Nothing but sand, rocks, and despair surround Bir Hakeim, a desolate outpost in the Libyan desert. In May 1942, 3,500 Free French legionnaires committed themselves to one of the most extraordinary acts of bravery seen this side of mythology. For two weeks, they holed up in Bir Hakeim while tens of thousands of German and Italian troops with panzers and air support rained hellfire around them.

The Battle of Bir Hakeim is now considered one of the greatest sieges of the African war. Although the battle took place a continent away, it became a symbol of defiance and courage for the scattered Resistance clinging to the embers of life in occupied France. Despair that had gripped French souls with steel hooks was shaken off, and hope finally emerged from its long slumber. In no small part, it was thanks to a British socialite named Susan Travers.

10The Socialite

Susan Travers was born in England in 1909 with a silver spoon shoved down her throat. From the time she first opened her blue eyes as an infant, she never wanted for anything. Her father was rich, her mother was richer, and the marriage was acrimonious at the best of times.

As a young girl, Susan was surely loved but largely ignored. Her father had been promoted to admiral in the Royal Navy, which brought the strict brand of discipline that soldiers often carry from the barracks into their own homes. According to her memoirs, Susan’s happiest moments in childhood were spent with her grandmother, away from her parents.

While Susan was still young, her father moved their family to the French Riviera to be closer to his new naval posting in Marseilles. As she transitioned from child to adult in the Mediterranean climate of southern France, Susan began spending more time away from home. She attended parties, went on skiing trips in the Alps, and learned tennis, as all the other fashionable women of the time were doing. She even competed at Wimbledon once.

Glamorous though her life was, it left a sour taste in Susan’s mouth. It was too tame. She wanted adventure, sex, and danger. “Most of all, I wanted to be wicked,” she said later. And in this universe, some wishes are granted. Even as she dreamed of a life more perilous, Hitler’s forces in the north were assembling like a storm cloud to bring all the danger that Susan could have hoped for.

9The Red Cross

When World War II broke out, Susan was 29 years old. Her family had moved back to England, but she was still enjoying the Cannes high life on a monthly allowance. She’d grown into a beautiful, high-spirited woman with an appetite to match, leaving her free to reject as many potential suitors as she took.

In her own words, life was “parties and champagne, and tangos and Charlestons, Vienna and Budapest and all sorts of places. I had lots and lots of friends. Lots and lots of young men. Well, lovers, really.” Her father, disapproving as always, once called her une fille facile—basically, a slut. Life was fun but increasingly empty.

When the papers announced the war, Susan jumped at the chance to do something more with her life. Like so many women at the time, she volunteered for the Red Cross. But Susan was a terrible nurse. She’d lived her whole life on tennis courts and ski slopes, and the sight of blood made her squeamish. She switched to driving ambulances, an occupation that suited her freewheeling spirit much better.

Susan soon found herself en route to Finland to ferry wounded soldiers off the battlefield. The Finnish Winter War was a bleak period, but Susan used it to hone her ability to drive under pressure, a skill that later saved the lives of thousands of men.

She was still in Scandinavia in 1940 when the French government signed an armistice granting Germany control of the country. With that single act, Susan’s old life disappeared in the blink of an eye. There was no going back. She was now a part of this war, for better or for worse.

8The Driver

After the fall of France, Susan worked her way circuitously back to London. The French government had been split asunder, but there was still one man fighting to bring France back under the control of the French—General Charles de Gaulle. He had fled occupied France and set up his headquarters in England. There, he commanded the remains of the French military forces who were still loyal to his ideals of freedom. His army became known as the Free French.

Susan Travers found de Gaulle in London and volunteered to help the Resistance. The Free French were desperate for whatever help they could get, and Susan was immediately put to work as a nurse. In August 1940, she sailed to West Africa on a ship filled with rough-and-tumble Free French legionnaires.

For nearly a year, she went wherever she was needed. From Cameroon to the Congo and from Sudan to Eritrea, she mopped up gallons of blood and tended to the needs of dying men.

By June 1941, Susan was again desperate for change, so she volunteered to drive for a doctor while serving in the Middle East. To her surprise, her offer was accepted. Life was finally more exciting. When her doctor died by a land mine, she was assigned to another doctor.

Quickly, her reputation grew among the fighting men. She was a woman who refused no assignment. She would grit her teeth, clench the wheel, and drive straight through a minefield if it lay between her and where she needed to go. More than once, she arrived at her destination with bomb shrapnel embedded in her vehicle.

The legionnaires began to call her “La Miss,” an honorary title for the plucky Englishwoman who never backed down. As Trisha McFarland would have said, Susan had ice running through her veins—she never lost her cool. Then, on June 17, 1941, a man got blown up in a fruit garden, forever changing Susan Travers’s life.

7The General

June 1941 found Susan Travers in Beirut, just another sandy, war-torn city in a long line that never seemed to end. On the Western Front, Britain was still shell-shocked by the devastation of the blitzkrieg. In the East, Minsk was in ruins, and the German Wehrmacht was rolling deeper into Soviet territory. The war seemed interminable, the deaths endless.

It’s possible, though, that the brutality of war has provided as many lovers as it’s taken. Susan certainly found that to be true. While in Beirut, General Marie-Pierre Koenig of the Free French lost his driver to a bomb. La Miss was the next obvious choice. By that time in the war, General Koenig was one of the most respected officers of the legionnaires, so he required an equally respected chauffeur.

They took to each other immediately and soon became lovers. Since Koenig was married, they carried on their affair in secret. When Susan was bedridden in the hospital with jaundice, General Koenig brought flowers to her bedside and assured her that her job would be waiting for her when she got better. Even well after the war when Susan was in her nineties, she remembered her time with the general more fondly than any other period in World War II, perhaps even in her whole life.

But her cautiously built dreams of a life with General Koenig came crashing down at Bir Hakeim.

6The Fort

Bir Hakeim was originally constructed in the 16th or 17th century during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. Built from rusty sandstone plucked from the surrounding desert, Bir Hakeim gives the appearance of having slowly risen from the landscape of its own accord, imbued with the begrudging sentience of an old and tired god. It’s a guardian of sand and howling winds, the kind of outpost where men were stationed to disappear from the sanity of civilization.

Italy had taken a turn at building up Bir Hakeim after gaining control of the territory in the aftermath of the Italo-Turkish War in 1912. But the desert is a lonely place to die, and the fortress was largely abandoned in the years to follow.

As winter faded in early 1942, the Allies were in dire straits in northern Africa. They’d been caught by surprise by General Erwin Rommel in Benghazi, leading to an Allied retreat along the Libyan coast.

Somehow, they’d managed to regroup and form a defensive line, known as the Gazala Line, between the coastal city of Gazala and Bir Hakeim, 80 kilometers (50 mi) south of the coast. The line was marked by “boxes,” fortified outposts from which the Allies hoped to repel the German attack. Playing red rover with the Axis, the Allies hoped that wherever they were attacked, the line would hold.

5The Brigade

In the swirl of preparation along the Gazala Line, General Koenig was ordered to Bir Hakeim. As his personal driver, Susan dutifully followed. Time was short—intel held that an attack on the line was imminent—and the Gazala Line at the time was no stronger than an idea.

Worse, when Koenig and the Free French arrived at Bir Hakeim, they found that their predecessors hadn’t finished the job of fortifying the outpost. With less than 4,000 men at his disposal, Koenig went to work.

For the next three months, the Free French dug in. They surrounded the Bir Hakeim with an array of V-shaped minefields that pointed away from the central position. They dug hundreds of foxholes, trenches, and underground shelters.

In less than 12 weeks, they turned the bare desert surrounding the crumbling fortress into a death trap. Travers helped wherever she could, ferrying workers and carting supplies around the work area.

As the circle of death grew complete, however, the same question weighed on everyone’s mind: Would it be enough?

4The Desert Fox

While the Frenchmen toiled under the unforgiving sun in the Libyan Desert, a fox prowled just out of sight. General Erwin Rommel, newly appointed commander of the Afrika Corps, was marching East with 320 German tanks that were reinforced by another 240 Italian tanks. No stranger to African warfare, Rommel had been nicknamed “The Desert Fox” by journalists, and he carried the name proudly.

Rommel had spent the preceding months gathering his strength, but he knew that the British were doing the same. He needed to attack fast and hard before the defensive line got any stronger if he was going to have any hope of eventually taking Egypt and the vital supply lines afforded by the Suez Canal.

At the end of May 1942, Rommel approached Gazala with the full force of the 21st and 15th Panzer Divisions. All along the Gazala Line, soldiers hunkered down for the fighting to come. Nobody knew where he was going to attack the line.

But Rommel had no intention of playing a child’s game. He marched straight to the center of the line and engaged the British troops before making a show of moving north, hoping to draw most of the defenders with him.

It was all a trick. Under cover of nightfall, Rommel turned and led his army south. His plan was to flank the southern end of the Gazala Line and move north behind the Allied defenses, cutting off the army’s head by severing its supply lines.

The only thing that stood in his way was the tiny, undermanned Bir Hakeim outpost. It was going to be easy.

3The Siege

May 27, 1942, dawned hot and dry over Bir Hakeim. Colonel Koenig had ordered all the women at the fort to be evacuated days earlier, but Susan Travers had refused to leave, telling him, “Wherever you will go, I will go, too.”

As a result, she was the only woman in the fort when Rommel’s first probing attacks landed. Besides her, there were 3,700 men left to defend Bir Hakeim. But the Desert Fox was attacking with seven times that number.

Rommel sent an armored Italian division to make the first attack on Bir Hakeim. At this point, he fully expected to burn through the fort “in 15 minutes.” To everyone’s surprise, the Free French sent the Italian force running with their tails between their legs. Forty Italian tanks were left behind, destroyed by mines and French artillery.

Rommel was incensed. He sent Koenig an ultimatum: Surrender or be destroyed. Koenig replied, “We are not here to surrender.”

For two grueling weeks, the 1st Free French Brigade traded bullets with the Germans and withstood the massive barrage of tank fire. Rommel called in wave after wave of bombers to gut the fort, but the French persevered with suicidal tenacity. Susan Travers spent the entire siege in a foxhole sweating in the intense heat and waiting for the right bomb to fall that would blow her to pieces.

Finally, though, the French reached their limit. By the second week of June, they were out of food, ammunition, and most importantly, water. By their own design, they’d boxed themselves in with layer upon layer of trip wires and mines. They had to surrender or die. Koenig, however, saw a third option: They were going to break out of their self-constructed prison.

2The Escape

Escape from Bir Hakeim was a difficult proposition: They were surrounded by thousands of mines, and the Germans had encircled the fort with three concentric ranks of panzers.

Nevertheless, Koenig arranged the mission. They left in the dead of night, departing quietly in a line of vehicles just before midnight on June 10. Susan was driving Koenig’s car near the front, and all was going well until one of their trucks struck a land mine.

The night caught fire around them. Rommel quickly zeroed in on the would-be escapees and ordered his men to fire at will. Tracer rounds streaked through the black night, highlighting their position for the heavy artillery.

Escape had been a gamble, a suicide charge. While vehicles and soldiers were blown to bits by tanks and land mines, Susan Travers finally got the chance to experience her brief moment of destiny. Over the roar of the tank shells, Koenig told Susan, “If we go, the rest will follow.”

So Susan went. She maneuvered into the front of the train of vehicles and floored it, blasting past panzers with mere meters to spare. She swerved around mines and bomb craters. Her reckless charge opened a hole in the German dragnet, allowing more vehicles to follow in her wake.

It’s estimated that she was responsible for the escape of almost 2,500 soldiers. By the time she reached safety, her vehicle had nearly a dozen bullet holes and chunks of shrapnel embedded in the metal.

1The Legionnaire

All too often, love is as much a force of sorrow as of joy. Although Susan had risked her life to stay with Koenig, their affair wasn’t meant to last. He was, after all, a married man. After Bir Hakeim, Koenig’s wife joined him in Africa. Susan only saw him once after that, a decade later.

Susan spiraled into depression and contemplated suicide, but her indomitable spirit won out as always. In May 1945, she applied to the French Foreign Legion and was accepted, becoming the only female to serve as a legionnaire. She even sewed her own uniform because the legion didn’t have any designed for a woman.

Susan Travers eventually married and settled down. In 1956, she was awarded the Medaille Militaire for her actions at Bir Hakeim. The man who pinned the medal to her lapel was none other than Pierre Koenig. She never saw him again. Susan Travers died in 2003.

Eli Nixon is the author of Son of Tesla and its sequel, Mind of Tesla.

Inside the world of extinct animals is a special club—species with dangerous looks. To get a meal or avoid becoming one, both predator and prey refined physical traits to interesting effect.

From fangs in whales to herbivores with a taste for meat and carnivores unlike anything seen today, ancient animals were survival specialists. Recent fossils also revealed unknown predators that terrified the prehistoric landscape and solved the mystery of a unique, if not gruesome, shark.

10 Whales That Ate Whales

Egypt’s Wadi Al-Hitan (“Valley of the Whales”) is littered with the bones of extinct whales. In 2010, researchers stumbled upon a skeleton sticking through the sand. It was identified as Basilosaurus isis. This customer grew 15–18 meters (50–60 ft) long and lived 34 million to 38 million years ago.

Although it was a whale, B. isis did not snack on krill or plankton like its modern relatives. The creature was a ferocious predator that preyed on other whales. This specimen, in particular, provided the first clear evidence.

Inside the stomach curled the remains of a calf. The latter belonged to a smaller whale called Dorudon atrox, a species that matured at 5 meters (16 ft) long. Crush marks on the calf’s skull matched the adult whale’s teeth, proving it was a kill and not a dead body the larger animal had scavenged.^[1]

Once again, the dental side of this ancient whale was far removed from any modern species. B. isis had fangs like a wolf and sharp teeth in the back of its mouth.

9 Largest Early Jurassic Predator

Near the Italian village of Saltrio, a quarry produced a special dinosaur in 1996. Years of dynamite blasts inside the quarry did the fossil no favors. In the end, 130 pieces were recovered. Saltriovenator zanellai took nearly 20 years to put together and identify as a new species.

Weighing about a ton, it was the Early Jurassic’s largest-known predator. Although not the biggest carnivorous dinosaur that ever lived, Saltriovenator was nevertheless formidable. It prowled on two legs and grew serrated teeth and deadly claws.

The time it lived—around 198 million years ago—was significant because this predated the existence of large meat eaters by a cool 25 million years. The beast, which grew to 7.6 meters (25 ft) long, died as a juvenile.

When it was 24 years old, the hunter somehow ended up on the seabed. The scars left by scavengers also made the fossil unique. Never before had any dinosaur remains been found that had been nibbled on by at least three distinct marine creatures—ancient sharks, urchins, and sea worms.^[2]

8 Meat-Eating Herbivores

Pachycephalosaurus often appears in children’s dinosaur books. Illustrations show the dome-headed dinosaurs knocking their heads together in battle or grazing on plants. These animals were classified as vegetarians even though only partial jaws were found. Strangely, they were always the back part of the jaw, but they had classic herbivore teeth. Pachycephalosaurus undoubtedly enjoyed mashing fruit and rough plants.

In 2018 in Albuquerque, researchers gathered in confusion around the most complete skull ever found. For the first time, the juvenile contained a complete front jaw. It sported very different teeth. Serrated and sharp, the pointy blades reminded experts of carnivore teeth, especially those of T. rex. Notably, Pachycephalosaurus lived during the same time (66 million to 68 million years ago).

Further research might change their classification to opportunistic hunter and omnivore, but the discovery could also solve an enduring mystery. Very often, rocks from this period produce the teeth of small carnivores nobody can find. Pachycephalosaurus might very well be the source.^[3]

7 The Oldest Tyrannosaur

In 2012, an expedition uncovered bone fragments in New Mexico. Found in the Menefee Formation, the skeleton was badly weathered. For this reason, restoration dragged on for years. Once completed, the creature turned out to be an 80-million-year-old type of tyrannosaur.

It was a remarkable find. The new dinosaur predated the other 25 species of tyrannosaurs by millions of years. Dynamoterror dynastes was unusually large for such an early version of the lineage. It eventually became clear that the 9-meter-long (30 ft) carnivore belonged to the same subgroup that included large relatives such as T. rex, which lived around 15 million years later.

Dynamoterror is special for another reason. North America’s dinosaur evolution experienced a strange split around this time. A sea divided the continent, causing the same types of dinosaur to develop differently in the north and south. The new tyrannosaur’s differences from those of similar age could reveal more about these unusual evolutionary pockets.^[4]

6 Madagascar’s Super Crocodile

When a species is missing its early history, paleontologists call it a “ghost lineage.” The notosuchians are one such group. In 2017, a discovery not only suggested that they originated from southern Gondwana (the original supercontinent) but also presented a new notosuchian member.

Found in Madagascar, Razanandrongobe sakalavae resembled a crocodile. The head alone was 1 meter (3.3 ft) long. It had an unfriendly grin. Each tooth measured 15 centimeters (6 in) in length. In fact, they rather resembled those of T. rex, making the croc thing an apex predator of its time.

Researchers puzzled the species together using the new find and pieces rediscovered in museums. The combined data showed that R. sakalavae was perhaps the biggest notosuchian and definitely the oldest. It chased dinosaurs for dinner around 163 million years ago, a date that beat the previous oldest notosuchian by a mind-bending 42 million years.^[5]

5 Destroyer Of Shins

When a dinosaur died 76 million years ago, it was destined to be named after a monster in the Ghostbusters movie (1984). The fictional Zuul was a hellhound with a face like a gargoyle.

In 2014, the fossil reemerged in Montana. It was a previously unknown ankylosaurid—a dinosaur resembling an armored tank with a distinctive tail used like a club. The fossil was so well-preserved that its looks garnered the movie-inspired name Zuul crurivastator.

When it perished, Zuul was buried in river sand. This preserved even the soft tissue covering the armor and flank damage that suggested it argued with its own kind—which, in itself, was nothing to laugh at.

Although they were herbivores, this species came equipped with a tail that could smash the legs of T. rex. Tipped with a bony ball, the tail was adorned with spikes and measured 2 meters (7 ft) long. While its face was responsible for the “Zuul” part, the tail earned the rest of the creature’s name—crurivastator means “destroyer of shins.”^[6]

4 Dinosaurs With Mohawks

Among the most recognizable of dinosaurs, sauropods were giant herbivores with whiplike tails and long necks. Not all sauropods were big enough to use size as a defense.

In 2013, a smaller species was located in Argentina. The fossil belonged to a brand-new species called Bajadasaurus pronuspinax. At merely 9–10 meters (30–33 ft) long, it was tiny in comparison to other sauropods.

When paleontologists found a bony spine, analysis suggested that it was one of several that ran the length of the dinosaur’s neck and back, almost like a Mohawk. They were likely thin, sharp, and very long. In addition, the spikes probably had a layer of keratin that gave them a hornlike appearance.^[7]

Since the bizarre feature vanished with the species 140 million years ago, confirming its purpose would be a difficult task. A plausible theory is that the sauropods developed Mohawks to look bigger and more dangerous than they really were.

3 The Meat Hook Hunter

A pretty cool nightmare once haunted South America. The size of a truck, it ate meat and hunted with talons that resembled 40-centimeter (16 in) meat hooks. Its discovery in 2006 was a festive moment for scientists. Its group, Megaraptoridae, is exceptionally mysterious.

This specimen was also one of the largest of its kind and the last. Unfortunately, it lived in the Late Cretaceous when dinosaurs went extinct. Unearthed in Argentina, Tratayenia rosalesi managed to fill in some details about its species.^[8]

The carnivore measured 9 meters (30 ft) long and had bones with air pockets. This feature exists in a living relative—modern birds. When T. rosalesi lived 95 million to 85 million years ago, it might have been more closely related to T. rex. This could explain the serrated, daggerlike teeth and why T. rosalesi was among the biggest and most lethal hunters of its time.

2 T. rex Made Deadly Turns

When most people think about Tyrannosaurus rex hunting, a large and stomping predator comes to mind. One might not credit this barreling hulk with turns that are precision moves. After all, these creatures weighed around 400 kilograms (880 lb). However, T. rex could intercept swerving prey by turning like a figure skater.

New research in 2018 found that their hip bones and leg muscles were specially adapted to make them the ballerinas from hell. Also, the kids were even deadlier. A juvenile T. rex could twirl faster than its elders, undoubtedly a perk that helped them survive to adulthood.

These dinosaurs lived during the Cretaceous (145 million to 65 million years ago). To see if pivoting was a thing among predators of the time, researchers used cutting-edge techniques to study other species that frightened everything else during the Cretaceous. When all the monsters were made to digitally turn on a single foot, T. rex spun up to three times faster than the rest.^[9]

1 The Scissor Shark

Around 330 million years ago (long before the dinosaurs), there was a shark unlike any other. Edestus was first discovered in the 19th century when fossils showed up in England and the United States.

Ever since, experts have argued about its eating habits—more specifically, why the so-called “scissor shark” had such weird teeth. The teeth of modern sharks grow along upper and lower crescents. Edestus‘s two rows of snappers resembled pinking shears. The feature has never been seen in any species before or since.^[10]

As there was nothing for scientists to go on, debates and theories proliferated until a recent CT scan. The scan inspired a three-dimensional replica of the head which revealed the shark’s horrific chomp. Incredibly, the jaw appeared to work on a double-jointed system that sliced prey apart. As the shark bit, the sawlike teeth of the upper and lower jaws snapped together before the bottom slid backward to amputate a piece.

When we think of war heroes, most everyone thinks of men because women were barred from combat for most of history. Only recently, nations began to lift these bans and allow women to serve their countries and their interests openly. Here are 10 badass women who fought in combat alongside or in lieu of their male comrades.

10 Margaret Cochran Corbin
American War For Independence

Margaret Corbin was the first woman to receive a pension for military service from the US Congress. During the Battle of Fort Washington in 1776, her husband was killed while operating one of the two cannons providing defense against a charge of 4,000 Hessian troops. Instead of grieving, Margaret took his place on the cannon crew and fired at the enemy.

She was seriously injured in the jaw, arm, and chest before she was finally unable to continue. The British won the battle, and Margaret was captured and then released on parole. Though disabled from her injuries, she remained an active duty member of the Continental Army until her discharge in 1783.

9 Manuela Pedraza
Reconquest Of Buenos Aires

Manuela Pedraza fought during the reconquest of Buenos Aires after the first British invasion in 1806. She participated in the last and largest battle of the reconquest, which took three days.

She accompanied her husband into the fight and stood by him as he was killed by a British soldier. Then she took her bayonet and killed the man who had killed her husband. Picking up her husband’s musket, she killed another British soldier.

Manuela was given a military rank and placed in the Patricios Regiment. Her exploits during the reconquest have made her a hero in Buenos Aires culture, which gives an annual award in her honor to women recognized for social activism in Argentina.

8 Sergeant Milunka Savic
Balkan Wars And World War I

Milunka Savic is the most decorated female soldier of all time. She fought during the Balkan Wars and throughout World War I. During her service, she was wounded nine times, but that barely slowed her down. When her brother was called to fight for Serbia in 1912, she either accompanied or impersonated him and joined the army.

Due to her valor on the battlefield, she was not punished when her gender was revealed following her first injury from a Bulgarian grenade. Her commander offered to transfer her to the nursing corps, but she refused.

Standing at attention, Milunka proclaimed, “I will wait.” She remained there until he relented and returned her to the infantry. Her combat exploits continued into World War I where she was recognized for heroism by France, Russia, and Britain.

7 Senior Lieutenant Lydia Litvyak
World War II

Lydia Litvyak began flying small aircraft at age 15 and jumped at the chance to fight for her country when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. She forged her flight records by adding 100 hours of flight time and was admitted into a fighter regiment of all female pilots.

Lydia was later integrated into a mixed-gender unit. She brought down a fighter and bomber, earning her the nickname “The White Rose of Stalingrad” due to the misidentified lily painted on her fighter. She continued to fly for the Soviet Union and racked up a total of 11 solo kills and three shared kills.

Lydia was shot down in 1943 and confirmed killed in 1979. President Mikhail Gorbachev posthumously awarded her the Hero of the Soviet Union in 1990.

6 Nieves Fernandez
World War II

Nieves Fernandez was the only known female Filipino guerrilla leader who fought against the Japanese occupation of Leyte Island during World War II. She began her adult life as a schoolteacher but left that world behind when her nation was threatened by the Japanese. She rounded up 110 native men who crafted their own weapons and formed a guerrilla resistance.

With long knives traditionally used to cut vegetation and shotguns fashioned from sections of gas pipe, they successfully killed 200 Japanese occupiers. Captain Fernandez led her group for more than 2.5 years against the Japanese occupation, which caused the Japanese government to offer a bounty of 10,000 pesos for her head. She was wounded once in combat but survived the war and is remembered as a Filipino hero.

5 Yevdokiya Zavaliy
World War II

Following the destruction of her village during World War II, Yevdokiya Zavaliy provided emergency medicine to the injured and convinced the local cavalry commander to allow her to enlist. She was 16 at the time but said she was 18.

Yevdokiya began as a nurse but quickly learned to use small arms. She was wounded in the abdomen but refused to be relieved from service. Due to her shaved head and uniform, she was mistaken for a man and ordered to the front lines.

Yevdokiya fought as a man and was promoted to command a reconnaissance squad. After she was wounded, she was found out to be a woman. But instead of being returned to the nursing corps, Yevdokiya was given command of a submachine gunner platoon in 1943.

Her exploits were so well-known and she was so feared by the Germans that they nicknamed her “Frau Black Death.” By the end of the war, she was awarded more than 40 medals for honor and bravery.

4 Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM

Leigh Ann Hester holds the distinction of being the first woman to receive the Silver Star since World War II. She is one of only 14 women in American history to be so honored for combat.

In March 2005, Sergeant Hester was providing convoy security while searching for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) when an attack erupted all around the vehicles. More than 50 insurgents fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at the trucks as she dismounted with her team and led them through the kill zone.

She took up a flanking position and assaulted a trench with grenades. Then she helped to clear two additional trenches, killing three insurgents in the process. When the dust settled, three American troops were injured while 27 insurgents were dead, six wounded, and one captured. For her actions—which helped to save the lives of her fellow convoy members—Sergeant Hester was awarded the Silver Star.

3 Major Laura Nicholson
Operation ENDURING FREEDOM

In December 2013, Laura Nicholson, a Chinook pilot for the Royal Air Force, was conducting medical evacuations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when she came under heavy fire on a mission. She was called to rescue a wounded Marine on the battlefield and took her chopper into the firefight.

The aircraft took immediate fire. The onboard security team held the hostile landing zone while the wounded Marine was taken aboard. Major Nicholson successfully took the Marine to the hospital.

Once again braving the ongoing firefight, Major Nicholson returned to the same hostile area to rescue a woman who had been shot in the head during the crossfire. A crew member was shot in the leg, but Major Nicholson was able to get everyone back to safety. For her heroism in the face of enemy fire, she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

2 Staff Sergeant Stacy Pearsall
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM

Some soldiers carry weapons, others carry cameras, Staff Sergeant Stacy Pearsall carried both. She enlisted in the Air Force at age 17 and entered a program for war photography at Syracuse University before being accepted as a combat photographer—a rare opportunity for women.

Sergeant Pearsall was deployed twice to Iraq. There, she documented the daily lives of her fellow servicemembers as they helped to rebuild and open schools one day while going after high-value targets the next. She was recognized twice by the National Press Photographers Association as Military Photographer of the Year and has since written two books about her service and experience.

She was injured in two separate IED attacks on vehicles that she was in, forcing her to take a medical retirement. For her service, Sergeant Pearsall was awarded the Bronze Star Medal along with other notable awards.

1 Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lori Hill
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lori Hill, the pilot of an OH-58 Kiowa helicopter, became the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism. She was following a lead chopper that came under heavy enemy fire.

Chief Hill drew fire away while simultaneously providing suppressive fire to help the troops on the ground engaging with the enemy. Her aircraft was hit with an RPG, which caused significant damage. But she was able to remain airborne and continued to communicate with and support the ground personnel.

The aircraft began to lose hydraulic pressure, and she took a round in her ankle. Though injured and piloting a badly damaged aircraft, Chief Hill was able to return to base and save the lives of her crew. For her actions, she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the United States’ highest military honors.

Roman civilization grew by destroying hundreds of others. In this process, many brave men and women challenged the almighty Roman army in the name of freedom, and even the Romans expressed their admiration for their deeds and courage. Today, many of these names are still considered a symbol of independence, determination, and national pride.

10 Pyrrhus Of Epirus

In 280 BC, as Rome was conquering Southern Italy, the Greek city of Taras (modern-day Taranto) called for the aid of Pyrrhus (c. 319–272 BC), a Greek commander and king of the city of Epirus in present-day Northwest Greece.

Pyrrhus answered Taras’s call and crossed the Adriatic with his army. His military talent defeated the Romans in two battles. In doing so, Pyrrhus paid a high price, exhausting his military resources.

By 275 BC, Pyrrhus understood that it was pointless to carry on the fight against an enemy with access to a seemingly inexhaustible supply of manpower. Pyrrhus returned home, Rome gained control of Southern Italy, and ever since, the expression “Pyrrhic victory” has been used to refer to a successful accomplishment earned at far too high a cost.

9 Hannibal

Polybius (Histories, 3.11) tells us that Hamilcar called his son, Hannibal (247–c. 183 BC), “by the hand and lead him to the altar, where he commanded Hannibal [ . . . ] to swear that he would never be a friend of the Romans.” Hamilcar was a Carthaginian commander who fought during the First Punic War. Although the Carthaginians lost that war, they were determined to rebuild their empire.

Hannibal led Carthage’s vengeance against Rome during the Second Punic War. From Carthago Nova (present-day Cartagena), he marched with his army, famous for having many war elephants, north to the Pyrenees and then crossed the Alps, sweeping everything in his path as he entered into Roman territory. Battle after battle, his legendary military campaign threatened the growing Roman republic, but his defeat at Zama (North Africa) in 202 BC by the Roman general Scipio Africanus brought Hannibal’s retaliation to an end.

Hannibal returned to Carthage. He went into exile in 195 BC and died around 183 BC. Ancient sources are contradictory about the time and circumstances of his death.

8 Mithridates VI

Mithridates VI (132–63 BC) ruled a small but wealthy realm on the Black Sea in present-day Turkey. His father was assassinated, and his own mother posed a threat to his life. He went into exile but returned as a grown man several years later. With the support of many tribes, he reclaimed the crown and murdered many members of his family, who had plotted against him.

Between roughly 115 BC and 95 BC, his kingdom tripled its size. Rome and Mithridates fought a “cold war,” confronting each other indirectly through diplomacy, propaganda, and political conspiracies. In 89 BC, the Roman consul Manius Aquillius went to war against Mithridates. The following year, Mithridates coordinated the murder of about 80,000 Roman men, women, and children in about a dozen Asian cities. The war lasted until 63 BC, when Mithridates lost both it and his life not by the sword, but by the betrayal of his own son, Pharnaces.

7 Jugurtha

As the illegitimate son of Masinissa, the king of Numidia (North Africa), Jugurtha (c. 160–104 BC) had to make his way into the throne. In 118 BC, he decapitated one of the heirs to the crown. The other heir, Adherbal, fled to Rome, where he asked the Senate for help.

Jugurtha played the Roman system by bribing everyone he could and buying as much time as he could. He captured the city of Cirta in 112 BC. In 109 BC, Rome sent an army led by Metellus, a fine commander who was also incorruptible and indifferent to Jugurtha’s gold. The Romans, with the aid of the king of Mauritania, finally defeated and captured Jugurtha after six years of war.

Plutarch (Life of Marius, 12) wrote that Jugurtha was pushed naked into the Tullianum, a pit-like dungeon that had formerly been a water cistern. Some versions say he was strangled; others say he died of starvation.

6 Spartacus

Spartacus (c. 111–71 BC) was a Roman slave of Thracian origin who escaped from a gladiator training camp in 73 BC. He took 78 other slaves with him and profited from the unhealthy inequalities of Roman society by recruiting thousands of other slaves and destitute country folk. Frontinus (Stratagems: 1.5.22) reported that Spartacus’s army would attach dead bodies to stakes outside their camp and equip them with weapons to give the impression that they were more numerous and better organized than they were.

Spartacus’s revolt lasted two years and was crushed by the Roman general Crassus. Plutarch (Life of Crassus, 11) reports that during his last attack, Spartacus launched himself at Crassus and almost killed him: “Through the midst of arms and wounds, he [Spartacus] missed him [Crassus], but killed two centurions who attacked him together.”

Spartacus was killed, but his deeds turned him into a legend. Around 5,000 of his men fled north after the defeat, and over 6,000 were crucified.

5 Vercingetorix

Years of brutality perpetrated by Julius Caesar in Gaul persuaded Vercingetorix (c. 82 BC–46 BC) that the Gallic tribes had to either unite against Rome or die trying. He tried to convince the council of his native town to fight the Romans, but he was expelled. He went to the countryside, raised a force against Gergovia, and took the power.

In 52 BC, Vercingetorix took Cenabun (present-day Orleans), where he massacred many Romans and seized all the provisions. Most Gallic tribes joined him, but they were no match for the highly organized Roman army, so Vercingetorix instructed to always fight the Romans from an advantageous land position. If that wasn’t possible, his army would retreat and burn all the land, leaving nothing behind and depriving the Romans of supplies.

His last stand against Rome was during the siege of Alesia. Vercingetorix came to Caesar asking for mercy, hoping to prevent more Gallic casualties. Some Gallic tribes were allowed to leave, but many soldiers were turned into slaves. Vercingetorix was kept in Rome as a prisoner for six years and finally put to death.

4 Boudicca

Boudicca (c. AD 33–c. 60) was the queen of the Iceni, an eastern Brittonic tribe. When the king died, the Romans tried to seize the kingdom, and the Iceni joined their queen and triggered a rebellion. Some neighboring tribes joined them, and together, they launched an attack against the city of Colchester, where many Romans were massacred.

From there, they marched to London, the heart of Roman commerce in Britain, and burned it to the ground. Cassius Dio (History 62.7) describes the gruesome retribution of Boudicca: Most distinguished women were hung up naked, their breasts cut and sewed to their mouths “in order to make the victims appear to be eating them.”

Boudicca’s rebellion was ended by the Roman general Suetonius in the Battle of Watling Street. Suetonius engaged the rebel force in a narrow field, neutralizing Boudicca’s numerical advantage. Boudicca retired to her homeland, where she finished her life by drinking poison.

3 Shapur I

Shapur I (r. 240–270) was a Sassanid ruler determined to regain the territories that his Persian ancestors had lost, most of which were under Roman control. Shapur captured Syria and its capital Antioch, one of the greatest cities controlled by Rome. The Romans struck back and recaptured some of the lost territories, but they left other battle fronts open.

Emperor Valerian offered terms to Shapur in person, along with his senior officers. Shapur took them all captive, and Sasanian sources claim that Valerian was used as a human mounting block for Shapur to ascend to his horse and then killed. His skin was filled with straw and displayed as a trophy.

Both sides were closely matched, and the result of Shapur’s war against Rome was inconclusive. Shapur died of illness around 270, before Rome could avenge Valerian.

2 Alaric I

In 395, Alaric I (c. 370–410) was named king of the Visigoths, a powerful tribe established in the former Roman province of Dacia (present-day Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia). The Visigoths had been Rome’s allies, but the treatment they got from the Romans made the reconsider their position. Alaric led the Visigoths against Rome, plundering many cities on the way. In 408, they laid siege to the city of Rome itself.

The Romans tried to attack Alaric, and two more sieges followed. During the third siege, someone opened the gates of the city. On August 24, 410, the Visigoths sacked Rome. It was not a violent act; the Visigoths were merely looking for plunder.

Alaric then marched south to Calabria with the intention of invading Africa, the source of the grain supply upon which the Romans depended, but a sudden illness put an end to his life. The course of the Busento River was diverted, and Alaric’s body was buried in the riverbed. The river’s course was restored to protect his resting place.

1 Attila The Hun

When Attila (c. 406–453) became the ruler of the Hunnic people, he doubled the tribute that Rome paid the Huns and imposed several additional conditions that looked more like extortion than a deal. In 447, Attila invaded parts of the eastern empire. Rome bribed one of Attila’s lieutenants to murder his master. The plot failed and upset Attila, who would neither forgive nor forget.

Theodosius died in AD 450, and Attila was informed he would never receive one more penny from Rome. Attila invaded several cities in the western half of the empire. With the support of the Visigoths, Aetius, a Roman general, engaged Attila in the Battle of the Catalunian Plains in 451. Both sides were closely matched: Attila and his force left and marched toward Rome.

Attila’s anticlimactic end came two years later: He was found dead, choked in his own blood after celebrating his wedding.

Iconic villains aren’t just bad men/women, they are in the position of elevating the movie to an extent that sometimes ever heroes can’t. One of the main draws of a villain is that they are relatable, in a twisted insane way they do make sense. In this list we have rounded up ten such badass movie villains we need to know about. Check them out:

Top 10 Iconic Badass Movie Villains Ever

10. Antony Chigurh

Film: No Country for Old Men (2007)
Played by: Javier Bardem

There is nothing more dangerous than a man who believes. Except maybe a man who believes that he can kill whenever he wants. Anthony Chigurh is a contract killer who smiles while he delivers the killer blow.

He really enjoys his job which is why it’s so much fun to watch him do what he does. He’s creative with his choice of weapons ranging from pistols to cattle bullet prods for silent kills but his favorite weapon is a shotgun with a silencer on it.

9. The Tire

Film: Rubber (2010)
Played by: The Tire

In this indie film developed for just over $500,000, a rubber tire gains psychic powers and picks itself up to find out what life is all about. It starts off its existence by rolling around the dessert around blowing animals and people to bits it falls in love with a woman.

It goes on to track her down and ends up blowing her head off; a metaphor on how we as people ultimately destroy everything that we love.

8. Krug

Film: The Last House on the Left (2009)
Played by: Garret Dillahunt

Krug one of the most badass movie villains and was on his way to prison when his crew busted him out by intercepting the transport. The underlined just how cruel they are by torturing the transport officers before taking off to enjoy their lives on the run. They took refuge in a motel where an unfortunate pair of girls crossed their path.

Krug decided to have some with them so he dragged them into woods and raped them. As if raping them wasn’t bad enough, he find shelter from a storm under the roof of the parents of one of the women that he raped, killed and left for dead in a shallow river.

7. The Joker

Film: The Dark Knight (2008)
Played by: Heath Ledger

Ledger’s death was a loss to everyone who loves movies. There isn’t a doubt that the Joker is one of the most badass movie villains ever. This was the last movie featuring Heath Ledger to hit the big screen before he died and it was arguably his best performance ever. The Dark Knight is the follow-up film to a rather moderate Batman Begins and nobody even talks about Christian Bale’s performance. The Joker stole the show.

His madness and simple love for chaos is what made this movie great. He’s been referred to as psychopathic, mass murdering and all kinds of crazy. You can’t help but wonder if Arkham Asylum is equipped enough to hold him.

6. Voldemort

Film: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Played by: Frank Dillane

This guy is so evil that the entire world is afraid to say his name. 15 years after he was supposed to have been killed they still only refer to him as ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’. The say a man is the average of those that he keeps around him what does it say about man who keeps a massive snake as a pet? Voldemort is ranked at number six position in the list of top ten badass movie villains ever.

5. Bellatrix Lestrange

Film: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Played by: Helena Bonham Carter

Crazy women like Bellatrix Lestrange are the perfect blend of unpredictable and sexy. Everything about her from her wild and curly hair to that non-pulsed look in her eyes just screams at you to walk away but you can’t. You want to see whether you can’t talk her into some alone time which will almost definitely end in her cursing your manhood off.

But she’s hot so it might just be worth it. She’s always been sadistic but she probably wasn’t always crazy. Her time spent in Azkaban prison after torturing the Longbottoms into insanity is what sent her over the edge.

4. Chucky

Film: Child’s Play (1988)
Voice of: Brad Dourif

Chucky, one of the most badass movie villains, is a doll with murderous intent. He started off as a serial killer whose spirit was transferred into a child’s doll thanks to a voodoo spell that he cast after he was mortally injured by a cop. Not even death could keep this evil from carrying on his gruesome work.

Of all the places to wind up, the cursed doll was placed in the hands of a 6 year child. He seemed to enjoy becoming a doll because he got the freedom to bludgeon or hammer whoever he wants then go back to playing the inanimate doll. Anybody who suspects that the sweet doll might be up to no good was called mad. Chucky just loved the irony.

3. Jigsaw

Film: Saw (2004)
Played by: Tobin Bell

John Kramer is a man with nothing to lose. He was given a death sentence and decided to use what little time that he had left making those that have the gift of life but don’t know how to use it give some serious thought to whether they want to live or not. Any madman can go on a killing spree but the truly scary ones are the ones who do it creatively.

Jigsaw never actually killed anyone. He just put them in situations where if they didn’t do something painful like jumping into a pit full of needles or cutting into their own eyeballs with a scalpel they’ll be killed by one of his deadly traps. The scene that kicked Jigsaw into the movie-villain hall of fame was the one where he made a guy cut off his own leg with a rusty saw or risk being tombed in an underground bathroom forever.

2. Freddy Kreuger

Film: Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Played by: Robert Englund

Freddy Kreuger was a serial killer who died but felt that his work on Earth was not done yet. He was among the most badass movie villains we’ve ever seen. He stayed on as a demon who kills by waiting for his victims to fall asleep then he hunts them down in their nightmares and slashes them down, killing in them real life as well.

Whilst in the dream world he is invulnerable to any physical harm so the only way to defeat him is to find him in the real world and kill him. But even in the real world he is to be a force to be reckoned with.

1. Darth Vader

Film: Star Wars (1977)
Played by: David Prowse
Voice of: James Earl Jones

This is probably the most well-known story of good-boy-gone-bad. In the Star Wars universe he started off training with the Jedi Knights and was touted as the one to save the universe from the Sith Lords. However he was seduced by the Dark Side and after his mentor left him for dead in a lava pit, he pulled himself out, donned the black robe, helmet and respirator and went on to become the fiercest foe that the Jedi Knights ever faced.

Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Give a hero a modified nail gun and a box full of nails, and he could take over the world.

Some people—mostly normal, everyday people—get into the news for showing some form of above-average heroism. Pulling people from burning buildings, catching toddlers who fall from tall buildings, you know the type of story, right?

From time to time, though, we get some normal guy or gal who kicks ass with an amazing and incredibly inventive weapon. Here are 10 of those people.

10 Certified Badass Warriors Who Shook The Asian Continent

10 Tony Stein And ‘The Stinger’

This hero of World War II was essentially a real-life Transformer. When he went into battle, he turned himself into a land-faring fighter jet and gunned down enemies in droves as if they were bunch of Messerschmitts . . . except humans go down easier than planes.

Tony Stein equipped himself with a modified M1919 machine gun to fight the Japanese. This firearm, which was upgraded from firing 400 rounds per minute to an astonishing 1,350 rounds per minute, was attached to fighter planes.

Sergeant Mel Grevich liked this a lot. But he wasn’t a flyboy. He salvaged some guns from scrapped planes, attached an M1 Garand rifle butt and a box magazine, and “the stinger” was born. One of these modified monster weapons was handed to Tony Stein before the Battle of Iwo Jima.

During the battle, Stein took out enemy pillboxes and killed at least 20 enemy combatants. He made his frequent ammo runs without boots or a helmet in order to be as quick as possible.^[1]

9 An 11-Year-Old North Carolina Boy And His Machete

“This is a very tough kid who kept his wits about him,” remarked Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood. He was referring to a heroic 11-year-old child who had repelled a violent burglar with a machete. The boy had just been forced into a closet at gunpoint by Jataveon Dashawn Hall, the 19-year-old burglar who was toting a pellet gun he’d grabbed while ransacking the house.

Most kids would do what they’re told. Maybe cry. Maybe wet themselves. Not this kid.^[2]

The boy left the closet and grabbed a machete. Then he ran downstairs where he saw his tormentor greedily swiping electronic goods like a TV and a PlayStation. The boy cracked the burglar over the head with his big knife and got kicked in the stomach for his trouble.

Still not licked, the boy took another swipe but missed, getting a roundhouse to the head this time. Just then, the burglar realized he was bleeding profusely from the back of his head. He dropped the stuff he was planning to steal and fled, taking two accomplices with him.

8 Lars Andersen With A Bow And Arrow

Lars Andersen must be at least half wood elf to pull off some of his amazing feats with a bow. It’s always cool to see cool people doing cool things. Andersen’s incredible, record-smashing feats with a bow and arrow make us question why we became so reliant on firearms (until you remember Tony Stein’s “Stinger”).

Andersen is also a talented painter. He attended art school and completed private tutelage under artist and fellow Dane Otto Frello. What relevance does this have? None really, but it should be covered lest the author get hunted down and pinged with 10 arrows in under five seconds.^[3]

7 ‘Jason’ And His Jar Of Instant Coffee

Many people are almost useless without their cup of morning java. But how many of us become Charles Bronson when holding a jar of coffee granules?

“Jason,” a 48-year-old man from Victoria, Australia, was getting ready to fill up his Mercedes at a petrol station in Frankston, a suburb of Melbourne. Before he had even decided whether he was going to purchase a meat pie or a pack of Tim Tams, Jason was confronted by a gun-toting man who appeared to be in his twenties.

The would-be carjacker demanded that Jason hand over the keys to his swanky ride, but Jason was having none of it. “I think most people probably should hand the keys over, but I’m sort of not one of those people,” Jason said.

After a scuffle with his assailant caused his recently purchased jar of coffee to drop to the ground and smash, Jason used a shard from the broken jar as a knife to fight off his attacker. Luckily for Jason, the criminal’s gun wasn’t real. Unluckily for the carjacker, the broken glass was real. Real sharp, that is.

Eventually, the wannabe carjacker ran away with a pack of Jason’s cigarettes.^[4]

6 Darryn Frost Fights Terrorist

Here we have the story of an extremely brave Englishman who took on a murderous terrorist with a piece of a dead animal. That is bravery.

Originally from South Africa, 38-year-old Darryn Frost confronted terrorist Usman Khan as he rampaged across London Bridge while armed with two knives. What weapon did Frost use? A narwhal’s tusk.

Frost grabbed the decorative antique from the interior of Fishmongers’ Hall where he and some colleagues were attending an event. He managed to restrain the knife-wielding attacker by pinning him to the ground while struggling to disarm him.^[5]

Khan had already murdered Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23. So Frost wasn’t dealing with just some angry guy. This was a killer. Soon police swooped in, took control of the situation, and shot the terrorist who had claimed he was wearing a bomb vest. (It turned out to be fake.)

10 Badass Women Who Went To War

5 19th-Century New England Whalers And Their Explosive Harpoon Guns

Continuing with the giant ocean-dwelling mammal theme, whaling was once the cornerstone of New England’s economy. Fat from these giant animals was rendered and used as fuel for lamps all over the world. Demand was incredibly high, and the job of procuring the commodity was perilous.^[6]

Until the mid-19th-century invention of the awesome-looking harpoon gun pictured above, whalers used regular old harpoons, the type you just throw and hope for the best. One traditionalist whaler commented, “A whaler does not like to shoot a whale anymore than a sportsman would shoot a trout.”

Trout can be strong little buggers, it’s true. Whales are a different kettle of fish, though. Even with this handy invention, it must have been a heck of a job to bag enough whales to light the whole planet. Respect.

4 Joerg Sprave And His Arsenal Of Homemade Weapons

The only thing cooler than this bloke’s arsenal of homemade projectile weapons is his insanely infectious, deep, and booming laugh. He sounds like a drunken medieval king after a boar hunt. Probably a hunt conducted using PVC pipe recurve bows!

Sprave makes YouTube videos showcasing his awesome slingshot tinkerings, which have a serious amount of destructive power. They include incredibly entertaining inventions like the bowling ball–firing slingshot.

Sprave has also invented the “Instant Legolas” (now called the “Fenris Rapid Fire Bow Magazine”), an add-on to your humble bow which auto-loads arrows. This dude invented what is essentially a bow-and-arrow machine gun. Bad. Ass.^[7]

3 Billy Sing And His Lee-Enfield Rifle

Two hundred confirmed kills is a high number for any sniper during wartime. When you consider that Australian serviceman Billy Sing completed this feat with a simple Lee-Enfield rifle during the brutal trench warfare of World War I, it is all the more impressive.

Perhaps his most amazing achievement was his legendary battle with the famed Turkish sniper “Abdul the Terrible” at Gallipoli. Abdul was a marksman who was so revered that even his gun had a name (“Mother of Death”).

During this sniper vs. sniper battle, it seemed as though Abdul would be victorious. Having stalked Sing and located his exact position, Abdul dug his trench and readied himself to pick off the elusive Sing. But Sing was quicker. Before Abdul could fire, Sing had pinpointed his location, seemingly using hunter’s instinct alone, and won this legendary fight.^[8]

After the war, Sing’s life was not the type that you’d expect for a returning war hero. He lived out the rest of his days in a boarding house in Brisbane as an unknown man in poverty. His unmarked grave was uncovered by Brian Tate 50 years after Sing’s death in 1943. It is now rightfully marked.

2 Jerry Miculek And Any Gun You Hand Him

It has often been suggested that you don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. If the gunfight in question includes Jerry Miculek, you may need to consider bringing an even more advanced weapon . . . some sort of pulse weapon, perhaps?

When you can fire a revolver downrange and achieve a grouping smaller than the size of a playing card on the target, you’re a good shot. Jerry can do that in 0.57 seconds. He’s also a very proficient gunsmith and handyman who can design and maintain guns as well as fire them quicker than any man alive.^[9]

1 Marcus Attilius And His Shiny(us) Gladius

Some people just love a good scrap. A lot of blokes enjoy getting loaded on the weekend and find any excuse to swing for somebody. A spilled drink. A misheard insult. A cockeyed look.

For Roman citizen Marcus Attilius, his love of violence went far beyond a drunken coping mechanism for a dreary life. He genuinely loved a good dustup. His name can be seen in the ruins of Pompeii on graffiti that lists the names of the gladiatorial superstars of the day. Marcus Attilius is the only gladiator listed who was not a slave. He chose to fight.^[10]

It is probable that Marcus had been an experienced soldier. His record suggests that he was victorious against at least two veteran gladiators. Moreover, we can assume that he had fallen on hard financial times because a gladiator sacrificed his rights as a citizen.

But isn’t it cooler to consider that this guy just wanted to fight? Maybe he missed the glory and gore of the battlefield. Whatever the motivation, Marcus Attilius chose to enter one of the deadliest environments ever fashioned. And he won.

10 Famous People Who Were Secretly Badass Soldiers

About The Author: CJ Phillips is a storyteller, actor, and writer living in rural West Wales. He is a little obsessed with lists.

Throughout history, many individuals have stood firm and said, “No.” They’ve rejected the dominant dogma of the time and decided to carve their own path as they traversed and trudged through the world, forging new ideas into the zeitgeist of the era. Anarchists and other rebels serve important purposes in our societies, one of the most important being the drivers of change in the world. If the dominant ideology is never challenged, the collective progression of human thought and innovation would stagnate. And throughout the long, rich history of rebellion, many of the anarchists who have stood tall in the face of oppression were women.

When many of us hear the word “anarchist,” we instantly think of crusty punk rockers huddled in abandoned buildings, but anarchism has many faces and names that are far different from these generic, media-influenced images our brains seem to naturally conjure up. In short, the common theme under the umbrella of people who could be described as anarchists is the idea that an individual person should be in control of themselves and should not live under the dictation of others and that we as people are capable of leading our own lives, without the hindrance of overbearing rule, force, or coercion. Here are ten of history’s most badass anarchist women who challenged the system.

10 Emma Goldman

When it comes to history’s badass women, while the story may not begin with Emma Goldman, she definitely left her mark as one of the most vocal, rebellious, and militant women of all time. Born in Russia in 1869, Goldman would move to the United States and grow up to dedicate her life to forwarding the cause of the radical freedom of the individual, becoming especially militant after the hanging of several anarchist labor demonstrators in Chicago in 1886.

That year, a group of protesters took to the streets to protest for an eight-hour workday and against police brutality; the gathering was largely peaceful, until police showed up and attempted to disband the protest. At some point, a bomb went off. This debacle would become known as the Haymarket Affair. Four demonstrators were tried and executed despite a conspicuous lack of evidence, and this served as a vastly influential moment in Goldman’s life.

From here, she would fight for the right to birth control and women’s rights in general. She would be arrested and imprisoned during World War I because she protested compulsory military service for men. Goldman spent two years behind bars but remained unshaken. After her release, was deported for her protests. Yes, she was so vocal and radical for the time that she was deported for protesting.

From this point forward, Goldman lived in political exile, never really finding a “home” country to live in.^[1] She traveled to Russia and experienced the Russian Revolution but became quickly angered by the authoritarianism she saw there, too—and, of course, she was vocal about it, protesting the newly formed Soviet state. In 1989, a document was uncovered in which she questioned Vladimir Lenin ruthlessly for his oppression of anarchists within the Soviet Union. Goldman left the USSR and actually registered as an anarchist, an oppressed class within the nation at the time, and was now at political war with both the USSR and the US.

She spent the rest of her years in exile, roaming and fighting for the rights of free people, and wrote in detail about her convictions. Very few people have stood up against the might of both the United States and the Soviet Union, which earned Goldman her place in history as one of the world’s most badass anarchist women. Goldman can be quoted saying, “I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.”

9 Margaret Sanger

Born in New York in 1879, Margaret Sanger would become a lifelong activist and would come into contact with Emma Goldman during her life of vocal outspokenness. Sanger, too, faced the wrath of oppression for challenging the social order of the time. In 1910, she moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, which was a hotbed of political activism. There, she and Goldman crossed paths, and Sanger began protesting for various causes, such as labor rights and birth control. Sanger was actually the first person to coin the term “birth control,” which was an illegal idea at the time, and she began publishing literature in support of it. A warrant was issued for her arrest for obscenity due to the publication of her works, including sexual education literature, and she ran from the law, leaving the United States until 1915.

The charges against Sanger were dropped in 1916, and she opened a birth control clinic in Brooklyn. This time, she was charged with being a public nuisance and would serve 30 days in jail for the crime.^[2] From here, she raised a lot of public support for the birth control movement, and female reproductive rights in general, and subsequently went on to not only write but to establish several organizations dedicated to the cause, as well as help influence several major court cases which lead to the legality of birth control. In one of her early publications, Sanger also coined the phrase, “No Gods. No Masters.”

8 Louise Michel

Louise Michel was a French anarchist revolutionary born in 1830. She was a teacher who also fought in combat on the front lines with the National Guard in defense of the Paris Commune. Instead of the slow and steady legal reform of political liberalism, she believed in and advocated the use of violence to prove political points. The Germans laid siege to Paris in 1870, and Michel worked as a medic with the ambulance services and aided in the repelling of the invading Prussian forces.

France was a place of political turmoil at the time, and the French government tried to disarm the Parisians who had established the Paris Commune, but Michel took up arms and fought back.^[3] She would be brought up on charges, and her mother was arrested and held hostage until Louise surrendered and was sent to prison. She refused legal counsel, defending herself in court, and was sentenced to deportation and exile. Michel would then be imprisoned again on more charges, even while awaiting deportation. She ended up spending many of her future days in exile, studying and writing anarchist literature.

Eventually, the members of the Paris Commune were granted amnesty, and Michel returned to France. However, she continued to protest and fight for the rights of the individual and would yet again be arrested in 1883, and after another unsuccessful attempt at representing herself in court, she was sentenced to six years in prison. Michel continued her life in France in and out of prison, ever vocal about her opinions. She even faced an assassination attempt; she was shot by someone who didn’t like her political ideas. Michel survived and remained a revolutionary until her death in 1905.

7 Marie-Louise Berneri

Marie-Louise Berneri was born in Italy in 1918, a time of political upheaval and radical social change, to a father who was politically controversial. This definitely rubbed off on her, as her family was forced into exile in 1926 for their steadfast resistance of the rise of Italian fascism under Mussolini. The die had been cast, and they settled in Sorbonne in France.

In the 1930s, she began the publication of anarchist papers, writing in French and editing a publication in her native Italian. War soon broke out in Spain, and her father went to fight on the front lines while she continued publication, branching out to England. Berneri was soon publishing in Spanish, English, French, and Italian; she was a literary powerhouse.

After the Spanish Civil War, she was a vital figure in caring for the children orphaned by the war. As the editor of a paper called War Commentary, she was arrested with three other editors and tried for incitement, but she was released on a technicality while the other three stood trial. But even after the threat of imprisonment, her principles and drive remained, and she continued the publication. Berneri would continue to publish anarchist work until her sudden death in 1949 from a viral infection. She was only 31.^[4]

6 Madalyn Murray O’Hair

This outspoken anarchist and atheist deservedly earned the title she was given, “The Most Hated Woman in America,” for her works on atheism and her rejection of institutionalized religion as a form of oppression. She was a charismatic figure, loud, extravagant, and often intentionally obscene.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, born in 1919, was never afraid to be expressive to make a point. She sued in court to have “In God We Trust” removed from the American currency and prayer removed from schools. In 1963, the Supreme Court of the United States sided with Murray O’Hair in a case which officially ended the reading of the Bible in public schools in the US. She would initiate tens of court cases in defense of religious freedom and would go on to proclaim herself a militant atheist and feminist, being featured in Playboy magazine speaking openly about sex from a woman’s perspective. Above all, however, Murray O’Hair was an anarchist who rejected the top-down social orders, which she felt were oppressive. She founded the American Atheists organization and continued her life of challenging the system, until a bizarre turn of events changed everything.

In 1995, Murray O’Hair, her son, and her granddaughter suddenly disappeared with an ambiguous note left on the door of the building of American Atheists. Phone calls were made by the three to the organization. They sounded distressed but insisted they weren’t in any trouble.^[5] An investigation ensued and focused on the office manager for American Atheists, a man named David Roland Waters, who had a long history of violent and property crimes and actually pleaded guilty to stealing $54,000 from American Atheists. His girlfriend would testify that Waters was enraged by Murray O’Hair’s writings and had admitted to fantasizing about cutting off her fingers and toes. The O’Hairs’ credit cards were maxed out, but authorities had no bodies.

The FBI concluded that Waters worked with two accomplices, two men by the name of Danny Fry and Gary Karr, to kill the O’Hairs and steal their money, credit cards, and so on. A few days after the disappearance of the O’Hairs, Waters and Karr turned on Fry and killed him also. Karr was arrested and implicated Waters in the murders, and Waters was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 80 years in prison. He later led police to the bodies of the O’Hair family, which had been buried in Texas.

5 Lucy Parsons

Lucy Parsons was born in Texas in 1853 and went down in history as the first nonwhite female activist in the United States. She joined many political movements and was outspoken at a time when the United States was going through the racially charged Civil War and subsequent Jim Crow era. And when it comes to radical ideas of the time, Lucy’s were definitely the most extreme, as she adamantly believed that the government needed to be entirely dismantled and capitalism destroyed . . . at all costs.^[6]

Lucy continued to write and protest what she felt were racial, economic, and sexist injustices and would eventually marry a man named Albert Parsons. Lucy and Albert Parsons went on to organize a protest in Chicago in 1886, none other than the aforementioned Haymarket Affair which inspired Emma Goldman. Albert Parsons was one of the people executed for his part in the protest. Lucy Parsons would go on to fight for freedom and publish works on anarchism, becoming a figure notable for striving for racial equality in the United States.

4 Ursula Le Guin

Unlike the others on this list, Ursula Le Guin’s method of preaching anarchism and her dreams of a better world were a bit more subtle: She did it through captivating novels. Largely writing science fiction and fantasy, Le Guin took her readers outside of the world of reality to analyze and criticize society through the wider lens of the unbounded possibilities of fiction.

While her works spanned a gamut of subjects, they always had the common theme of questioning the powers that be. Take, for example, 1974’s The Dispossessed, in which two societies live side by side, one the run-of-the-mill capitalist culture with the governments we live under today and the other anarchic. The Dispossessed is the tale of the members of the two societies struggling to find freedom and meaning in these different worlds they find themselves in.

LeGuin’s works thematically suggested new worlds which were possible, suggestions for the future and rejections of the current social norms. Le Guin strongly criticized blind, passive consumerism and suggested a more anarchistic way of life that wasn’t based on material obsession.^[7] She passed away in January 2018 at the age of 88.

3 Alexandra David-Neel

Alexandra David-Neel was a French anarchist, a Buddhist, and also an explorer. Born in 1868, she would complete over 30 works and travel the world in search of spiritual answers, rejecting the status quo and social norms of the French society she grew up in. Not only did she travel into Tibet, which was forbidden to any foreigners at the time, in search of spiritual teachings from Tibetan monks, but she lived in a cave for two years, from 1914 to 1916.

The British Empire controlled the territories around Tibet and learned that she had entered Tibet illegally. They deported her, but World War I prevented her return to Europe, and she subsequently traveled to Japan.^[8] There, she met a Japanese monk who became her travel partner, and they made a 3,200-kilometer (2,000 mi) journey, some of it on foot, back to Tibet. The two disguised themselves as monks and completed their voyage into the sacred Tibetan city of Lhasa in 1924. There, she translated many of the sacred Tibetan works into French. David-Neel lived to the ripe old age of 100 and would continue to write alternative spiritual philosophy until her death.

2 Voltairine De Cleyre

Voltairine de Cleyre was born in 1866 and was a writer who would be one of the first American anarchists to put pen to paper. She, too, was inspired to anarchism due to the Haymarket Affair and would become extremely critical of the social order of the time, the government, capitalism, and more. She was anti-marriage, anti-state, anti-government, and was against social ideals of the time which held that men and religions had the right to control women’s sexuality.^[9]

On December 19, 1902, a former male pupil of hers named Herman Helcher made an attempt on her life. She survived, though she would live with pain and health issues for the rest of her days. Helcher had actually been stricken with fever and gone insane, and de Cleyre spoke in his defense, saying that his insanity was not his fault and that it was disease rather than malice which caused the attack. She spoke out against standing armies, saying they made wars more likely, and also fought against forced beauty standards on women at the time. She was an anti-state individualist through and through and staunchly fought for the rights of the individual for nearly the entirety of her life.

1 Helen Keller

Most of us know Helen Keller for her inspiration as a writer and educator who became ill at 19 months old, rendering her both blind and deaf. But these limitations didn’t stop Keller from becoming a total badass, and an outspoken anarchist. Keller became good friends with plenty of notable anarchists of the time, including Emma Goldman, and she greatly influenced anarchist thought concerning the disabled with her own political works, which have been overshadowed by her own personal triumphs over her physical limitations.

Keller believed strongly in equality and respect for individuals and held a disdain for a society that claimed that there were poor classes who were destined to be so. Here was a woman who had been born into the most difficult situation imaginable, who had come from difficult beginnings, and who felt that her own dark world of deafness and blindness were nothing compared to what she felt were the dark injustices of the world outside. Keller would write, “My darkness had been filled with the light of intelligence, and behold the outer day-lit world was stumbling and groping in social blindness.”

She criticized the world of capitalism and commerce as producing individual misery to a degree she felt unfathomable. She criticized slavery and the political process, noting that the voice of money was louder than the voice of the people. Keller was a badass in every sense of the word, and both her writings and personal accomplishments prove that.^[10]

I like to write about dark stuff and history.

I have always been a fan of characters in video games, television shows and movies who know how to wield a mighty bladed weapon. This has led to my often pricy hobby of knife and sword collecting. Any fool can use a firearm, but it takes real skill to effectively slash and hack your way through your foes. These swords are in no particular order since each has their own uniqueness and story to go with them. I tried to balance out the equation by providing swords from movies both recent and less recent. Please feel free to leave anything I should have included in this list in the comments.

Wielded by: Lion-O of The ThunderCats

Kicking off the list at number 10 we have The Sword of Omens. Any child of the 80’s should remember this cartoon series. More mighty than anyone else of his age, young Lion-O was only 12 years old when he and his Thunderian teammates sought refuge on Third Earth while their home planet of Thunderia was being destroyed.

Upon arrival, Lion-O and his allies fought against the tyrannical Mumm-Ra and his hordes of evil fiends who sought to not only destroy The Thundercats, but also obtain great power from The Eye of Thundera, the jewel inlayed within the hilt of The Sword of Omens, which is the source of The Thundercats’ own power.

Wielded by: The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2

This particular sword is artistically used by one of the most ass kicking females to ever grace the silver screen within the past several years. After being betrayed and nearly beaten to death by her would-be cohorts, The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and then having a bullet put through her head by Bill himself; The Bride is left inside of a chapel to die.

Why not? After all, who could possibly survive a point blank gunshot to the head? The Bride that’s who!

She very slowly recovers and eventually seeks the guidance of a couple of highly secretive and skilled individuals, one of whom is the infamous Sonny Chiba whose character is the long since retired Japanese sword-crafting legend Hattori Hanzo. One month is spent crafting her katana. After Hattori’s long and arduous task is completed The Bride is both justifiably relentless and unstoppable in seeking vengeance against those who wronged her.

Wielded by: Conan in Conan The Barbarian

As a young boy Conan witnessed his entire village get pillaged and destroyed by the evil warlord Thulsa Doom. After his mother and father are murdered Conan, being one of the few survivors of Doom’s pillage, is sold into slavery. During this time he grows in both age and in strength eventually being put in the rings of the gladiators to fight for the entertainment of others. He is a formidable opponent and wins fight after fight until his slave owner decides to send him out east to hone his skills as a fighter by learning to fight with a sword. Then one day he is simply set free.

During his journey away from slavery he stumbles upon an old tomb deep within the side of a mountain. Buried there is an Atlantean king sitting on a throne with his royal garments adorning him and a mighty sword at his side. Conan takes the sword and decides to find the warlords who destroyed his village and murdered his family.

Wielded by: King Arthur in Excalibur

Not only is this sword very well known in the movie arena, it is also included in countless pieces of classic literature. Given to King Arthur by The Lady of the Lake, Excalibur is the true sword of swords and can only be obtained by the true of heart. In many versions of the story the sword is imbued with magical powers which aid King Arthur in his battles.

A lot of confusion between Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone has arisen through time. From the information I have gathered the two stories mention separate swords though there is still some debate about that. Regardless of how you came to know the famous name of Excalibur, you must admit that it is a fine piece of legendary weaponry. So the next time you are walking near a lake look for The Lady. She just might have something to give to you.

Wielded by: The Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow

The classic 1820 story of The Legend of Sleep Hollow by Washington Irving was again adapted to film in 1999. As the story goes, Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate and put a stop to the Headless Horseman who has been terrorizing the town. Riding upon a black horse, The Headless Horseman stalks his seemingly random victims at night and uses an ominous looking double edged sword to remove the heads of those unfortunate souls. The motives behind the murders are eventually unraveled as Crane’s investigation continues. The real twist for me is that Christopher Walken is The Headless Horseman.

Wielded by: Dar in The Beastmaster

This movie is one of my personal favorites and the sword Dar uses is equally impressive. There is an evil priest Maax who has revealed to him a prophecy concerning the birth of a child who will eventually kill him years later. Maax is determined to put a stop to this at once and sends one of his evil minions out to find this unborn child, brand it with a sign of their evil deity then and sacrifice it. As fate would have it the baby is saved by a man who lives in the village of Emur. This is where Dar grows to be a strong young man.

Eventually Dar realizes that by being branded with the sign he was given the ability to psychically communicate with animals and this power will come in handy after his entire village and all of its inhabitants are slaughtered by the wicked Jun Horde. It seems that Maax has been looking for Dar all these years and his search has led him to the village of Emur.

Dar survives the attack and as the last living member of the Emurite clan he seeks vengeance and uses his adoptive father’s mighty sword along with his psychic power to fulfill his destiny and make the prophecy become a reality.

Wielded by: Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Sting is the perfect sword for someone who is as small as a hobbit. In the hands of a normal sized human it would simply be an elaborate elfish dagger. Not so for the hobbit. Sting is the perfect short sword for Frodo and it also has magical properties and can detect the presence of orcs by glowing blue at the blade. Exceptionally sharp, the sword is engraved with the Sindarian phrase “Maegnas aen estar nin dagnir in yngyl im” which means “Maegnas is my name and I am the spider’s bane.”

It came into hobbit hands when Frodo’s adoptive uncle Bilbo Baggins stole Sting from a band of orcs and used it to fight with. The name Sting was given to the sword after Bilbo’s encounter with a bunch of huge arachnids. Bilbo used it many times over the years until Frodo required a weapon for himself as he set out on the quest to destroy The Ring of Sauron.

Wielded by: He-Man in He-Man and The Masters of The Universe

I grew up watching this cartoon series as a child so I had to throw this one on here. Looking back I now realize all of the sexual innuendoes within the series. As the regular average Prince Adam no one really cares about him, but when he takes the power sword out, points it in the air and shouts “By the power of Grey Skull…I have the power!” he is magically transformed into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe, capable of any feat. No one ever figures out that they are one in the same person despite looking identical.

Although his sword is mighty and magical, he rarely uses it. Instead he uses his immeasurable strength and wit to overcome his foes and constantly defeat Skeletor. If you are a die-hard He-Man fan still to this day then read below.

Wielded by: Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride

Inigo is a straight shooting Spaniard and the child of a sword-craftsman. Whilst learning the craft, Inigo’s father was approached by a unique man of nobility who requested a very custom and equally costly rapier; a jeweled rapier that would befit a six fingered man.

After the extensive completion of this sword, the six fingered man refused to pay the agreed amount for the rapier and subsequently murders young Inigo’s father right in front of him. The six fingered man left Inigo alive, but not before he gave him two scars, one across each cheek.

Romantic and steadfast, Inigo, in his life-quest to avenge his father’s tragic and unwarranted death, would eventually track down the six fingered man and slay him with the very same rapier.

Wielded by: William Wallace in Braveheart

The character of William Wallace was magnificently portrayed by Mel Gibson in this epic film. I remember watching the movie for the first time and my jaw dropped when I saw that massive sword strapped to his back as he rode his horse around his fellow countrymen in preparation for battle. Although the film is a classic a lot of the actual facts about the real life William Wallace have been lost.

It is known that Wallace was a fighter against the oppressive English rule during the 1200’s, but the huge sword used in the movie by Gibson was most likely never actually used by the real William Wallace. The real William Wallace’s sword is on display in Stirling, Scotland at The National Wallace Monument and it looks nothing like what is seen in the movie. That doesn’t stop this huge two handed sword from being an awesome weapon though!

Wielded by: The Jedi/Sith in the Star Wars series

Come on now! You didn’t really think that I would leave this awesome weapon off the list did you? While the blade is not made of metal like the other 10 this weapon could not be ignored.

When one thinks of Star Wars the lightsaber should spring immediately to mind. Luke had one, Vader had one, Yoda had one; the one single weapon that you need after you choose to pursue a life working with the power of the force is a lightsaber, no matter what side of the force you choose.

Contributor: Brotherman

As stated on ourworldindata.org, “You need not look much further than the animal world to find behavior that is truly fascinating.”

One needs only to tune into Planet Earth or open a National Geographic magazine to see animals engaging in quirky, fascinating, or even eerily human-like behavior. Like us, they subvert expectations that others have of them. Like us, they tap into their brainpower to solve complex problems. Like us, they play, work together, form unlikely friendships, mate with members of the same sex, and solve problems in clever ways.

And yet, the way in which they take part in these activities is cause for fascination and intrigue—much more, in my opinion, than their human counterparts provoke. Animals also engage in behaviors that are entirely unique to them, though. For instance, most humans I know wouldn’t roll around in a pile of dust to get clean (like our chicken and chinchilla friends do).

For simplicity’s sake, I’ve boiled down their shenanigans into the ten I find the most interesting and fascinating.

Related: 10 Amazing Ways Animals Are Superior To Man

10 Play

Play isn’t just limited to the dogs you see rolling around together in delightful fur bundles at the local dog park. It’s also observed all across the animal kingdom. White-winged choughs play follow the leader. Chimps in Uganda have been seen entertaining themselves with stick dolls. Naturalists have observed crocodiles providing piggyback rides to smaller reptiles and young elephants utilizing riverside embankments as waterslides. The narrator in My Octopus Teacher observed his octopus friend shimmying her tentacles out toward the fish in her surroundings. She wasn’t trying to hunt them; instead, there seemed to be a playful and whimsical quality to her gestures.

Animals play for all kinds of reasons—learning life skills needed for hunting and breeding behavior, preparing for unanticipated events, and strengthening social bonds among them. And though play is important for social and cognitive development, animals need to be able to distinguish play behavior from real aggression—for which creatures like chimpanzees have a “play face” while dogs have a “play bow,” during which they stick their butt in the air while pressing their forelimbs into the ground.

Ways to tell if an animal is playing are that they repeatedly engage in the behavior of their own volition and when they’re not stressed. And the behavior varies in some way from its more serious version. For example, one type of spider plays at having sex before reaching sexual maturity. What distinguishes the play sex scenarios from the real sex ones is that the females in the former are less likely to eat the males afterward.^[1]

9 Form Unlikely Friendships

Examples of unlikely bonds include the bobcat kitten and the fawn, an elephant and a stray dog at an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, Koko the gorilla with Ball the kitten, and Humphrey the Hippo with the pygmy goat in South Africa. Intra-species animal friendships are more likely to occur in captivity— in part because, as biologist and primate specialist Barbara King notes, “that’s where constraints are relaxed, where the animals aren’t fighting for their basic needs—which allows their emotional energy to flow elsewhere.” However, intra-species animal friendship has also been observed in the wild. All animals have the capacity to form them, regardless of their circumstances.

Researchers have hypothesized that animals form friendships to keep parasites at bay, spot predators, stay warm, and find food. Sometimes one creature instinctually takes a protective or parental role with another. Still, there isn’t always a clear-cut explanation as to why animals form intra-species friendships—just as there’s not always an explanation as to why un-like humans occasionally feel drawn to one another.

What is clear, though, is that “The animals are arguably better off—more confident, physically stronger, in higher spirits—after finding each other than they were before,” writes Jennifer Holland in Unlikely Friendships.^[1]

8 Subvert Our Expectations

“There is a great tendency to see an animal do just what it is supposed to do,’ warned the ornithologist Edmund Selous. But ‘uniformity of action’ is in proportion to paucity of observation.”–The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

How often have you talked to a human and been pleasantly surprised, or even shocked, to find that their personality contrasted starkly with what you expected of them or what their outward appearance seemed to convey? Like humans do, animals also subvert our expectations.

Take, for instance, otters. They seem cute and cuddly, right? Sure, but according to whidbeynewstimes.com, otters also “produce a strong, disagreeable scent from their anal glands and have especially smelly poop, perhaps from a diet of fish, crab, and other sea creatures.” Humans are also advised to stay away from otters if encountering them in the wild and to never feed them—because, despite their adorable appearance, their bite is worse than their bark.

Similarly, animals that get a bad rap have some admirable qualities going for them. Sharks, for one, aren’t as dangerous as we think. Humans are foreign objects to them. Since we are not a part of their natural ecosystem, they don’t think of us as prey, and when they attack us, it’s [usually] because they’ve confused us with seals. Sharks also use the earth’s magnetic field to travel and keep oceans clean by eating carcasses.

Another expectation-subverting animal: pigeons. If you’re someone who’s written these birds off as worthless rats of the sky, please think again. Pigeons are better than most of us at math (even more adept than some mathematicians!) and can find their way around the world without the GPS we all rely so heavily on these days. Lastly, pigs: though many people associate our porcine friends with squalor, they roll around in the mud—not because they’re dirty—but as a way of cooling off due to a lack of sweat glands.^[8]

7 Reversed Gender Roles and Homosexuality

It’s not always the ladies who flaunt their beauty to attract a mate. In the animal kingdom, male peacocks are the ones to court, relying on the ostentatiousness of their grand, colorful tails. Blue-footed boobies woo the ladies of their species by way of a dance that draws attention to their vibrant blue feet. And according to National Geographic, “During mating season, male quetzals grow twin tail feathers that form an amazing train up to three feet (one meter) long.” Beyond appearance, female birds also often judge the mate by the quality of his…singing.

Additionally, bisexuality can be witnessed across many species, as outlined in the book Biological Exuberance. A controversial thing to point out, and one that stands in the face of conservatives’ argument that homosexuality is not natural, but examples of gay animals include the bluegill sunfish, mounting bison, goats, koalas, and ostriches.

In fact, 90% of observed sexual activity amongst giraffes is homosexual. The males, in particular, rub their necks along each other’s bodies, sometimes for hours. Amazon river dolphins were once spotted having gay group sex. This behavior was also studied in Western Australia, where male bottlenose dolphins were seen “hanging out” in groups together after the mating season ended. And, elephants might be considered “homo-romantic” in that, though they may not frequently engage in explicit homosexual sex, they groom, kiss, and lock trunks with all genders of their species.^[4]

(Fun fact: My typing “gay bison” into Google to research this sub-section turned up, “Single Lesbian Women in Bison, SD.”)

6 Problem Solving

It’s not just humans who solve problems. Animals, too, show remarkable mental capability. Just because they can’t speak English or communicate in the way we are accustomed to and measure as a sign of cognitive prowess doesn’t mean they lack intelligence. One 2004 study showed young cows’ heart rates increased when they solved problems. Some of these cows even jumped and kicked after encountering solutions! Clark’s Nutcrackers gather thousands of pine nuts every year before burying them in small stashes in separate locations. They then remember exactly where they put them—unlike me with my keys—as well as the quickest, most efficient route to getting to each of them. Crows strip bark off a tree, then bend it into a hook (which they then use to dig out food)!

Pigs performed well in a video game where they had to match shapes with corresponding shapes. They’re so mentally adept, in fact, that pig farmers in Europe are required to keep their swine challenged with mentally stimulating activity, knowing that if these snouted Einsteins become bored, it could lead to aggressive behavior.^[5]

5 Cool Hygiene Practices

What to do without a bottle of Head and Shoulders and access to a bathtub or shower? Our animal friends have their own unique ways of staying clean. Bees, for instance, clean themselves while they are flying, using all their limbs to rid their bodies of accumulated pollen. Guillermo Amador, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute, referred to this as the “hovering hygiene strategy.” To keep parasites at bay, capuchin monkeys use substances like limes and onions during their hygiene routine. They even cover themselves in ants and millipedes sometimes!

Elephants and rhinos take mud baths—a practice, I’m sure, any five-year-old child would be down with. Chickens take dust baths, as the dust helps to remove parasites. Animals with fine fur like chinchillas run the risk of getting too cold if they were to take water baths, so they take dust baths too. Like us, bears and tigers bathe in water—the latter are exceptions to the general feline practice of self-bathing with one’s own tongue.

Grooming also doesn’t just serve the sole function of maintaining hygiene. Animals groom each other to strengthen their social bonds as well. Ponies, vampire bats, lions, meerkats, and yellow-billed babblers engage in social grooming (also known as allogrooming), which has been proven to lower the heart rate in macaques and reduce tick load in wild baboons.^[6]

4 Bizarre or Unorthodox Sex/Reproductive Practices

Imagine if male and female humans both had vaginas, or all humans had penises! Or maybe not…

In the bird kingdom, however, male and female birds alike have cloacas, which swell during mating season, causing them to protrude slightly out from the body (though they’re less prominent and visible during the remainder of the year). Male birds store their sperm here, while the females receive it in their cloaca before it moves along to fertilize their ova and begin the process of egg formation. They also lay eggs from the same place where they excrete feces and urine. Female ducks can also poop out sperm if they decide they don’t want to have a baby with the male they’ve just mated with. Uh, moving along now…

Another animal with interesting reproductive body parts: the penises of seed beetles contain sharp spikes. Though these spikes sadly physically harm their female partners, it’s been theorized that these spiky penises help anchor the males during sex or scrape away the sperm of her previous partner(thereby increasing the probability of his own sperm inseminating her).^[7]

3 Stealth and Camouflage Hunting

Lacking bones, stingrays possess skeletons made of fibrous cartilage—and because they’re flat, they can conceal themselves effectively, hiding beneath the sand. They can’t see their prey after capturing them since their eyes are located on top of their bodies (while their mouths occupy their underside). But similar to sharks, they use smell and electroreceptors in place of sight. Another commonality shared with sharks is coral reefs—the preferred feeding grounds for both species, especially during high tide.

Other animals dirty themselves in order to blend in better with their surroundings when hunting prey. The green lacewing (the aphid’s predator) is one example. Still, others employ subterfuge. The tongue of an alligator snapping turtle, for instance, resembles a worm that, when wriggled around, lures fish who try to eat it (only to be eaten themselves). Flower mantises pass themselves off as flowers to attract prey who come to pollinate on them. And some rat snakes use their tails to seduce prey, which confuses the tails for food.^[8]

2 Working Together

An example of hyena collaboration: Researchers constructed a trap door with food inside it and two ropes attached on the outside. Yanking the ropes—which had to be done in unison—would lead to the opening of the trap door and the subsequent release of the food. The hyenas picked up on this, working together to successfully get the food without even needing to be trained to do so. The more experienced hyenas in the pack taught the neophytes the trick to getting the food.

Vizcacha males leave every year while the females stay behind, welcoming new males periodically. They live in communal burrow systems, using branches and heavy objects to cover the entrance. When living close to human settlements, they also hoard garden tools, tables, brooms, concrete pieces, firewood, and trinkets.^[9]

1 Make Music

Chirping is a guy thing in the cricket world; the ladies don’t do it. The boys make these harmonious sounds by rubbing their wings against each other. When they rub both their wings and legs together, it’s called stridulation. Heat gives crickets energy, so you’ll hear them chirping faster on hotter nights. You can even estimate the temperature based on the speed of their chorus! The slower the chirp, the lower the temperature.

Male singers are also much more common in the bird world, with male birds producing longer, more complex vocalizations (while female calls tend to be shorter and simpler; an exception to this is in the tropics). Adorably, many species also perform duetting. Other music-making animals include birds, frogs, whales, and dolphins.^[10]