When you think of churches, you probably picture serene sanctuaries bathed in soft light. Yet the world of holy architecture hides some truly bizarre treasures. From bone‑laden crypts to pagan‑infused springs, these ten sites prove that faith can be both awe‑inspiring and downright eerie. Below, the 10 strangest church relics on public display are catalogued in descending order, each with its own spine‑tingling story.

10 Crypt Of The Chiesa Immacolata Concezione
Rome, Italy

This seventeenth‑century sanctuary was commissioned by Cardinal Antonio Barberini, a Capuchin Franciscan who also happened to be the brother of Pope Urban VIII. Designed by the Franciscan friar Michele da Bergamo, the church boasts a host of illustrious tombs and celebrated paintings. Yet its most arresting feature lies deep beneath the floor: five subterranean chapels harboring the remains of roughly 4,000 Capuchin friars and impoverished Romans from the 1600s onward.

Transporting the bones was a logistical feat – 300 trips between 1627 and 1631 moved carriages brimming with skeletal remains into place. Legend holds that the soil covering the crypt’s pavement was sourced from the Holy Land, and a solemn memento mori inscription near the exit declares, “You are what we have been. You will be what we are.”

The ossified assemblage is arranged with artistic flair: mosaics, columns, arches, and floral motifs all fashioned from bone. Distinct crypts exist for specific parts – a Crypt of Skulls, one of Pelvises, another of Leg and Thigh Bones, plus a Crypt of the Resurrection featuring a painting of Jesus summoning Lazarus, and a Crypt of the Three Skeletons, a symbolic diorama reflecting on mortality.

9 Basilica Of Santa Croce In Gerusalemme
Rome, Italy

Also known as Heleniana or Sessoriana, the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme rests on what once formed part of a residential complex owned by Emperor Constantine in the third century. The site was originally the Sessorian Palace, built for Constantine’s mother, Helena, and is reputed to rest upon soil she brought back from Jerusalem.

Constantine erected the basilica to enshrine a trove of relics returned from the Holy Land by his mother, especially items linked to the True Cross. Among the macabre collection are three alleged fragments of the Cross – a nail, a segment bearing the famed INRI inscription, and two thorns said to originate from the Crown of Thorns. These artifacts now reside in the Chapel of Relics, crafted by Florestano di Fausto.

Curiously, women may only view these sacred objects once a year, making access a rare privilege for the female faithful.

8 Capela Dos Ossos
Evora, Portugal

Adjacent to the Church of St. Francis in Evora stands the modest Capela dos Ossos. Like several other entries, this chapel is lavishly adorned with human bones. Uniquely, the interior is entirely coated in skulls and skeletal fragments, and if you glance upward you’ll encounter the preserved bodies of a woman and a young boy, suspended from chains and staring down at visitors.

The chapel, dating from the sixteenth century, safeguards roughly 5,000 monks’ remains, exhumed from nearby overcrowded cemeteries. Historically, such bone‑decorated spaces served both pragmatic and spiritual purposes: they provided a solution to burial space shortages, and they acted as stark reminders for the living to contemplate mortality.

A welcoming inscription reads, “Nos ossos que aqui estamos, pelos vossos esperamos” – translated, “We bones that are here, for your bones we wait.”

7 Church Of Santo Stefano Rotondo
Rome, Italy

On Rome’s outskirts, away from the usual tourist throngs, lies the Basilica di Santo Stefano Rotondo al Monte Celio, commonly called Santo Stefano Rotondo. Consecrated by Pope Simplicius between 468 and 483, the church is dedicated to Saint Stephen and was erected atop an ancient Roman mithraeum.

While architecturally modest, the basilica houses a striking series of thirty‑four paintings encircling its interior walls, each depicting the gruesome demise of a Christian martyr. The artworks, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII in the late sixteenth century, portray torture with a near‑pornographic realism that would make even the hardiest stomach turn.

Charles Dickens famously described the collection, noting, “…a panorama of horror and butchery no man could imagine in his sleep… Grey‑bearded men being boiled, fried, grilled… women having their breasts torn with iron pinchers, their tongues cut out… the mildest subjects.”

6 Aghia Moni Convent
Nafplio, Greece

The Monastery of Aghia Moni, perched just outside Areia near Nafplio, functions today as a Greek Orthodox women’s retreat overseen by the Bishopric of Argolis. Though relatively obscure, the convent is famed for a spring on its grounds that bears unmistakable pagan overtones.

The site is dedicated to Zoodochos Pigi – the “source of life” – and the spring itself is linked to the legendary Kanathos of Greek mythology. Pausanias, the ancient traveler, recorded that in Nauplia there existed a spring called Kanathos where Hera would bathe annually, regaining her maidenhood. This ritual, described as a “holy secret” in the Mysteries honoring Hera, hints at pre‑Christian rites that later fell out of favor with Orthodox practice.

Because of its pagan roots, the spring has largely slipped into obscurity, yet the convent remains a testament to the layered spiritual history of the region.

5 The Barberini Coats Of Arms, St. Peter’s Cathedral
Vatican City

Within St. Peter’s Cathedral, the Baldachin Altar and its bronze canopy – both sculpted by Gianlorenzo Bernini between 1624 and 1633 under Pope Pius VIII – feature a striking series of Barberini family coats of arms. Each shield displays three bees arranged in a triangular pattern on a blue field, topped by a woman’s head.

A close inspection reveals subtle variations across the eight shields, arranged two per column. Some scholars interpret the progression as a symbolic narrative of childbirth, noting the evolving expression of the woman’s face from joy to distress, and the shield’s bulging form culminating in a cherubic visage.

One popular legend suggests the design commemorates a promise by Urban VIII to his niece, Giulia Barberini, to erect an altar in her honor should her labor be successful. Others argue the motif reflects the Church’s earthly struggles, ultimately “delivered” by papal authority, underscoring the Barberini’s influence within the Vatican.

4 Na-Gig Of Kilpeck
Herefordshire, England

Located near the Welsh border, Kilpeck Church (St. Mary and St. David) is a modest Norman‑style, two‑cell structure perched atop an older foundation. Its most infamous feature is a Sheela‑na‑gig – a sculpted corbel depicting a squatting woman with exaggerated genitalia.

Sheela‑na‑gigs appear across England, Ireland, and France, often serving as cautionary or protective symbols. The Kilpeck example, dating to at least the twelfth century, blends grotesque humor with a stark moral warning about sexual sin. While some argue the figures derive from pagan goddess worship, their placement among Christian motifs suggests a medieval didactic purpose.

Over time, such carvings migrated from churches to castles and even flintlock pistols. Male counterparts also existed, and Victorian sensibilities even led to the removal of some corbels deemed indecent, underscoring the enduring tension between sacred art and societal mores.

3 Otranto Cathedral, Tree Of Life Mosaic
Otranto, Italy

Consecrated in 1088, Otranto Cathedral boasts an astonishing floor mosaic commissioned in 1163 by Archbishop Gionata d’Otranto and overseen by the monk Pantaleone, with contributions from local and Norman artisans as well as Tuscan craftsmen. Restored in 1993, the mosaic blankets every square foot of the cathedral’s floor, depicting an intricate “Tree of Life” that sprawls across the interior.

The mosaic’s iconography is a bewildering blend of mythological, religious, and even astronomical symbols. Greek goddesses Diana, Deucalion, and Pyrrha mingle with Arthurian legends, zodiac figures, and scenes from the Golden Bough. Christian motifs such as Adam and Eve, apocalyptic beasts, and the story of Cain and Abel coexist alongside Arabic inscriptions, reflecting a surprisingly eclectic worldview for a medieval Italian cathedral.

Scholars believe the creators were unusually erudite, aiming to encapsulate the totality of contemporary knowledge in stone. The result is a mesmerizing, almost otherworldly tapestry that challenges conventional expectations of sacred art.

2 Otranto Cathedral, The Skull Cathedral

The second reason Otranto Cathedral earns a spot on this list is its macabre “Skull Cathedral.” Adjacent to the main altar lies a chapel whose walls are lined with the skulls of roughly 800 Christian martyrs, displayed behind glass. Some of these relics were also transferred to the Church of Santa Caterina in Formello, Naples.

In 1480, Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, fresh from conquering Constantinople, set his sights on Italy. After a brief campaign toward Brindisi, he turned to Otranto. The siege culminated on August 14, when Ottoman forces broke through, pillaging the town and offering its male inhabitants a grim choice: convert to Islam or face beheading. The townspeople chose death, resulting in the execution of 800 men on the Hill of the Martyrs (formerly Hill of Minerva).

Antonio Primaldi, the chosen spokesman, was the first to be beheaded. Legend recounts that his headless body stood upright, prompting an executioner to convert on the spot before being slain himself. The sacrifice bought time for King Ferdinand I of Naples to regroup and eventually repel the Ottoman advance, arguably saving Italy and Rome from further conquest. In May 2013, Pope Francis canonized Antonio Primaldi and his fellow martyrs, marking the largest canonization in history.

1 Sedlec Ossuary
Kutna Hora, Czech Republic

Compared to other bone‑filled churches, the Sedlec Ossuary is a true spectacle, housing the remains of at least 40,000 skeletons. Situated in the suburbs of Kutná Hora, just outside Prague, the small chapel became a repository for excess bones after centuries of overcrowding due to its reputation as a holy site (rumored to contain soil from Golgotha) and recurring plague outbreaks.

In 1870, woodcarver František Rint was tasked with organizing the chaos. His solution: a dazzling display of bones throughout the chapel, including a coat of arms for the Schwarzenberg family and a chandelier composed of every human bone imaginable.

Among the macabre décor are angelic and cherubic carvings, bone‑crafted candleholders, and entire walls lined with skulls. Rint even signed his name using bone fragments, ensuring his artistic legacy would endure alongside the skeletal remains.

These ten sites prove that the line between reverence and the uncanny is often thinner than we imagine. Whether you’re drawn by history, art, or the sheer oddity of bone‑adorned sanctuaries, each location offers a unique glimpse into the ways humanity has chosen to memorialize the divine and the dead.

There are several ways to discard a body once death occurs. None of them are pleasant to contemplate, and some are downright disturbing. Before the 20th century, if a body only appeared to be dead, but the “deceased” was, in fact, still alive, premature burial was a possibility—a horrific fate, indeed. Even when death is unequivocal, the idea of burying a loved one in earth or sea, reducing a corpse to ash, or leaving a body unclaimed in a remote grave can be terrifying. Yet there exists a third, even more unsettling option: after death a person’s remains may be embalmed or mummified and then exhibited for the curious public, turning the dead into a macabre attraction.

10 Creepy Corpses on Display

10 Luang Pho Daeng

Born in 1894 on Koh Samui, a Thai island, Luang Pho Daeng was a Buddhist monk who entered his final meditation in 1973. His preserved body, still frozen in the pose he held at death, now rests inside a golden, glass‑enclosed case at Wat Khunaram temple.

Early records show that Daeng was first ordained as a monk in his youth, later left the order to marry and father six children, and eventually returned to monastic life after his offspring grew up. He traveled to Bangkok for deeper study, then settled back on Samui, meditating in a cave at Tham Yai (today’s Tamarind Springs) before moving to the family home behind Wat Khunaram.

Approaching his eightieth year, Daeng sensed his end was near and gathered his disciples to share his final wishes. He stipulated that if his body began to decompose it should be cremated and the ashes scattered at the famed “Saam Jaeg” three‑forked intersection in Hua Thanon. If, however, decay did not set in, the corpse was to be displayed upright in a coffin as a teaching tool for future generations.

Although the monk’s eyes have vanished as they re‑entered his head, the rest of his remains are remarkably intact. Monks have placed sunglasses on the mummified monk to soften his eerie appearance.

Further research has revealed that tiny gecko eggs sometimes hatch inside his body, with some eggs discovered in his eye sockets, mouth, and beneath the skin during radiographic scans, adding an extra layer of creepiness to the exhibit.

9 Speedy Atkins

Charles Henry “Speedy” Atkins (1875‑1928) met an unceremonious end, destined for a pauper’s grave, yet his mummified form lingered in a funeral home’s closet, occasionally opened for locals and tourists to peer at.

According to the Chicago Sun‑Times, Atkins became a local sensation. When, 66 years after his death, his remains finally received a proper burial, about 200 people gathered at Washington Street Baptist Church in Paducah, Kentucky, snapping photos beside the open casket and paying their respects in a lively farewell ceremony. Velma Hamock, the embalmer’s widow, famously remarked, “I never saw a dead man bring so much happiness to people.”

The secret behind Atkins’s remarkable preservation lay in a special embalming fluid devised by undertaker A. Z. Hamock. The concoction’s chemicals allowed the corpse to endure much like ancient Egyptian mummies. Unfortunately, Hamock took the formula to his own grave, leaving the exact recipe lost to history.

Atkins had drowned while fishing, leaving no family or friends to claim his body. Hamock obtained permission from the coroner to experiment on the unclaimed remains, applying his new preservative. The result was astounding: over six and a half decades later, the corpse showed no foul odor and retained most of its facial features, earning the respect and fascination of his hometown.

8 Elmer McCurdy

Train robber Elmer McCurdy (1880‑1911) famously declared he would never be captured alive. Ironically, after being shot to death by an Oklahoma sheriff’s posse, his corpse embarked on a second career as a “fun‑house dummy.”

McCurdy’s mummified remains spent years in a museum warehouse, occasionally painted to glow in the dark and displayed from the gallows of a carnival’s fun‑house. The body even appeared as a prop on an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. The truth emerged when one of the dummy’s arms detached; a technician trying to re‑attach it discovered real human bone where none should have been.

Further investigation revealed a bullet lodged in McCurdy’s stomach. Tracing the prop’s ownership uncovered a trail: after his death, the posse’s sheriff sold the corpse to a carnival owner who mummified it. It changed hands several times before ending up with carnival magnate Louis Sonney, who used it as security for a loan that went unpaid.

McCurdy remained a star attraction in Sonney’s traveling freak show until the end of World War II, when such spectacles waned in popularity. The body later sold to the Hollywood Wax Museum and eventually purchased by Nu‑Pike Amusement Park, where it was painted and hung from a gallows display.

His final resting place is at Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where a simple tombstone records only his death and burial years, omitting the puzzling 66‑year gap between the two dates.

7 Hazel Farris

Today, Hazel Farris’s corpse is a skeletal shell: most of her hair has vanished, her eyes are missing, the nose is largely gone, many teeth have fallen out, and her right ring finger is absent. The remaining bones bear the scars of a violent life.

Born around 1880, Farris shot five men, killing each, before taking her own life to evade capture. Her first victim was her husband, who, after a night of drinking, challenged her plan to purchase a new hat; the argument turned deadly, and she shot him twice.

When neighbors heard the gunfire and alerted authorities, three lawmen stormed the house and were also slain by Farris’s “outrage, steel nerve, and deadly aim.” A passing deputy sheriff entered the scene, stumbled over a body, and his gun discharged, severing the ring finger of his opponent’s right hand. Undeterred, Farris freed herself, shot the deputy, and fled, tallying a grim total of five kills before escaping.

Farris later fled to Bessemer, Alabama, where she fell for a man who, upon learning her story, likely turned her in for a reward. To avoid incarceration, she poisoned herself.

After her body desiccated in a combined furniture store and funeral home, locals, intrigued by the legend of “Hazel the Mummy,” paid a dime each to view her remains. Carnival showman Orlando C. Brooks later purchased the corpse, exhibiting it “for the benefit of science” for a fee. A poster claimed the exhibit offered a worthwhile study and promised a $500 reward to anyone, including doctors, who could prove the mummy was fraudulent.

6 Samuel Perry Dinsmoor

Deep in the American heartland, the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas, showcases roughly 150 concrete sculptures reflecting the political and religious musings of retired schoolteacher and Civil War veteran Samuel Perry Dinsmoor (1843‑1932).

Dinsmoor, an eccentric populist, devoted the final 25 years of his life to this grand art project after retirement. He first erected a limestone home resembling a log cabin, complete with concrete porch spindles cast inside broken bottles. He proudly described the residence as “the most unique home for living or dead on Earth.”

The Kansas Historical Society notes that Dinsmoor spent the next quarter‑century pouring 113 tons of concrete into sculptures that illustrated his interpretation of the Bible and modern civilization through a populist lens. The Garden of Eden also features a concrete mausoleum housing his mummified remains and those of his wife; visitors can glimpse his body through a glass pane in the mausoleum’s lid, while his wife rests unseen in a sealed crypt below.

5 The West Virginia Philippi Mummies

In a quaint train station turned Barbour County Historical Museum in Philippi, West Virginia, a modest backroom houses the mummified remains of two women, available for a dollar‑a‑peek.

Graham Hamrick, a farmer‑turned‑amateur‑scientist, became enamored with the 19th‑century Egyptomania craze and sought to replicate ancient mummification techniques. After experimenting with fruits, meats, and small animals, he decided to apply his method to human corpses.

Hamrick purchased two bodies from the Trans‑Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (also known as the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane). Such acquisitions were not uncommon at the time, as some mental‑health institutions disposed of patients without families in unethical ways. He also obtained an infant’s corpse and a detached hand. The exact formula he used remains unknown, as Hamrick took it to the grave.

The mummies briefly toured with circus legend P.T. Barnum before returning to West Virginia. Over the years they were stored in a barn, and at one point even under a local man’s bed. In 1985, a flood damaged the remains; after drying in the sun, the surviving mummy was relocated to its present home in the museum. The infant was too damaged to preserve, and the hand was lost.

4 Sir Christian Friedrich von Kahlbutz

The mummified corpse of Sir Christian Friedrich von Kahlbutz (1651‑1702) has placed the tiny German town of Kampehl, with just 130 residents, on the map. The knight’s body, housed in a glass‑topped crypt, attracts up to 150,000 visitors annually.

In 1991, not everyone welcomed the cadaver’s presence. Mayor Edmund Bublitz opposed the display despite its tourist draw, while the state had previously managed the attraction during the Communist era, charging admission and compensating the local Lutheran church that owned the crypt.

Pastor Peter Freimark defended the exhibit, noting its allure stemmed from its “macabre, obscene, cruel, grisly and…erotic” qualities—traits he claimed resonated with the German psyche.

The “erotic” aspect ties back to the knight’s notorious reputation: he fathered 30 illegitimate children in addition to 11 legitimate heirs and allegedly claimed the right to “deflower all brides in his fiefdom.” When a rejected bride’s fiancé was found with a split skull, Kahlbutz was charged with murder, though he maintained his innocence, allegedly declaring, “If I am the murderer, may it be God’s will that my body never decay.”

The conflict between church and state persisted until German reunification in 1990. The mayor once arranged for six unemployed men to move the body to the fire station, but the plan was aborted after local opposition. Today, the knight remains undisturbed in his glass‑covered crypt, continuing to draw paying customers.

3 Charles Eugene de Croy

St. Nicholas’s Church in Tallinn, Estonia, shelters the mummified remains of Charles Eugene de Croy (1651‑1702), a duke who fought for the Russian army at Narva in 1701 and was captured by Sweden’s King Charles XII.

Following his death in 1702, financial constraints prevented a proper burial, so his body was propped up in a side chapel near the main entrance. The dry climate preserved his corpse, turning it into a local attraction until 1897, when authorities finally interred him.

Visitors in the 1880s described his appearance as striking: a grey‑toned complexion, a damaged nose, thin lips, and a yellow‑brown hue to the skin, all while he remained dressed in his formal attire.

2 Christian Jacobsen Drakenberg

Christian Jacobsen Drakenberg (1626‑1772) was a sea‑faring adventurer who, at age 68, was captured by Algerine pirates during a 1694 voyage to Spain. After escaping, he returned to Denmark and became a favored storyteller among the aristocracy, delighting audiences with increasingly outrageous tales.

Perhaps the most astonishing claim about Drakenberg is that he lived to the age of 145, a fact highlighted in the 1856 English Cyclopaedia, which called his longevity “one of the most extraordinary instances of longevity on record.”

Following his death, his body was mummified and displayed at the cathedral in Aarhus, where curious onlookers would stealthily open the casket to pluck a hair from his chin. In 1835 he was described as a “kind of natural mummy,” but at the queen’s request he received a proper burial in 1840 beneath the cathedral floor.

1 Xin Zhui

Also known as Marquise Dai, Xin Zhui (c. 217 BC‑168 BC) was married to the Marquis Dai of the Western Han Dynasty. Her remarkably preserved body was discovered in December 1971 while excavating an air‑raid shelter near an army hospital in Hunan Province.

Her wooden burial chamber, sealed beneath a thick layer of white clay and 11,000 pounds of charcoal to prevent water intrusion, also contained the remains of her husband, a child, and over 3,000 cultural artifacts.

The burial method created a stable temperature and humidity, producing a low‑oxygen, antiseptic environment that kept her body in superb condition, while her companions, exposed to moisture, suffered typical decay.

Because of this exceptional preservation, Xin’s skin remained supple, her joints flexible, and her internal organs largely free from decay. Researchers were even able to type her blood and determine that she likely died of a heart attack around age 50, caused by a diet rich in indulgent foods and a sedentary lifestyle.

A secret compound was injected into her circulatory system to further halt decomposition, and her corpse now resides on display at the Hunan Municipal Museum in Changsha.

There’s no doubt humans are the most clever animals on the planet Earth. We developed tool making 2.6 million years ago and in the present we have Swiss army knives and cheese graters, so it’s all worked out well. While animals have yet to develop iPhones and vape pens, that doesn’t mean they haven’t developed their own ingenious solutions to various problems. Here are some of the most impressive examples. 

10. Crocodiles Use Twigs To Bait Birds

Thanks to Steve Irwin, most of us have an appreciation for what a crocodile can and can’t do. These prehistoric throwbacks have a bite strength of 3,700 pounds per square inch, which is about the most powerful you’ll find anywhere on the planet, and can lunge at prey at a speed of about 12 meters per second, which means if you don’t see it before it attacks you probably never will. 

Research shows that, in addition to their impressive list of biological advantages, crocodiles are more clever than you might think. When brute force and speed fail, they can use trickery. Crocodiles have been witnessed using sticks as bait to attract nest-building birds. 

The technique basically involves using themselves as platters during the birds’ nesting season. Alligators and crocodiles will rest with sticks on their snouts. Birds that get close to try to gather the materials are snapped up and eaten. 

9. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work for Badgers and Coyotes

In school and business, we’re often pushed into working with others under the assumption that teamwork makes us all better. Research doesn’t necessarily bear that out, of course, and some people hate teamwork for good reason. But there are definitely times when teamwork does get things accomplished and there’s even unlikely evidence of it in the animal kingdom. For instance, when badgers and coyotes team up together to hunt. 

Their partnership was witnessed by Native Americans even before Europeans came to North America, so there’s a long history of it working. Both animals hunt similar prey, but in different ways. If a badger wants a gopher, he’ll dig down into a burrow for it while a coyote will chase it on the land. This means that a gopher can adapt its defense to either of the predators, but not to both. Above ground, it can outrun a badger. Below ground it can outwit a coyote. So when they hunt together, the gopher is out of options.

One member of the hunting team will inevitably win the prey and no, they don’t share. But hunting together optimizes their chances of both catching prey in the long term, so the arrangement is beneficial even if only one will ever eat at a time. The fact the animals can recognize this is pretty remarkable. 

8. Dolphins Can Hydroplane to Hunt

We all know dolphins are intelligent and they have displayed things like abstract thinking and empathy on many occasions. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that they’re very crafty when it comes to problem solving on the fly. This has been witnessed and even filmed before when it comes to how they can use their intelligence to get otherwise hard to catch prey. 

Dolphins have learned to hydroplane when they need to reach prey that would normally be out of reach. In shallow water, a dolphin can technically only travel so far. But their prey is much smaller so they can comfortably swim in water that can accommodate a dolphin. Except when dolphins hydroplane across the surface like living boogie boards to grab a fish that thought it was safe. 

It’s not a common hunting tool for dolphins, but in a pinch, they’ll do it. Young dolphins can watch their mothers do it and then learn the skill themselves.

7. Elephant Takes Out an Electric Fence

Upwards of 30,000 elephants are killed by poachers every year, despite all the campaigns people have heard about to stem the tide of this slaughter. And while there are many efforts being put into place to prevent this killing, obviously it’s not always working. And, unfortunately, sometimes that’s due in part to how craft elephants themselves can be.

In many protected areas of Africa, low-voltage electric fences are used to keep elephants in safe, monitored areas. But no one told the elephants that and they don’t always want to stay where humans want them. So sometimes the elephants will actually disable these electric fences to get to the other side. More than once, elephants have been observed testing the current with their trunks, and then using logs or even removing the fence poles to disable the fence itself.

6. Dolphins Use Sea Sponge Armor

Because dolphins are so clever, you can bet they have more tricks up their sleeves than just hydroplaning. For instance, when they need to they can use armor to protect themselves as they hunt. Back in 1984, scientists observed dolphins tearing up pieces of sea sponges and then carrying them in their beaks, making a little glove for their faces. 

The sponge is able to protect the face of the dolphin as it roots around on the seafloor to dig up prey. They won’t get cut by rocks and coral and they’ll force out fish they can eat. 

Since dolphins are fairly skilled at catching fish in open water, researchers wanted to know why they’d even bother with this complex maneuver. Turns out, the fish on the bottom are often more nutritious. They also don’t have swim bladders, which a dolphin can identify with echolocation. So hunting this way makes them easier to find.

As an added twist, this is a fairly unique skill even among dolphins. It’s only been observed in a small population, and mothers teach the skill to their daughters but not their sons. 

The honey badger meme showed up on the internet in 2011 and you could make a strong case that many people didn’t even know what a honey badger was before that. Since then, these furious little African mammals have been a part of pop culture, but they’re also causing a scene any place they’re being held in captivity. Honey badgers don’t like being enclosed and they are incredibly industrious about getting past obstacles. 

Honey badgers are some of the most adept escape artists in the animal kingdom. They will stack mud, use sticks, and climb anything placed in enclosures to help scale walls. One badger was paired with a friend once and the two teamed up to open a more complex lock together. But that isn’t the end of it. 

Beyond escaping, honey badgers can also demonstrate creativity in problem solving. They’re able to think outside the box, as it were, and solve problems to reach goals like accessing food in hard to reach places. 

4. Crows Create Hooks for Hunting

Birds have long been considered intelligent animals if for no other reason than many of them excel at mimicry. You only need to hear one bird say hello or curse you out to realize they have some skills most other animals lack. There was a budgie named Puck that has a world record for having a 1,728 word vocabulary, which may be more than some people. And that’s the least of the skills birds possess.

Crows, which can also talk, have also demonstrated a highly effective tool building skill that helps them in hunting and problem solving. Crows have been put to the test with fairly complex problems and tasked with opening boxes to get food. The number of steps a crow can go through to reach a goal is remarkable and has been filmed to show off how easily a crow can pull it off. In one test, a crow needed to solve eight separate puzzles in a row to achieve his goal, which he achieved in just minutes. 

Even without man-made puzzles designed with a specific solution, crows have demonstrated their own problem solving by way of tool building. It turns out crows understand the fundamentals of something like a hook or a rake. They’re able to create their own and use them to dig up insects that they couldn’t otherwise reach with their beaks. The hooks even have barbed ends like a fishing hook to ensure the bugs they hunt don’t slip back off. 

3. Sea Otters Use Stone Anvils

Otters are one of those adorable and playful animals that pop up in viral videos so often and get shared around. People seem to love them even though it’s worth noting an otter will straight up try to kill you if you cross it. But that aside, they are crafty animals in their own right and have demonstrated some clever problem solving of their own in the wild.

Sea otters were once nearly wiped from existence thanks to the fur trade. Efforts to preserve them have allowed them to make a slow comeback and along with that has come a study of the animals and their habits. A unique aspect of this is what researchers have learned because of the tools the animals used to hunt. 

Otters eat mussels and to break into them they tend to do one of two things. They will either hold a rock in their paws and use it like a hammer, breaking a mussel open on their chest while they float on their backs, or they use a stationary rock.

The stationary rock works like an anvil. The otter brings the mussel down on the rock to crack it open. Research on areas where otters hunt has offered up an abundance of information about how otters live. There are rocks that bear evidence of being used as anvils for years, including piles of thousands of discarded mussel shells. The damage pattern on the shells and the observation of how otters use them even shows that otters have a paw preference, similar to how a human will be left or right handed, when it comes to accomplishing these tasks. 

2. Burrowing Owls Bait Their Homes with Dung to Attract Beetles

Burrowing owls are some of the tiniest and most adorable little owls in the world. They’re smaller than pigeons and, as their name suggests, they live in little holes in the ground. Given their size, they can’t exactly hunt large prey, so they aim for smaller things. In particular, they really enjoy dung beetles. 

The thing about dung beetles is they tend to be pretty predictable. For instance, if you want to catch one, you need to look for dung. It’s right in the beetle’s name. And burrowing owls understand this. They understand it so well that they’ve learned how to bring dung beetles to them instead of going out on a hunt and putting themselves at risk.

Since dung beetles like mammalian dung, burrowing owls go out and collect poop. They bring it home and bait the entrances to their burrows with it, which draws the dung beetles in and ensures that the owls don’t have to go far to find a meal. 

It was hypothesized that the dung might be a tool to mask the scent of a den from predators, but experiments proved this isn’t the case. The owls are just fishing for beetles. 

1. Polar Bears Hurl Boulders at Prey

Polar bears are the largest carnivore on land in the entire world. It seems like, if they started using tools, it’d just be overkill. On the other hand, what’s the fun of being the largest land carnivore and not pushing the limits? Polar bears do use tools and they use them for one thing – killing more effectively. 

Polar bears weigh up to around 1,300 pounds. The biggest on record was just over 2,000 pounds. Polar bears hunt walruses and the biggest walrus ever was over 3,700 pounds. On the low end of the scale, they weigh about 1,700 pounds. They also have incredibly strong skulls. Plus, they have giant tusks. So, in general, a walrus is bigger than a polar bear. This has led polar bears to hunt walruses by hurling rocks at them. 

The Inuit have known the bears do this for generations, but science is slow to listen to people sometimes. The bears climb cliffs and hurl rocks or chunks of ice with remarkable accuracy, busting the skulls of their prey.