The light of a firefly is a sign to others that it wants to mate. Or sometimes it is the false lure of sex that draws male fireflies to their doom.

The Photuris fireflies seem to have evolved bioluminescence independently of other fireflies and they use it to mimic female fireflies. When a male firefly sees the Photuris flash its lights it moves in to mate. Instead it has a store of vital chemicals sucked out of its head and is then eaten by the Photuris. Quite the bad ending to a date.

Fireflies produce chemicals that help them ward off predators, but the Photuris does not. If it wants protection it must consume them from their prey. The Lucibufagins that repel predators can then be recycled by the Photuris fireflies to also protect their eggs.

7 Livingstone’s Cichlids

Playing dead can be a great defence mechanism. Some animals will only eat live prey so to not die prey sometimes pretend to already be dead. For Livingstone’s Cichlids, Nimbochromis livingstonii, playing dead is not a defence but a subtle form of attack.

The small fish have a splotchy but eye-catching pattern on them. It looks a little as if their flesh is rotting. This comes in handy when they head to the bottom of a lake and lay perfectly still on their side. There is nothing more tempting in nature than a free meal and soon small fish will gather around the apparently dead fish. It is then that the cichlid strikes and swallows their prey whole before moving on to play dead again.

Found in Lake Malawi these fish are commonly known to local fishermen as ‘kalingono’ – the sleeper.

6 Bolas Spider

Some animals are not only sneaky predators they are also sneaky prey. For some species of Bolas spider they have evolved to look exactly like a pile of bird droppings. They spend the day waiting on top of a leaf and are mostly left alone by any animal that might prey on them – who wants to eat bird poop? It is at night that they spiders transform into cunning hunters.

During the night the spiders move to the underside of a leaf and spin out a thick and strong strand of silk. At the end of this strand is a sticky and heavy mass. Then the spider waits with this bolas hanging from its front legs. The spider is waiting for a moth to come too close. As soon as one comes within reach it lashes out with the bolas. Stuck on the strand the moth is reeled in and devoured by the spider.

It is not only the method of ‘fishing’ for moths that is sneaky. To lure in more moths Bolas spiders have evolved the ability to pump out pheromones that are attractive to the moths. The spiders can even select the correct pheromone for the moth species that are fluttering around it.

10 Animals That Can Detect What Humans Can’t

5 Net-casting spider

Spider webs are generally stationary objects. You might therefore scoff at animals that have been foolish enough to get caught in them. For the Net-casting Spider, also known as Ogre-faced spiders (Biologists can be cruel), they don’t give their prey a chance to escape. They bring the web to the prey.

Net-casting spiders spin a special web across their front arms while they hang from a branch. With their large forward facing eyes, hence the Ogre-face name, they watch out for small insects passing beneath. The web spun between their limbs is a specially prepared stretchy form of silk. As soon as they spot their prey the spiders stretch out their legs, pull open the net, and reach down to ensnare the insect beneath them in a fraction of a second.

The spiders will lurk for hours waiting for their prey. To make sure they have the best chance of capturing them they will set a target for their aim. This is often made of white splashes of their own faeces. As soon as the prey steps in the faeces the dirty stuff really hits the fan and the spider pounces.

4 Frogfish

Frogfish are pretty strange looking fish – because they often look like almost anything other than a fish. They are generally small and stocky with fins that are muscular and act like legs to allow them to walk across the seabed. They are also covered in appendages that help them to camouflage as everything from seaweed to coral. This mimicry helps them hide from predators but also lets them ambush their prey.

They often sit motionless in their environment waiting for prey to stumble across them. Then they open their mouths wide and pull in their food. Their mouths can expand over ten times larger than they normally are while resting which doesn’t give prey much room to escape.

As well as camouflage some frogfish use lures on their heads to tempt in unwary prey. Some have lures that resemble worms that they bob around to make them extra enticing. Others have lures shaped like shrimp or even small fish – complete with fake fins and eye spots.

3 Puff adder tongues

You would not think that a deadly venomous snake would have to put much effort into sneaking. Surely they just bite their prey and sit back to enjoy their meal. Puff adders however have evolved a more sedate method of hunting – they let their tongue do the work.

The puff adders are ambush hunters who will wait for food to run in front of them. It does this while most of its sinuous body is concealed and only its head and eyes are exposed. Then it launches forwards and bites them. If it wants prey to come to it however it can use its tongue in a technique called ‘lingual luring.’ With its tongue hanging out any unfortunate frog that comes by may be fooled into thinking there is an insect for it to snack on. When it gets close enough to investigate the frog suddenly finds itself the hunted and not the hunter.

If the puff adder is in the mood for a larger meal it can use it tail to lure them in by waving it rhythmically through the air so that it resembles a worm or large grub.

2 False Cleanerfish

Cleaner fish are some of the nicest creatures in the ocean. They perform a vital service for larger fish. When a large fish finds itself crawling with parasites a cleaner fish with swoop in and eat the damaging little creatures. The larger fish benefits because it is free of parasites and the cleaner fish gets a good meal so everyone benefits, except the parasites. But some animals can’t just let nice things happen. The False Cleanerfish takes advantage of everyone.

The False Cleanerfish has evolved to perfectly mimic the real Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse in size, shape, and skin pattern. Because larger fish have learned that cleaner fish help them they let them near without eating them. This is when the False Cleanerfish swims in. Instead of ridding the larger fish of their parasites they nip in and bite off a chunk off the larger fish.

The False Cleanerfish then swims off with its stolen bit of flesh and the larger fish learns not to be so trusting in future.

1 Assassin Bug vs Ants

Social insects like ants and bees are masters of recognising who belongs in their nests and hives. Using smell alone they can identify other members of their collective. As soon as they smell something that does not belong they either attack it or cast it out. Usually this system is enough to protect them but the Assassin Bug called Acanthaspis petax has found a macabre but ingenious way past their defences.

This assassin bug forms what is called ‘corpse camouflage’ while it is a young nymph. Using a sticky secretion it gathers the dead bodies of ants and sticks them together into a mound it carries on its back. This lets it get close to its prey without them immediately noticing that it is a predator.

It may be that the scent of the dead ants masks the assassin’s own aroma. It may be that the huge pile of ants on its back forms unusual shapes that confuse the eye of other insects. However the camouflage works the assassin uses it both to protect itself from predators and to get close to its prey and suck them dry.

10 Animals With Cannibalistic Sex Habits