Weird Animals

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/13-foot-long-fish-caught-in-mekong-river-shows-some-megafish-are-thriving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbLFbyjVLYY

Binturongs have kind of given up:

Binturongs pee in a squatting position, soaking their feet and bushy tails in the process. They also drag their tails as they move about in the trees, leaving a scent trail on the branches and leaves behind them.

https://today.duke.edu/2016/04/popcornscentedbinturong#:~:text=Binturongs%20owe%20their%20popcorn%2Dlike,toasted%20bread%20and%20cooked%20rice

I met one in person at a weird zoo in Kōbe, until that point I had no idea they existed so it completely freaked me out. Pretty gentle big dude, like a wolfhound hanging from a branch.

Did it smell like popcorn?

I was racking my brain to try and remember, I think I do remember some kind of warm/woody smell.
https://i.imgur.com/8HiAgg4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hJZElkO.jpg

That one's huge! Love bearcats. Spotted one in the wild on Borneo a couple of years ago:
https://imgur.com/a/Ao7VDnl

hmmm :( clicketyclick: https://imgur.com/a/Ao7VDnl

https://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hymenopt/RedHair1.jpg

ok, here's one I saw on saturday, three separate times - the pacific velvet ant, aka the 'cowkiller ant'

They were wandering around a dirt fire road... I'm a California native and I don't think I've ever seen one

My friend looked it up on her phone, and we were like 'that's an ANT? fucking weird.. it looks like a bee.'

Well, despite the name, it's not actually an ant but a wingless WASP, with an extremely painful sting.. I'm glad I didn't try to pet it

Oh, I would sometimes encounter these in meadows when I lived in California. Cool!

Funny, I've been seeing those in NW Nevada but they're covered in gold fur.

I was stung by one of those as a teen. It was agonizing.

In Australia we have these mfs, same deal, also agonising
https://i.redd.it/ezv9y6x4nv131.jpg

That's pretty!

In completely unrelated WTFness: https://www.popsci.com/female-salamander-kleptogenesis/

That's so strange...
Also "Kleptogenesis" sounds like it could be a Voivod album...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/in-this-insect-females-have-penises-and-males-have-vaginas

Check out these adorable dumdums: https://defector.com/why-is-this-tiny-frog-so-awful-at-jumping/

Also "Kleptogenesis" sounds like it could be a Voivod album...

― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Wednesday, June 15, 2022 3:02 AM (yesterday)

Thumbs up

Nice account

Brilliant colours of the pink-necked green pigeon from South-East Asia. pic.twitter.com/na2kQchv08

— Weird Animals (@Weird_AnimaIs) April 2, 2022

Maned wolves of South America have very long legs! Its not closely related to other canids, so it's not actually a wolf. pic.twitter.com/VlQAg57YdD

— Weird Animals (@Weird_AnimaIs) June 2, 2022

excellent

The maned wolf tweet is a little unclear -- I checked to see if they belong to an entirely different group like hyenas (which are more closely related to cats than dogs), but it is in fact a canid, just on its own branch of long-legged weirdos.

Not weird animal but drunk scientist (studying crocodiles):

While the female was floating

in the water next to the roadbed, I held a
juvenile 1 m above the ground and elicited
distress cries by squeezing it. The mother
moved quickly out of the water and climbed
up the bank, a distance of about 3 m. At

this point I immediately released the ju-
venile.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1563716 (paywalled)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJRngS7EMpQ

was just thinking on platypodes this morning, their actual genuine weirdassedness. such excellent little outlaws. such disdain for the usual taxonomies! i think i would like to pet one. i would like to have lunch with a platypus and talk about its interests.

Be careful trying to pet one, they have little spurs on their ankles that are venomous. (Also, they have cloacas.)

they just get more and more weird #iconic #goals

One of my earliest childhood memories is a kid's book where a li'l platypus goes to different animals asking if they're related because they share physical characteristics. I think in the end he learns to love his uniqueness.

the wisdom of the platypus right there! that is what i am talking about. be proud of your venomous spurs and cloaca 💛

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNexk5QHG3M

More evidence (i.e. RNA editing) that cephalopods are aliens: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/curiouser-and-curiouser-octopuss-evolution-is-even-stranger-than-thought/

Bird that migrates thousands of miles without rest or stopping:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXEK3ryoWE4

Everyone who reads this thread needs to read Ed Yong’s AN IMMENSE WORLD asap

Bought! He's a great communicator, and if there's a better pop sci writer out there today, I'd definitely like to know.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_whiptail

a female-only species of lizard

Leee, you are extremely wise

I haven't started on Ed Yong's book yet because I'm reading another book by a science blogger, and it kind of astonishes me that the latter, who has a literature background, isn't as adept at writing as Ed, both in pure style and in clarity of prose.

Yong's prose is a masterclass in explaining complex concepts clearly and often amusingly.

I agree weird https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/fish/whalefish-mystery

also whalefish is an Oxymoron

Ultra black eel that can inflate its throat to comic proportions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS93nCp8lSY

Finally gotten around to reading the Ed Yong book, and I think I'm addition to how well he explains things, he'll include choice bits like this:

“If I were a catfish, I’d love to jump into a vat of chocolate,” John Caprio tells me. “You could taste it with your butt.”

click with caution if you're squeamish
https://colinpurrington.com/2023/01/some-insects-i-found-inside-dried-turkish-figs-from-trader-joes/

A YouTube channel I follow just so happens to have released a video on the very subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlU-CCF-j9M

Incest, amputated body parts, a highly constrained and stratified world, it's like Game of Thrones but with quasi carnivorous figs.

i was all excited to see what marvelous weird animals this thread had in store this time but no, i open it to find this. this nightmare. this (very cool and interesting, but still) abomination. i used to like figs, you monsters. i still like figs. i am probably going to eat a fig someday soon, and while i am crunching down on the delightfully crispy little seeds i will suddenly remember what i have seen here, and then i will cough up a sticky slurry of spit and fig and wasp parts. why will you have done this to me.

i'm curious

but not curious enough to click the video

Tbf i did post a warning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Budding_Fig_Tree#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Gospel%20of,kingdom%20of%20God%20is%20near.

I totally understand where you're coming from cat but the video also points out that by the time the fig reaches consumers, the wasp bits have long been "digested" by the flowers (and the nice crunch really is just the fig seeds).

Also the thing with modern and industrialized food is that we're probably ALREADY eating loads of bug parts (and there's a strong case to be made that we Americans should be eating more bugs as an ethical and environmental practice).

leee makes a great point

https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredients-additives-gras-packaging-guidance-documents-regulatory-information/food-defect-levels-handbook

ctrl + f "insects" on this page :)

when it comes to roach legs in cornflakes, the poison is in the dose