Modern militaries use relatively standard camouflage patterns and netting to try to hide themselves from prying forces, but not all camouflage and disguise is so boring. Some military disguises that actually worked were outlandish and ridiculous.

10 Israeli Commandos Fooled Sentries By Cross-Dressing

In 1973, Israel launched Operation Spring of Youth as part of a larger operation targeting the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as revenge for the massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich. The operation, which targeted PLO leaders living in Lebanon, had to be very stealthy.

The Sayeret Matkal special operations force tasked with carrying out the assassinations had to sneak past Lebanese security forces and PLO guards without arousing suspicion. To do this, the Israelis turned to a ridiculous disguise: cross-dressing.

After coming ashore on the Lebanese coast on April 9, 1973, some of the Israeli commandos put on dresses and wigs. Pairing up with some of the other commandos, they pretended to be loving couples.

After being driven to their targets by Mossad agents, the commandos blasted down the doors and entered the houses of their targets. Other commandos, some still dressed as women, guarded the outside of the residences. The operation was a complete success, with only two Israeli commandos killed.

9 Explosives Disguised As Flour That Could Be Eaten

With the OSS aiming to disrupt Japanese operations in Southeast Asia, they turned to chemist George Bogdan Kistiakowsky. He created the perfect explosive that could be disguised as, of all things, flour—and it could be used to bake as well.

The “Aunt Jemima” mixture of three parts explosive and one part flour could be sneaked past Japanese soldiers without suspicion. If they did get suspicious, a realistic looking and tasting loaf of bread could be made and eaten to prove to the Japanese that the flour was “just flour.”

Although the flour could be ingested, the original mixture would have made people very ill. This was amply demonstrated in an incident when a Chinese cook disobeyed orders and ate a muffin, becoming so ill that he nearly died.

Ultimately, a second version of “Aunt Jemima” was developed that was far less toxic than the first variant and could be consumed safely in quantity. In the end, more than 15 tons of the stuff was smuggled into Japanese-controlled areas with the Japanese none the wiser.

8 Dazzle Camouflage

By 1917, with German U-boats having sunk a good 20 percent of the British merchant fleet, Britain needed to stem the losses any way it could. Although previous attempts to disguise merchant ships had failed spectacularly or been impractical in hiding the ships entirely from U-boats, artist Norman Wilkinson’s “dazzle” camouflage was designed to obscure the bearing of the ship instead.

If a U-boat couldn’t tell where a ship was heading relative to itself, the U-boat couldn’t target the ship effectively with a torpedo. Geometric shapes in varying shades of black and white accomplished this by obscuring the bow and other angles on the ship that the U-boat normally used to determine the bearing of the ship.

Wilkinson proposed his idea to the admiralty, who were desperate to stop the U-boats. As a result, they put the idea into practice without much testing. Hundreds of ships were painted with dazzle camouflage, each with a unique pattern to keep the Germans from being able to identify ship classes based on their camouflage patterns.

In the end, there was no official measurement of their effectiveness. But anecdotal evidence and more recent research has indicated that the dazzle camouflage was effective.

7 Man Dressed Up As King’s Bride To Assassinate King

From 1665 to 1678, the Kongo kingdom in Africa was torn by civil war between two major noble houses after the death of the king of Kongo. Soyo, a third noble house, controlled another part of the country and regularly meddled in the affairs of the other two houses. After Pedro III, a later king of Kongo, was forced to flee his capital and then retook it by force, Manuel de Nobrega, a relative of the pretender king that Pedro III had dethroned, plotted his revenge.

De Nobrega decided that it would be impossible to dethrone Pedro III by force. Instead, de Nobrega tricked Pedro III by proposing that he marry a woman from de Nobrega’s clan to end the more than decade-long civil war and bring peace to Kongo.

However, de Nobrega secretly disguised himself as Pedro III’s bride-to-be. When Pedro III came to claim his bride, de Nobrega got close enough to shoot and kill Pedro III, ending the Kongo Civil War.

6 Israeli Commandos Sneaked Into Hospital By Pretending To Be Pregnant Woman And Relatives

The West Bank in Jerusalem is often the scene of violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security, with each side using deadly force on the other. In November 2015, 20-year-old Azzam Shalaldeh was suspected in the stabbing of an Israeli. Having been shot by the person he allegedly attacked, Azzam took refuge in a Palestinian hospital in Hebron.

While he was being treated, Israeli authorities wanted to arrest him. But Israeli security forces are not very popular in the West Bank, which made any overt attempt to extract him risky.

Elite Israeli soldiers from Duvdevan, an undercover unit that often mingles with Palestinians, entered the hospital by pretending to be a group of bearded relatives with a pregnant woman in a wheelchair who was going into labor. This disguise fooled the hospital staff, who let them in.

After gaining entrance to the hospital, the special forces dropped their disguises and stormed up to the third floor. They shot Azzam’s cousin before bundling Azzam off in the wheelchair.

5 Australian Commandos Disguised As Malay Fishermen Fooled Japanese

Operation Jaywick was a plan by the British and the Australians to sneak into Singapore and wreak havoc among the Japanese ships anchored there, disrupting Japanese logistics. To do this, a joint British and Australian special forces unit of 11 soldiers disguised themselves as Malay fishermen by dyeing their skin. Then they sailed a captured Japanese fishing vessel through Japanese-controlled seas.

The fishing boat Krait was loaded with canoes and weapons and sent on its way in September 1943. None of the crew could speak Malay, so they had to steer clear of the men on other Malay fishing vessels to avoid capture. In addition, the soldiers’ facial features looked rather different from the locals, even with dye.

After days spent avoiding Japanese patrols, the Krait was able to slip into an isolated anchorage and launch several canoes manned by commandos. Over the course of three days, they were able to get into Singapore, plant explosives on several Japanese ships, and escape. The disguise fooled Japanese forces in the area, and in mid-October 1943, the Krait was safely back in Australia.

4 The Elaborate Royal Navy Schemes To Trap U-Boats

After unrestricted submarine warfare was declared by Germany in 1917, the British sought many ways of striking back at U-boats or negating their effects. One of these ways was dazzle camouflage, but another was using Q-ships.

Q-ships—merchant ships that were secretly armed with cannons and machine guns—were fitted with watertight bulkheads that made them resistant to torpedoes and tricked U-boats into coming closer before being destroyed. This strategy worked because U-boats carried a limited number of torpedoes, which their captains tended to hoard. Given the unarmed nature of the enemy they were attacking, U-boats would often surface and use their deck guns to finish off merchant ships.

The Q-ships put on elaborate displays to make the U-boats come closer and surface. That way, the U-boats could be targeted by the Q-ship guns. For example, if a U-boat launched a torpedo that hit the Q-ship, the Q-ship remained afloat while half the crew pretended to be panicked, running around on deck and launching lifeboats.

The choreography inevitably included one last man running onto the deck in panic and a lifeboat having to go back to the ship to get him. They even used stuffed parrots to make the scenes more realistic because sailors usually kept a pet. The remaining crew would be at hidden gun stations until the U-boat surfaced. Then they would turn the tables on the U-boat by opening fire on it.

3 US Military Fooled By Wooden Logs And Haystacks

After the breakup of Yugoslavia and the coming to power of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, the Balkans descended into an orgy of violence and ethnic cleansing. The state of Kosovo was particularly badly affected, and Bosnian Serbs strove to remove Kosovar Albanians from the province even if the cost was US-led NATO airstrikes on Serbian forces.

Things got even bloodier when the ethnic Albanians began to fight back, forming the Kosovo Liberation Army. NATO started large-scale air strikes in 1999. During that year, NATO claimed that they destroyed hundreds of tanks and killed thousands of Serbian soldiers. But they were mistaken.

The Serbian army had used primitive decoys to fool NATO aircraft. They made fake bridges out of plastic sheeting, artillery guns out of logs, and fake antiaircraft missile launchers out of milk cartons.

Amazingly, these ridiculous disguises actually worked. The Serbian army was mostly intact and withdrew in good order with nearly all of its equipment after the 1999 cease-fire was declared.

2 German Soldiers Disguised Observation Post As A Tree

During World War I, artillery and sniper observation posts disguised as trees were used by each side to spy on the other. In 1915, the French were the first to develop this strategy by drawing on the artistic expertise of some of their soldiers.

They painted trees in no-man’s-land, secretly created hollow steel replicas of those trees, and replaced the real trees with the fake ones in the dead of night. This was done to avoid having the enemy become suspicious of a new tree suddenly appearing in no-man’s-land. The British soon copied the French, and the Germans later followed suit.

The steel “trees” had elaborate exteriors that resembled bark and wood that had been subjected to gunfire and artillery shrapnel. Soldiers sat at the top of these trees in small seats in cramped conditions and likely used periscopes to see out of tiny holes in the fake trees. Steel mesh was used to disguise the holes.

1 Dutch Warship Escaped Japanese By Disguising Itself As An Island

After the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1941 and their decisive defeat of a combined Dutch, British, Australian, and US naval force, the remaining Dutch ships in the East Indies were ordered to flee to Australia. Many Dutch ships were either scuttled or fell prey to Japanese warships or aircraft patrolling their escape routes.

However, the HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen, a tiny minesweeper with little in the way of offensive armament or speed, was able to successfully escape to Australia because the captain came up with a crazy scheme. He disguised the entire ship as a small island.

Although the Abraham Crijnssen was a relatively small ship, it was still a big object—approximately 55 meters (180 ft) long and 7 meters (25 ft) wide. So the crew used foliage from island vegetation and gray paint to make the ship’s hull look like rock faces.

Moving only at night, the ship was able to blend in with the thousands of other tiny islands around Indonesia, and the Japanese didn’t notice the moving island. The Abraham Crijnssen was the last Allied ship that escaped the Dutch East Indies.

Sam writes and writes!

Most people can name some basic military maneuvers. There’s the ambush, the charge, deception, artillery or aerial bombardment, just to name a few. But some battles have been won with much weirder tactics. The following examples are some of the most bizarre, yet brilliant tactics ever successfully deployed on the battlefield. 

10. Operation Mincemeat

It’s 1943, and the Allies were cooking up an elaborate scheme to mislead the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany, about their military intentions. The key ingredient? A corpse and a whole lot of imagination.

Operation Mincemeat involved taking a corpse, dressing it up like a drowned military officer, and equipping it with a briefcase full of fake documents hinting at an impending attack on Southern Europe. Then, they released this “corpse of deception” off the coast of Spain, a region known for its pro-German sympathies. Lo and behold, the ruse worked like a charm. The Germans took the bait, shifted their troops, and, unbeknownst to them, danced to the Allies’ tune.

It’s the kind of audacious plan that makes you appreciate the lengths people will go to in the name of strategy and a good plot twist. The corpse might not have known what was going on, but it played its part in a game that ultimately helped tip the scales of a world at war. Operation Mincemeat, where fact meets fiction in the grand theater of war.

9. The Ghost Army

No, it’s not an army of badass phantoms and wraiths like in Lord of the Rings. But the real Ghost Army is just as cool.  It was an Allied ploy during World War II that used inflatable tanks, sound effects, and other deceptive techniques to create a mirage of a much larger and powerful force. Imagine a canvas city, complete with faux radio transmissions, designed to divert the enemy’s attention. They were master illusionists, utilizing tricks of sight and sound to make the Axis second-guess and make costly missteps. They also deployed the “army” in areas that, when photographed by German reconnaissance aircraft and delivered to Nazi high command, made it seem like the Allies were planning to attack far away from their actual target. 

Their performances were both gutsy and pivotal, contributing significantly to the Allied success. A reminder that in the theater of war, sometimes the most potent weapon isn’t a gun or a bomb, but an artful and convincing illusion. 

8. The Double Siege of Alesia

The year is 52 BCE, and Alesia, a hilltop fortress in present-day France, is the focal point. 

Vercingetorix had gathered a coalition of rebellious Gauls inside the fortress, presenting a challenge to Julius Caesar’s legions. To break this deadlock, Caesar devised an audacious plan. He encircled Alesia with a massive fortification: two concentric rings of defenses. One faced outward to repel attacks from Gallic reinforcements, while the other faced inward to contain those within Alesia.

This was a dual siege—a testament to Roman engineering expertise and logistical finesse. The Gauls inside the walls resisted fiercely, while their brethren outside tried to break through. The Romans were severely outnumbered, and being attacked from all sides. Vercingetorix did everything right and… still lost. It was Caesar’s magnum opus, and the reason why he’s one of history’s greatest generals. 

7. Hammering periscopes

U-boats, the deadly submarines of the German navy during the World Wars, were the terror of the Atlantic. Like most submarines, their crews used periscopes to scout and target enemy ships. 

During World War II, the Allies developed brand new techniques for dealing with U-boat wolfpacks, in order to protect precious shipping lanes. One such innovation was hammering periscopes. You read that right, and no, it’s not a euphemism. This intriguing tactic, employed by the Royal Navy, literally involved patrols of sailors sneaking up on exposed periscopes and smashing them with hammers. In other cases, they’d simply shove canvas sacks over them and tie them tight. 

Once blinded, the submarines would be forced to surface, making them easy targets for Allied naval and air units. It wasn’t the most sophisticated strategy, but if it works, it works. 

6. The Night Witches

The Night Witches were a remarkable group of female aviators in the Soviet Air Forces during World War II. Officially known as the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, they earned their more ominous nickname from the Germans due to their stealthy night raids and the distinctive sound their planes made, which their victims on the ground compared to a witch’s broomstick.

Composed entirely of women, the Night Witches flew outdated Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, which were slow and made of wood and canvas, but highly maneuverable. They conducted their daring bombing missions under the cover of darkness, wreaking havoc on German positions with precision and speed, all while remaining virtually invisible in the dark. The pilots often flew multiple sorties in a single night. 

5. Flaming camels

Timur, also known as Tamerlane, was a Turco-Mongol conqueror and military genius of the 14th century. One of his notable tactics, involving flaming camels, was employed during the Battle of Ankara in 1402 against the forces of the Ottoman Empire. Yes, you read that right. Yes, it means exactly what it sounds like. 

During the battle, Timur’s army faced a formidable opponent in the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I. Timur loaded camels with straw and hay, setting them ablaze before releasing them into the enemy ranks. The sight of these flaming camels charging towards the Ottoman forces panicked their war elephants and horses, causing disorder and chaos among their ranks.

The confusion created by the flaming camels threw the Ottoman formations into panic, allowing Timur’s forces to capitalize on the disarray and gain the upper hand. Timur won the battle, capturing Bayezid and dealing a significant blow to the Ottoman Empire.

4. Bring your pets to war day 

Yes, cat paintings. See, the Ancient Egyptians revered cats and believed they possessed protective qualities. 

At the Battle of Pelusium in 525 BC, the Persian Empire, led by Cambyses II, fought against the Egyptian Dynasty under Pharaoh Psamtik III. It unfolded near Pelusium, a pivotal location on Egypt’s eastern border, acting as a gateway to the Nile Delta. The Egyptians had extensive fortifications. But the Persians had cats. Yes, cats. 

What set the Persians apart was their innovative battle strategy, revealing a keen grasp of Egyptian culture. Understanding the Egyptians’ veneration of animals like cats tied to their religious beliefs, Cambyses II directed his troops to drive these sacred animals ahead of them, and some accounts suggest they even depicted cat images and other sacred animals on their shields. This psychological tactic struck deep into the hearts of the Egyptian soldiers, instilling fear of harming these revered animals and invoking divine retribution. This hesitation proved advantageous for the Persians, enabling them to breach the Egyptian defenses and claim a major victory.

3. Self mutilation

Zopyrus was a Persian general who played a significant role during the siege of Babylon in 482 BC. He decided on a daring and brutal plan to weaken Babylon’s defenses: he deliberately mutilated himself. Zopyrus believed that this act would enable him to gain the trust of the Babylonians and infiltrate their city from within.

And it worked. He executed this plan by cutting off his own ears and nose, making it appear as though he had suffered severe punishment from King Darius. Presenting himself to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar as a defector, claiming mistreatment by the Persians, he gained the trust of the Babylonians. Over time, he was given a position of authority within the city.

Exploiting this newfound position, Zopyrus orchestrated the sabotage of Babylon’s defenses, ultimately leading to its capture by the Persian forces. Losing the war seems like a better fate, but hey – at least it worked?

2. Releasing one prisoner

World War I was defined by stalemate, where neither side could gain an upper hand. But it wasn’t for lack of men to hurl into the teeth of enemy machine guns. Both sides improved too. Poison gas, tanks, and airplanes all made their debut here. But the most decisive tactic employed by anyone in the entire war was arguably when the Germans released a single prisoner back to Russia. 

His name was Vladimir Lenin, and he did exactly what the Germans intended: sparked the Bolshevik Revolution which began the Russian Civil War, destroyed the Czarist empire and knocked Russia out of the World War One. Just like that, the entire eastern front was brought to a close, and Germany was able to focus fully on the western front against Britain and France. With all their troops freed up, the Germans moved over to the offense in the west and advanced in the 1918 Spring Offensive, which nearly brought the Allies to their knees. Unfortunately for them, they ran out of steam just as the Americans arrived, and it all fell apart. But still, by simply releasing Lenin, the Kaiser’s army very nearly defeated all her mighty enemies single handedly. 

1. Hannibal beats an enemy fleet with snakes

In one intriguing episode of Hannibal Barca’s military campaigns during the Second Punic War, he demonstrated his flair for unconventional tactics. During a naval skirmish against King Eumenes II of Pergamon, Hannibal took an audacious approach to unsettle his opponents.

Rather than relying solely on traditional naval strategies, Hannibal directed his troops to collect venomous snakes from the local terrain. He then ordered his men to hurl these venomous creatures onto the enemy ships. The effect was immediate and chaotic. The Pergamene sailors, freaked, abandoned their posts in a hurry, leaping into the sea to escape the animals. The result? The ships were deserted and Hannibal was left in command of the area. It wasn’t his most famous victory – Cannae or Lake Trasimene likely has that honor – but it was one of his most innovative. And it’s proof that he wasn’t just good at his job. He was one of the most innovative commanders in history.

The main problem conservation biologists deal with is population: there’s either too much of one species or not enough of another. Because of the diversity in the animal and plant kingdoms, much of conservation work is concerned with the most effective ways to kill “bad” species and encourage “good” ones to reproduce. Here are a few of the most interesting ideas that scientists have used to control the lives of other species.

10 Panda Boot Camp

Some captive panda breeding programs have ended in heartbreak, like when Xiang Xiang the captive-bred panda was killed just one year after being released into the wild. That’s where the idea of panda boot camp comes in. Tao Tao was a giant panda raised in Wolong Nature Preserve with the goal of preparing him to live in the wild.

In addition to his mother’s training in basic skills like climbing, scientists put Tao Tao through drills to prepare him for hazards like storms, mudslides, and predators. Most importantly, they only interacted with him wearing panda costumes and scents so he would not grow accustomed to humans. Tao Tao was released in 2012 and recaptured for a health checkup in 2017, where he was reported to be thriving in the wild. The Wolong panda survival school raises several panda cubs every year, putting them through strict drills to make sure they’ll be able to look after themselves in the wild.

9 Fish-Zapping Vaccuum Robots

From the makers of Roomba comes the Guardian, a friendly marine robot on a mission to zap as many lionfish as it can. The lionfish is a venomous species that has become a major threat in areas like the Bahamas where it consumes far more species than any local predator. No predators are interested in the lionfish due to its venom, but they can be eaten by humans when prepared correctly. The problem is that they’re hard to catch through traditional fishing methods.

That’s where the Guardian comes in. The current version of the Guardian can swim as low as 500 feet below the surface, where it stuns lionfish and sucks them into a holding tube so they can be brought back up. It still requires a remote control when launched into the ocean to ensure that it does not zap similar species by mistake, but future iterations will likely be able to pick out lionfish with Terminator-like accuracy.

8 Dugong Drone Surveillance

Dugongs are an eastern relative of the manatee whose habitat is important for the coastal ecosystem of the Indian and Western Pacific oceans. Since they’re very shy creatures, it’s been a real pickle for scientists to monitor this unique and threatened species using traditional methods. Until recently, the best option was an aerial survey with a seaplane, but those kinds of flights can be dangerous and costly, especially when you run out of gas hundreds of miles from the nearest inhabited island.

That’s why scientists turned to drones, developing a remote tracking method that’s a lot more environmentally friendly and accurate than using planes. Drones are launched from small boats and collect thousands of images in a flight, which are analyzed by a dugong-spotting algorithm that gets it right around 70% of the time. This allows researchers to put together population density maps for this vulnerable species in a few days, making it an incredibly useful and time-saving process. Probably a much better use of drone technology than whatever your weird neighbor is doing with them.

7 Undercover Crane

If you want to hang with cranes, you’ve got to look the part. That’s the idea behind breeding programs that raise whooping cranes with human surrogates in white robes and crane-shaped hand puppets. Whooping cranes raised by humans will often imprint on them, recognizing them as a caregiver. This can cause a serious identity crisis when the crane reaches mating age and sees humans as potential mates. The obvious solution is to fool the cranes into thinking that we too are cranes.

Whooping cranes are the tallest bird in North America, so it’s easy for them to see us as equals in terms of size. All you need to complete the costume is a head-to-toe white covering with a crane head puppet at the end of one arm. Human noises are limited around the cranes and calls are piped in to get the chicks used to the sound of their own kind. Conservation efforts like these have helped bring the whooping crane back from the brink of extinction. In the 1940s there were only 16 cranes left; that number is now over 800, most of them in the wild.

6 Robot Scarecrow Fish

Not every fish control project requires kidnapping invasive species in a vacuum robot. Sometimes all you need to do is spook them a little. This was the idea behind a silicone robot built by researchers at NYU to resemble and act like a large-mouthed bass. Its target is mosquitofish, a small species that was introduced into many freshwater environments to control mosquito populations but has now become an ecological threat.

Initial trials of this scarecrow bass showed it was capable of inducing stress in mosquitofish populations and even causing them to lose weight. Stress and weight loss lowers their chances of reproduction, which would help bring the population under control. The goal is to reduce mosquitofish populations without having to kill them, both due to humane concerns and because the species is so widespread it would be difficult to kill them in large quantities without affecting the broader ecosystem. The robot bass is still in prototype stages, but future iterations could be released into the wild to swim around spooking every mosquitofish they see.

5 Transcontinental Muskox Train

This one is a throwback from the early days of American wildlife conservation. Muskoxen were prevalent in parts of Alaska until the end of the 19th century, when a combination of over-hunting and climate conditions wiped out the last Alaskan herds. Something about that didn’t sit right with America’s legislators, because in the 1930s the U.S. Congress allocated funds for a reintroduction of muskoxen to Alaska. Thanks to this effort, today the state’s muskox population is over five thousand.

Here’s how they pulled that off: first, a group of Norwegian sailors captured 34 muskoxen from Greenland and hauled them back to Norway, where they boarded a steamship bound for New York City. There they spent a month in quarantine, safe but unable to enjoy any of the glitz and glamor of the Big Apple. The herd then boarded a train bound for Seattle and another steamship from there to Seward, Alaska. They took yet another train to Fairbanks, Alaska, where they received a five-year break before boarding another steamship that took them to Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea (and nearly sank along the way.) Remember that muskoxen are covered in two layers of shaggy wool designed to withstand Arctic winters, and now imagine how uncomfortable that 8,000-mile journey must have been. Still, most of the original herd survived and the population on Nunivak is now around 600. It also seeded several other herds on mainland Alaska which are thriving to this day.

4 Electroejaculation

Artificial insemination is common in agriculture and conservation, but some species don’t take too kindly to…let’s say, manual harvesting. Horses and some friendlier bulls can be persuaded to give up samples the old-fashioned way in a pinch, but what about when you need seed from something a little more aggressive, like a lion or a tiger? One of the solutions is electroejaculation, which is most used on livestock whose owners don’t feel like getting too up close and personal. Methods vary, but the basics involve inserting a rectal probe that oscillates between zero and maximum voltage, stimulating muscle contractions to induce ejaculation. Prototypes developed on domestic cats with plastic tubes and copper wires have been reformatted for bigger animals like Amur leopards and Siberian tigers. A recent success story from the Singapore Zoo produced a lion cub named Simba from electroejaculation of a geriatric lion whose name you should be able to guess. Simba was 20-year-old Mufasa’s first cub, and unfortunately also his last, as he did not survive the shocking procedure. Still a better way to go than getting trampled by wildebeests.

3 Bird Ejaculation Helmet

Sirocco the kakapo is a bird from New Zealand who likes people a little too much. The flightless nocturnal parrot comes from a species that almost went extinct but is coming back due to breeding efforts. Unfortunately for Sirocco, he grew up around humans and imprinted on his caretakers, causing him to have very little interest in mating with his own kind. He has tried to mate with humans, though, most notably in a 2009 viral video where he mounts zoologist Mark Cawardine and valiantly tries to make babies with the scientist’s skull.

His affection for human heads caused scientists to invent Sirocco an “ejaculation helmet,” a piece of rubber headwear covered in little dimples to collect semen. The problem is that kākāpō are long-winded lovers, often taking almost an hour to finish. No one quite had the stamina to let Sirocco spoon their skulls for that long, so the bird remained celibate. Despite the failure of the ejaculation helmet itself, the wacky story of Sirocco has brought global attention to the plight of his species, so we’re counting it as a conservation win anyway. The celebrity bird is now in his twenties and lives alone on an island, occasionally accepting visits from the heads of lovers past. The helmet is on display at the national Museum in Wellington.

2 Poison Toad Sausage

Cane toads are one of the most notorious invasive species in the world. Videos of motorists running over the venomous amphibians have brought attention to just how despised this species is in Australia. One of the biggest concerns is their effect on animals like the quoll, a small marsupial that preys on the cane toad but can be killed by the poison in its glands. Apparently cane toads are just too tasty to pass up, so scientists have developed a way to put quolls off the taste of toad meat. First, live toads are frozen to death, skinned, and ground into sausage, a process that is notoriously stinky. Then, the sausage-maker adds a chemical called Thibenzole that causes nausea in animals. Finally, the tainted toad sausages are dropped into quoll country by helicopter.Though initial results after the first drop in 2018 were questionable, the sausage strategy does seem to be making quolls turn away from cane toads.

1 Beaver Skydiving

After World War II, people started moving into the area of Payette Lake, Idaho, where local beavers had been squatting for centuries without a Mini-Mart in sight. After a while, the beavers started fighting back against human settlement and causing real damage to irrigation systems and orchards. It’s no shock that the people weren’t interested in moving away, so they had to figure out a way to move the beavers away. The mountainous terrain of Idaho made relocation by horse and truck costly and dangerous for the beavers, who cannot stand long periods of heat outside of water.

The solution came in the form of military planes and surplus parachutes. Through a series of trials, wildlife managers developed a box that was sturdy enough to hold a beaver and gently opened when it touched the ground. The first tests were done on an old beaver named Geronimo, who was dropped from a plane in a beaver box with a parachute over and over until the scientists were certain it was safe. Don’t feel bad for old Geronimo, though. He got priority registration on the first flight to the new territory, along with a harem of three females to keep him company. Seventy-six beavers in total were safely transplanted into the Idaho wilderness, with only one casualty whose box opened early and fell out.

You know you’re in for a treat when you hear a much older person start a sentence with “back in my day.” The world used to be different and we all know it. But what gets lost sometimes is just how different things used to be in the day-to-day world. We don’t need to look at what the world was like before major, life-changing inventions like cars or antibiotics to appreciate how odd things used to be, either. 

10. Before Insulin, Diabetics Had to Live on Dangerous Low Carb Diets

Frederick Banting discovered insulin at the University of Toronto in 1921, changing the world for millions of diabetics. Before insulin, a diabetic had a life expectancy of maybe 3 or 4 years, and they weren’t pleasant years, either. 

The only treatment for diabetes prior to insulin was diet changes. If you’re a type II diabetic, that can actually work in some cases. For type II’s, their ability to make or use insulin is impaired and often weight loss and dietary changes can help reduce glucose in the bloodstream and ensure better health. Type 1 diabetics, on the other hand, do not produce insulin. Diet really can’t help them at all because they don’t have a functional pancreas, so the stereotype about eating less or trying to be healthier doesn’t help at all. 

In order to squeeze out a few extra years of life, doctors would put diabetics on diets so strict that they’d be considered criminal today. Carbohydrates, which turn into sugar in your blood, had to be eliminated completely. Some diabetics were being sustained on just 450 calories per day, at least until the diet literally starved them to death. 

9. Inducing Rat Ovulation Was a Way To Test for Pregnancy Before Home Tests

In 1977 you could finally head to a drugstore and, for the first time ever, buy a home pregnancy test. But what was a woman to do before then? There was a method that was devised 50 years prior to that convenient at home test that could also let you know if you were pregnant but instead of peeing on a stick that could gauge your hormone levels, you needed access to a female rat and someone capable of later dissecting it. You can see why the home test proved to be more popular.

In 1927, something called the A-Z Test was created by doctors Selmar Aschheim and Bernhard Zondek. Urine from a woman who suspected she might be pregnant was injected into an immature female rat or mouse. If the woman was pregnant, her hormones would trigger an estrus reaction and cause the rodent to go into heat. The animal had to be dissected to determine this. 

There were other methods over the years as well, including mixing urine with wine which may have actually yielded accurate results sometimes, as well as urinating on barley or wheat seeds to see if they would grow. Modern tests showed, 70% of the time, this testing method was actually accurate.

8. Before Baby Carrots Most Carrots Were Tossed in the Trash

In the world of carrots there are regular carrots, and there are baby carrots. Yes, there are colored carrots, but they’re still full-sized, regular ones for the most part. And at some point you may have heard the devastating news that there’s really no such thing as baby carrots, they’re just regular carrots that were shaved down. Media sources will often rehash this story every few years and present it as scandalous in a facetious way. 

What most sources don’t get into is why baby carrots exist and what the world was like prior to their existence. Turns out that baby carrots aren’t just a wasteful way to make the root vegetables seem more palatable. If anything, the opposite is true. 

In the early 1980s, the carrot industry was incredibly wasteful. More carrots were trashed than sold. This is because people like pretty food and carrots are often ugly. That, and the fact carrots can be 80% good with a rotten end, and so the whole carrot is now useless. 

Carrot farmer Mike Yurosek got sick of losing money and started peeling his ugly carrots by hand. That was labor intensive, so he bought a green bean cutting machine that sliced the carrots down to little 2-inch nuggets. The baby carrot was born.

Within one year of Yurosek’s innovation, US carrot consumption rose by 30%. In 10 years it was up another 117%. The scraps are used as animal feed and now consumers are enjoying a better diet overall. 

7. Before Elevators The Rich Lived on the Ground and The Poor Lived On Upper Floors

When you look at a high rise apartment building today, you’ll notice that the upper floors often look a little different thanks to the large, opulent penthouse apartments. The top floors of buildings are reserved for the wealthiest residents who can afford the best views. In midtown Manhattan there’s a penthouse that goes for $90 million. In Monaco, there’s a penthouse worth $335 million.  

Do you know what makes a penthouse so expensive? It’s one thing and one thing only – the elevator. Prior to the invention of the elevators, the richest residents of a building lived closer to the ground. The less well off you were, the higher you went. The top floor of many buildings was considered servant’s quarters. And that makes sense when you consider that people on the top floor were going to be carrying all of their furniture up the stairs to move in. The ground floor afforded you the luxury of going in and out as you pleased and ensured you rarely had to run into the people on the upper floors.

6. Before Barbed Wire The Beef Industry Was Much Smaller and Costlier

Before barbed wire the world had a lot fewer cliche tattoos, but that is not the only contribution this method of secure fencing is responsible for. In the world before barbed wire, beef was a much rarer commodity and, in many ways, we owe the modern beef industry to barbed wire. There arguably would be no burger-based fast food industry without it. 

Cattle ranching in the 1870s had ground to a halt because it couldn’t be contained. Cattle would destroy other crops and couldn’t be contained with meant herds could only be so large. All existing fencing methods were proving ineffective but with the invention of barbed wire in 1874, things changed.

Cattle could be contained to pastures and that allowed them to grow bigger, stronger, and healthier. Cattle drives were no longer necessary so the animals could grow much bigger and produce more meat. New breeds, such as Angus, could also be bred since they no longer had to endure those long cattle drives, and that in turn improved the beef industry as a whole. 

5. Before the Heart Lung Machine, Cross Circulation Connected Two Living Patients Together

Cardiopulmonary bypass is the process you’ll undergo if a surgeon ever needs to open you up to operate on your heart. A machine, often called a heart-lung machine, will take over the functions of your heart and lungs since they’re going to be otherwise occupied but your blood and oxygen still need to flow. These machines were developed through the 1950s and the process of testing them ended with a number of deaths. Between 1951 and 1955 there were 18 surgeries. Only one patient survived. 

Before machines, there were still successful methods, however. An 11-year-old boy underwent heart surgery in 1954 and survived thanks to a method called controlled cross-circulation. For that, his father was put under anesthetic and the boy’s veins and lungs were connected to his father’s. His father became a secondary, living circulatory system for his own son, allowing blood and oxygen to flow between the two of them while doctors repaired the boy’s heart. 

4. Before Crash Test Dummies, Living Volunteers Were Used

Some time after the invention of the automobile people began to realize that crashing an automobile was a seriously dangerous thing. But how could you figure out what the most dangerous parts of a crash were without actually crashing people? Enter the crash test dummy. They were developed throughout the 1950s and 1960s as a means of testing not just cars but planes and rally anything that could move at a dangerously fast pace. 

Adoption of the crash test dummy wasn’t instantaneous, however. There were a lot of automobile manufacturers and a lot of safety tests being done for decades before they became industry standard. That’s why, from 1960 until 1975, people like Lawrence Patrick were volunteer crash test dummies. 

Patrick’s contribution to impact testing was invaluable. Because while a crash test dummy could show how bad a crash could be, it couldn’t tell you how much a human could take. That was Patrick’s job. 

Living subjects like Patrick weren’t the only ones, either. Some studies strapped corpses into cars to test them. They even used pregnant baboons for a time. 

3. Back in the Day, Marathon Runners Drank Booze During Races

The first marathon dates back to 490 BC, so this is an ancient custom. The modern marathon can involve a lot of planning and fanfare and you’ll often see people on the sidelines providing water and sports drinks to the runners in an effort to keep them hydrated. But there was a time when we weren’t entirely sure what a person should be drinking when they were running and that led to a lot of boozy marathons.

On the one hand, if you run and get tired you feel thirsty, so drinking anything seems like a good idea. On the other hand, the fact that runners were once advised to drink champagne of all things seems confusing at best since being both drunk and gassy can’t help your running game. 

A century ago, runners in the Boston Marathon would have helpers keeping pace on bikes or in cars, handing out whisky or brandy when the runner needed a boost. Cognac and wine were options at various races as well. 

The reason for this seemed to be that, while everyone acknowledged thirst was a think, water was generally considered weak and not very manly. 

2. Before Radar, War Tubas Helped Detect Enemy Aircraft

Radar has been an invaluable tool over the years and it’s hard to overstate its value in war. If you have enemy aircraft coming in to destroy you, then knowing where they are is extremely important. But radar was only invented in 1935 and there were dangers from above well before then.

Prior to the advent of radar, the Japanese in particular had devised a method of tracking enemy aircraft that involved the use of what is known as a war tuba. And the name is oddly accurate. War tubas were giant horns pointed at the sky. A person would stand at the narrow end of those huge horns while the wide-opened mouth end was pointed at the sky. The intention was that the open end would catch the sound of approaching aircraft before anyone could see them coming.

There’s no evidence this method was successful in locating and aiding in the destruction of any aircraft, but the UK and the US both attributed their successes with radar to acoustic location techniques like war tubas before anyone knew radar was a thing, as a method of keeping it secret. 

1. Before Modern Erasers People Used Bread Crumbs

Everyone makes mistakes, that’s why pencils have erasers, so the saying goes. But what about when pencils didn’t have erasers? It wasn’t a mistake-free world back then; it was just one that relied on bread crumbs.

Since a pencil eraser works by sticking to the graphite marks on paper and then being ground away as you rub against it, the same principle works with a lot of other substances. Notably, prior to “real” erasers, people just used bread crumbs. 

Rubber erasers were innovated in 1858. From about 1612 to 1770, breadcrumbs were the go to fixer, simply because it worked, was cheap, and was really easy to get ahold of.

In the world of popular culture, diets have been consistently talked about since far before the Golden Age of Hollywood. There are trendy diets that caught on and stuck around for years, like the Atkins diet or the Master Cleanse. And then there are the ones that are just myths, like Jackie Kennedy eating one baked potato filled with caviar every day. But some diets got everyone talking and, at times, defined eras. Let’s explore ten of the worst fad diets celebrities swore worked.

Trigger warning: This article contains a discussion of restrictive eating without the consent and supervision of a medical professional. Always speak with your doctor before starting a weight loss program.

10 The Juice Cleanse – Salma Hayek

The juice cleanse is an ever-popular fad diet that celebrities constantly reference as their go-to diet before big events or when they need to drop weight quickly. While it’s true that some individuals might lose weight while doing a multiple-day juice cleanse (only drinking juice is essentially just starving yourself, duh), some outlandish medical claims have been made about juice cleanses.

Although there is no science backing up these claims, many avid juicers will tell you that juice cleanses “detox” your body, prevent cancer, boost your immune system, and help with digestion.

One celebrity that loves juice cleanses so much that she started her own juicing company, Salma Hayek, is cited as saying, “After doing a juice cleanse, I’m motivated to eat healthier and not emotionally. Cleansing is like my meditation.”

9 The Coachella Diet – Beyoncé

In the Netflix documentary, Homecoming (2019), which details Beyoncé and her team’s preparations for her iconic Coachella performance, she talks about the diet she went on leading up to the performance. In less than half a year, Beyoncé dropped the weight she had gained during her pregnancy with twins.

Although preparations for the performance meant daily dance practice and physical training, Beyoncé went on a 44-day diet that cut out carbs, meat, fish, alcohol, and dairy. Beyoncé herself said that her diet and exercise routine during this time was too extreme and that she would never do it again; despite her own warning, the Coachella diet gained popularity across social media platforms.

8 The “Fruitarian” Diet – DaVinci, Gandhi, Jobs, & Kutcher

While this diet has a pretty long history, including the likes of Leonardo DaVinci and Mahatma Gandhi, it was introduced to pop culture after the passing of Steve Jobs, a known fruitarian. When Ashton Kutcher was preparing for his role in Jobs (2013), as the late great founder of Apple, he decided to try the fruitarian diet for 30 days to help him get into character.

According to Mila Kunis, spouse of Kutcher, in her episode of Hot Ones, Kutcher found himself in the hospital with pancreatitis twice during the film’s production due to his eating habits. The Cleveland Clinic details the risks of “fruitarianism,” including tooth decay, diabetes, and malnourishment.

7 The “Friends Diet” – Aniston, Cox, & Kudrow

The “Friends Diet” is a collection of fad diets that actresses Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow were on for the ten years they filmed the show Friends (1994-2004). While all three women were on pretty restrictive diets respectively, reportedly consuming no more than 1,200 calories a day for the entire length of the show, the most consistent part of their diet was what is infamously known as “The Jen Salad.”

“The Jen Salad” includes:

• 1 cup of bulgar
• 2 diced cucumbers
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1/4 cup of minced red onion
• 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon of mint
• 1/2 a cup of pistachios
• 1/2 a cup of feta

While this salad doesn’t sound terrible, the famous trio ate this salad every day for ten years despite there being no dressing, which I couldn’t live without. And Aniston, she had the Jen Salad for dinner too…

6 The Carnivore Diet – Jordan B. Peterson

In 2018, during an episode for the Joe Rogan podcast, internet personality and psychologist Jordan B. Peterson describes his new favorite diet as consuming strictly beef, salt, and water. Due to the popularity of both the Joe Rogan podcast and Jordan B. Peterson himself, this diet grew in popularity despite the lack of science backing its claims of improved mental health and overall physical health.

An article published by The Cleveland Clinic notes that the Carnivore diet can lead to extreme constipation and an increased risk of heart disease.

Other celebrities that have tried the carnivore diet include Joe Rogan, who cited 2-weeks of “explosive diarrhea” when starting the diet, Mikhaila Peterson, Jordan B. Peterson’s daughter, and social media influencers, “The Buff Dudes.”

5 The Daniel Diet – Christ Pratt

The Daniel Diet, also known as the “Daniel Fast,” is a diet that follows a meal plan extrapolated from The Book of Daniel. It consists of a very strict plant-based diet, cutting out animal byproducts, processed food, alcohol, added and artificial sugars, caffeinated beverages, dairy, yeast, solid fats, and just about everything other than beans, lentils, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains.

Although the Daniel Fast is only 21-days long, in an interview with Stephan Colbert, Chris Pratt talks about going on the Daniel Diet for 30 days as a fast similar to the Catholic lent. Registered dietitian Katey Davidson stresses that this diet is not necessary for healthy living, nor is it a recommended method for weight loss, but freedom of religious choice is important.

4 The Paper Cup Diet – Nine Muses

The paper cup diet was introduced to pop culture by the K-pop girl group, Nine Muses. The gist of this diet is that every meal (of the three meals allowed by the diet) must fit into three paper cups. Dieters could fill one of the cups with brown or mixed grain rice, another with fruit, and the third with side dishes. Dieters should avoid greasy and high-fat food as well. The theory is that this would take the focus away from counting calories and instead cause dieters to be more conscious of portion control.

This diet allegedly gained traction among “pro-anorexia” internet forums and has become quite infamous within the K-pop community. When you look up “the paper cup diet” on YouTube, there are multiple videos made by teenage girls and women in their early 20s trying the diet, with many of those videos receiving hundreds of thousands of views.

3 The 8-Day Goat Milk Cleanse – Gwyneth Paltrow

This “cleanse” was endorsed by none other than the queen of cleanses, Gwyneth Paltrow. Apparently, consuming exclusively goat milk is supposed to cleanse your stomach and intestines from the parasite that you may or may not have. Not only is there no real science behind this cleanse, but there is also no recommendation for you to get diagnosed with a parasite by a doctor before doing it. You’re supposed to assume that you have a parasite or be diagnosed by a naturopath.

GOOP even has an article called “You Probably Have a Parasite—Here’s What to Do About It,” wherein the naturopath supporting this cleanse, Linda Lancaster, responds to medical questions without a medical degree or any medically backed answers. The kicker is that this cleanse recommends drinking raw, unpasteurized goat milk if you have access to it.

According to the CDC, “Raw milk can carry harmful bacteria and other germs that can make you very sick or kill you. While it is possible to get foodborne illnesses from many different foods, raw milk is one of the riskiest of all.” I think we will run far away from this fad diet; sorry, Gwyneth.

2 The Alkaline Diet – Beckham, Paltrow, Ripa, & Aniston

Praised for years by celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Ripa, and Jennifer Aniston, the Alkaline diet consists of eating alkaline foods and reducing high-acid foods like meat. Although the diet itself isn’t unhealthy when an adequate amount of calories is consumed, the point of the Alkaline diet is disease prevention and, more specifically, cancer prevention.

The diet creator, Robert O. Young, is currently facing jail time for practicing medicine without a medical license. Not only does his alkaline diet claim to prevent cancer, but he actually attempted to treat a woman’s cancer with baking soda infusions.

1 The Sleeping Beauty Diet – Elvis Presley?

Despite sounding very pretty, the sleeping beauty diet is arguably the least pretty of all the diets mentioned on this list. The diet concept is that if you are sleeping, you’re not eating. Individuals will extend their usual amount of sleep in order to avoid eating. Some will even take sleeping pills to induce sleep at times that they wouldn’t usually feel tired, upping the length of their sleep from 8-10 hours to 18-24 hours.

In the case of Elvis Presley, who was known for having a big appetite and a noticeably fluctuating weight, a doctor allegedly put Elvis in a medically induced coma in order for him to lose weight.