Many of our assumptions about animals aren’t true at all. Yet we keep reiterating faulty information from myths and early studies that have been debunked. Here are 10 commonly believed animal “facts” that aren’t factual at all.
Zebras
Looking at the black-and-white stripes of zebras, it’s hard to believe that they have something to do with camouflage. Through research, scientists have debunked the camouflage theory, although we still don’t know why the stripes exist.
Piranhas
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The mere thought of entering a piranha-infested body of water is believed to be a direct death sentence, a horror to which entire movies have been dedicated. Although it is true that they have scary teeth and barbarically strip their prey’s skin to feed, the belief that they attack live animals, even humans, is largely a myth. There are no known instances of a piranha swarm intentionally attacking or killing a human being. Despite what movies depict, piranhas don’t kill mammals for food because their usual dietary preference consists of dead or decomposing carcasses. People in the Amazon actually swim in piranha-infested rivers all the time.
Komodo Dragons
While scary enough on the basis of their looks, Komodo dragons also kill in a distinctly horrifying way. They bite their prey, transmit the deadly bacteria from their mouths, and just let the infection do its job. Or do they? Komodo dragons don’t actually have an army of dangerous bacteria to do their killing for them. Instead, they kill using the traditional method of injecting their prey with venom. Their venom glands were discovered by a researcher from the University of Queensland in 2009.
Penguins
Due to our lack of any real-world interaction with penguins, we see them as adorable creatures that live an equally adorable life in some of the harshest conditions on the planet. Sadly, we have grossly misunderstood these creatures for a long time. For example, male Adelie penguins in Antarctica regularly engage in necrophilia and rape. It was first documented by a British scientist studying their behavior in Antarctica on a 1910–1913 expedition. Female emperor penguins have been found to kidnap other penguins’ chicks to make up for their own lack of fertility. If opposed, they resort to outright violent means.
Pigs
There’s a saying “sweat like a pig” to refer to excessive sweating. However, pigs don’t have working sweat glands. That’s why they chill in the mud to cool down. Contrary to popular belief, pigs are fairly clean animals. Our misconception about their cleanliness occurs because we see most pigs on farms where they are forced to live in the middle of their feces and urine. In the wild, pigs refuse to pass waste around the area in which they live. Some wild boars even go as far as washing their food before eating, something most of us don’t even do.
Earwigs
As this creature’s name has “ear” in it, many people believe that earwigs crawl inside human ears to lay eggs. In reality, there are no known cases of an earwig hanging around a human ear. Their wings don’t help them to fly well, and human ears can often be difficult to reach without wings. Some scientists have suggested that the myth is due to the shape of the earwigs’ hind wings, which resemble that of a human ear when folded in a specific manner.
Praying Mantises
As far as sexual habits go, there’s probably no other creature as repulsive as the praying mantis. the mating ritual of a praying mantis isn’t complete until the female devours the head of the male with which she’s mating. But when biologists tested that popular belief, they found that it largely wasn’t true. The praying mantises that had eaten the heads of their mates had done so in captivity. However, when scientists created conditions that were similar to how praying mantises naturally mate, they got a different result. Out of 69 experiments, only one female praying mantis ate the male after intercourse.
Cockroaches
The belief that cockroaches are the only creatures able to survive a nuclear annihilation of the world has been floating around the Internet and movie dialogue for years. While it is true that cockroaches have a higher resistance to radiation and extinction than other creatures, more recent studies have indicated that they would be the first bugs to be wiped out when big bombs hit the ground. As it turns out, flour beetles were the creatures most likely to survive.
Dogs
When it comes to training dogs, most of us have heard about the alpha dog technique. Assert your dominance and let the pooch know who’s boss because that’s how it works in the wild. This technique is based on a belief that every wolf pack has an alpha wolf, a dominant leader that calls the shots. As you may have guessed, it’s a cruel way to train your pet. But it also illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how wolf packs actually work. The alpha male theory is based on early research about pack behavior in unnatural conditions. Wolf packs don’t have a dictatorial male leader because their social structure works more like a biological family than like North Korea. Even with wild dogs—which some may argue are different animals than wolves—research has shown that pack leaders are more experienced elders rather than a static alpha male.
Sloths
In many cultures throughout the world, sloths are synonymous with laziness. “Sleep like a sloth” is a simile that’s even mentioned in the seven deadly sins. This belief was confirmed when researchers found that these animals sleep about 16 hours per day. When another research team studied three-toed sloths in their natural environment, they discovered that sloths actually slept for 9.5 hours a day. Sloths are still excruciatingly slow when moving from one place to another, but speed has nothing to do with laziness.
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