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These incredible creatures will do just about anything to survive.
To cut it in the animal kingdom, you have to be tough—really tough. From withstanding brutal climates to fending off ferocious predators, surviving in the wild is no small feat. But a few cunning creatures have developed interesting traits and habits to stay in the game. Here are 40 of the most genetically gifted, physically freakish, and just all-around coolest animals in the world.
Snails are all over the map when it comes to sleep. We’ll define them as manic. They may nap for several hours, then stay awake for sessions of 30 hours or more. On the flip side, they have crazy hibernation periods. They can snooze for periods of up to three years, a survival instinct for when they feel the need to self-preserve.
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These birds have the insane ability to swivel their heads in almost a full circle thanks to their flexibility and the fact that their heads are only connected by one socket pivot. Researchers at Johns Hopkins also found that owls have backup arteries, so when they turn their heads at extreme angles, they’re still getting blood and nutrients when their blood vessels are cut off during turning.
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When the African Lungfish feels it’s in a life-threatening situation, it secretes a mucus cocoon and burrows itself up to nine inches under the soil, where it gets air through its lung via a built-in breathing tube that leads to the surface. It then relies on rainwater to breathe.
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That’s enough electricity to kill a horse. And while it might not be enough to kill you instantly, it’s enough to knock you out and leave you to drown. Another nasty note: If you’re shocked by one, it burns your skin.
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The stonefish produces intense vasoconstriction. If you’re stung by one, it can cause shock, paralysis, malaise, nausea and vomiting, sweating, delirium, pyrexia, cardiogenic shock, respiratory distress, and even death if it’s not treated within a few hours by anti-venom. If you do survive, the symptoms can last a long time, from days to weeks, and full recovery may take many months.
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At over 25 tons, the whale shark is the second largest fish in the world, and yet it’s fueled mostly by plankton, plants, and algae. It has over 4,000 teeth, but it’s a filter feeder. It collects food through a technique called “cross-flow filtration,” similar to some bony fish and baleen whales.
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Kangaroos can jump over 27 feet in one bound. They can accomplish this thanks to having small front legs and a long, strong tail that helps keep them balanced while jumping.
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They may be small, but they cause millions of deaths a year around the world, according to the World Health Organization. This is because mosquitoes carry and transmit a number of viruses and diseases, from malaria to dengue to yellow fever. In 2015 alone, there were 438,000 deaths from malaria.
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The Black Mamba slithers up to 12.5 miles per hour, but hopefully you can run faster. If it catches you, you have 20 minutes to find some anti-venom—or else you’re toast. The snake is responsible for an estimated 20,000 deaths each year.
This insect native to New Zealand freezes itself for several months, and then thaws itself. It’s the world’s largest freeze-tolerant insect, and withstands freezing 80 percent of its body tissues. It does this to survive drastic temperature changes thanks to a protein that prevents the formation of ice crystals in its blood-like fluid.
The dung beetle has been deemed the strongest insect on Earth. They’re able to push balls of fresh animal poop (hence their namesake) that weigh more than 200 times their body weight. Researchers documented one individual dung beetle that was pushing a ball that was 1,141 times his body weight, the equivalent of a 150-pound person moving a whopping 80 tons.
Don’t let the name fool you—it’s not a spider or a bird. It’s actually a wasp. But this insect leaves one of the most painful bug bites. According to entomologist Justin Schmidt, who created the “Schmidt sting pain index” to measure the severity of bug bites, on a scale of 1 to 4, the tarantula hawk is one of just two insects that scores a 4.
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Jaguars kill their prey with one bite by piercing the neck of their prey from behind, killing it instantly. And by the way, jaguars and black jaguars are the same species; the lack of markings is due to a mutation that occurs in approximately 6 percent of the wild population.
While hippos spend up to 16 hours a day submerged in water, they also take to the land (and have been known to be super aggressive). And for their size, they’re super speedy. Don’t try to outrun a hippo, because you’ll lose. They grow between 2,000 and 4,000 pounds, and can run between 15 and 30 miles per hour.
Komodo dragons can grow up to 10 feet long and swell to around 150 pounds, which means they eat…a lot. Try up to 80 percent of their own body weight in a single meal. Their post meal-ritual? They regurgitate all of the indigestible parts (bone, hair, feathers, scales) into gastric pellets that smell awful.
You’ve likely seen videos of scientists squeezing snakes’ venom into glass beakers. According to researchers, the snake that contains the most venom in volume is the King Brown, which can provide 1.3 grams of dry venom from a single milking.
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Looney Tunes made Taz a lovable cartoon character. But in real life, the devil is anything but. According to a study, it has the strongest bite on Earth. Although these animals weigh just 20 pounds on average, they can exert up to 94 pounds of pressure, for a “Bite Force Quotient” of 181. That’s nearly twice as strong as a hyena and some 60 points higher than a lion.
Emperor penguins live in the Arctic, arguably one of the cruelest environments, where it can get below -40 degrees Fahrenheit on the regular. They inhabit the ice and ocean that surrounds them, and have become experts at surviving. They dive up to 1,755 feet for food in water that’s well below freezing.
Ringtail lemurs have one of the most unique conflict-resolution tactics of all animals: stink fights. Since lemurs live in large social groups of 20 to 30, breeding season can bring a lot of competition. Male ringtails have scent glands on their wrists and shoulders. The wrist gland produces a volatile, short-lived odor, while the shoulder gland produces a brown, toothpaste-like substance, which is much longer lasting. Basically, male lemurs wave their tails and waft a fragrance toward their rivals, resulting in a smelly standoff until someone backs off.
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Nine months is nothing: African elephants have the longest pregnancy of any mammal, which can last up to two years. Scientists don’t really know why it takes so long to grow an elephant, but it could have something to do with their highly developed brains—elephants have complex social relationships and cognitive skills.
Camels live in one of the most arid environments on Earth, adapted to travel great lengths through deserts. That means they’ve become masters at remaining hydrated with limited water resources. When they do drink water, they’re capable of guzzling 30 gallons in under 15 minutes.
You read that right. Male seahorses have pouches on their stomachs for carrying babies—as many as 2,000 at a time. The female deposits her eggs in the male’s pouch, which results in him carrying a pregnancy that lasts from 10 to 25 days (depending on the species), and ultimately giving birth.
In 1996, a team of anatomists at the University of Adelaide in Australia discovered that koala and human fingerprints can easily be mistaken for one another, likely due to the fact that koalas are ancestors of primates.
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Male pigeons help to incubate the eggs laid by their female partners from mid-morning to late afternoon, while the females take over in late afternoon and overnight to mid-morning. Both parents (who mate for life) help feed their young when they’re born by regurgitating a milky liquid.
This doesn’t necessarily help the stereotype that great white sharks are cold-blooded killers. But they do have an insane ability to detect blood. They’re able to sense blood from three miles away, and can also identify a small drop in a 25-gallon bucket.
Honey badgers are known as one of the most vicious animals on the planet. And they pretty much hunt anything because they’re able to resist venom, an evolutionary wrinkle resulting from their diet of venomous snakes. From bugs to birds, crocodiles, and pythons, they take them all on.And they’ve evolved to digest entire animals, including bones and feathers.
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The inland taipan is the world’s most venomous snake based on the potency of its venom. Its median lethal dose for mice has been calculated at 0.025mg/kg. It only hunts mammals, and its venom attacks the human nervous system, blood, muscles, and organs.
These aquatic salamanders have one of the most incredible abilities of all animals on Earth: They can regenerate a missing limb, tail, spinal cord, parts of their brain, heart, and lower jaw, and other organs. Researchers are hoping to determine how they do this for future use in humans.
Clownfish experience what it’s like to be each gender during their lifetimes. They’re all born male, but some turn into females (a process known as sequential hermaphroditism). Both are born with both male and female parts, and some males make the transition if alpha females die.
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The peacock mantis shrimp, a relative of crabs and lobsters, throws a punch at 50 miles per hour, which is faster than a .22 caliber bullet. It uses its punch to impale soft-bodied prey like fish. And since it lives in overcrowded and competitive rock crevices, researchers believe it developed this strength to out-maneuver other hunters.
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This microscopic animal is one the world’s smallest animals, measuring in at 1.5mm. But it’s been found to survive in the most extreme conditions, including the bottom of the ocean and Mount Everest. Tardigrades are also the first animal to survive in space. Scientists believe it’s due to the fact they can survive extreme drying, going into a type of hibernation state before being rehydrated.
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As if their name didn’t give them away, assassin bugs of Malaysia are the ultimate predators. They’re known to hunt ants, and then turn the bodies of their victims’ exoskeletons into outerwear. (They do this after liquefying and consuming the insides of the ants.) Then they use their new armor to confuse future predators. Brilliant.
In response to physical damage or even starvation, immortal jellyfish transform back into polyps, essentially reverting them back to being re-born. Research has found that the re-born polyp is genetically identical to the adult it was before.
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Barn owls are a species known to mate for life, but research has found 25 percent of barn owls that pair up also divorce. It seems to be spurred by young male barn owls, who researchers found tended to end up with a less attractive female the second time around. Serves ’em right.
Bengal tigers are native to India, and are known carnivores. A hungry tiger can eat as much as 60 pounds of meat in one meal, and if it can’t finish, it usually buries it in the ground to save for a snack later.
Researchers have noted that African buffalo herds practice voting. The process only involves adult females, and it all takes place with physical cues. It happens when individual buffaloes register their travel preferences by standing up, looking in one direction, and then lying back down.
Beavers’ teeth never stop growing, so they chew to keep them at a reasonable length. But their teeth are also built to go through the chomping. They have an enamel made with iron, which gives them an orange hue, but also keeps them strong and resistant to acid.
Locusts have been feared ever since the days of the Bible, and for good reason. When they come to town, they literally destroy everything. A swarm of desert locusts can be as large as 460 square miles, and they consume 423 million pounds of foliage per day.
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Snow leopards inhabit mountainous ledges and peaks, so they’re built for cold weather and jumping. Their feet are covered in fur to help keep them warm in snowy conditions, and act as snow shoes. They have long tails that help maintain balance. And in one leap, they can get up to 50 feet thanks to powerful hind legs.
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When it comes to fish, you often categorize them as fresh- or saltwater-thriving. But give pupfish any kind of water—fresh, salty, freezing, warm—and they can survive just fine, biologists say. Researchers believe they have this ability because they evolved by only having low-quality water during the Ice Ages.
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Pufferfish can kill if their toxins are consumed. In fact, a single pufferfish has enough tetrodotoxin to take out 1,200 humans. Yet, some dolphins are willing to toy with this deadly fish to get a taste—apparently just enough to get a little high. Researchers have observed dolphins treating a pufferfish as a plaything, passing it back and forth. As the disturbed fish released toxins into the water, the dolphins seemed to enter a “trance-like state,” according to the Daily Mail’s report on a BBC television special revealing underwater footage of the psychedelic cetacean gathering.
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These amphibians seem to require no eyelids, because they appear to hibernate with their eyes open. The truth is, they do cover up with a nictitating membrane that keeps debris from irritating their eyes—though this is not the same as their additional, regular eyelid, which is closer to what humans have. Not only do frogs sleep without their regular eyelids closed, their bulging peepers can also see 360 degrees around them, keeping them safe from predatory sneak attacks.
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This small, hard-scaled lizard employs a defense mechanism that would freak out just about anything that gets too close. It can pressurize veins lining its eyes by temporarily cutting off blood supply back to its heart, which results in a bloody spurt, directed straight at oncoming animals. As shown in this video, the blood can land over 5 feet away. Not only does the weird act surprise predators, the blood also contains toxic chemicals that elicit further disgust.
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Some whales, like beaked whales, descend to more than 3,000 feet, and stay down for over 3 hours. Unlike land animals, they don’t take a deep breath before going underwater, but collapse their lungs instead. Normally, the building pressure of deeper dives dissolves any nitrogen in the lungs and pushes it into the bloodstream. When rising to the surface again, the decreasing pressure causes that nitrogen to form bubbles, just like in soda pop. That’s damaging for the brain, heart, and other organs.
These super divers avoid that problem entirely by pushing all air out of their lungs before they take the plunge. On their way back to the surface, they redirect circulation into their lungs again, and then push out any nitrogen that may have entered the lungs.
Swifts, especially the larger Alpine swifts, spend months of their lives barely touching down, managing to eat tiny flying insects and even sleeping in flight. One 2013 study showed that over a 6-month period, an alpine swift stayed airborne nearly the entire time. By using a tracking device attached to a group of migrating swifts, the ornithologists could spy on their movements at every moment.
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