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Friendly reminder that the platypus is a semi-aquatic, venomous mammal that lays eggs and can sense electricity. They’re also biofluorescent, so they glow blue under UV light:
Every time I hear a new platypus fact I am convinced the whole animal is a hoax.
They also swallow rocks to digest food.
Lacking teats, they sweat milk to feed their babies. And their left ovary is non-functional.
This was how early mammals fed their young, nipples evolved later on. I’m no specialist but I suppose that’s when platypuses branched out
Really? Awesome. You made my day.
How do I unsubscribe from Platypus Facts?
Opossums also glow under UV.
That tracks. I wonder why some animals do that and others don’t. It’s not like there’s much natural uv in any situation lacking visible light
Ah, but “visible light” as a category is human-centric in that it’s based only on which wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation our eyes can detect or “see”. Other species can see more or different wavelengths, such as UV.
didn’t know that, but hell yeah
In early 2025, beaver activity in the Brdy Protected Landscape Area, Czech Republic, contributed to the restoration of a wetland ecosystem. A family of beavers constructed a series of dams that accomplished environmental goals set by the Czech government, which had delayed its proposed project since 2018 for bureaucratic and financial reasons. The beaver-built dams saved the Czech government approximately US$1.2 million, providing ecological benefits including improved water quality, enhanced biodiversity, and better water retention.
bureaucracy delaying an important project because ofcourse it did
Those beavers: fine I’ll do it my fucking self
presumably the local government at somepoint was like “we gotta hire a hunter to kill these beavers, their activity will delay our ecological restoration project, which is already behind, further”
“Heard you were struggling to build a dam eh, here let’s show ya how it’s done”
But luckily, all the adults were right about this one!
Post kind of reads like one of those “lies you were told when you were a kid” posts, but actually you just get the fun of learning about this critter that is much cooler than you thought it was now that you stop and think of what you were taught about it; the adults told you no lies but a cool truth you might appreciate more when you are older.
Wait until you hear about ants.
Based beavers.
They eat what?!
Wait until you learn what their anal secretions taste like…
OMG TIL
… You went outside and licked a beavers butt, didn’t you?
Science!
I saw my first one up close at like 26. It was a weird trip even though I’ve seen pictures and videos all my life. Felt like seeing a celebrity.
Sure it does. You just have to realize that humans aren’t as smart as they pretend. I’d even wager a rather large selection of animals are smarter than certain sects of humanity…
I love that this comment, trying to say that animals are not as bad as people think, manages to:
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imply that humans are, apart from exceptions, universally smarter than all other species (funny, because there aren’t that many species that have such a dysfunctional society and interactions, as well as self-predatory behaviours)
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imply that sects are stupid, even though they are literally manipulation machines targeted at vulnerable people.
Wowza.
Look up the definition of ‘sect’. It is not what you think it is.
I didn’t say cult. I didn’t say religion. I did not say culture. I did not say region. I did not say country.
I said sect.
You cannot deny that smart people are very, very, very different than the morons I’m obviously referencing.
Most scientists do not condone war or slavery. Most people that are capable of technical knowledge tend to be peaceful leaning.
Yes, people who easily fall for brainwashing do tend to be dumber than average!
It’s almost like you both want to be misanthopic and defend humanity at the same time… Fucking pick a lane, or agree with me that there exists, literally and demonstrably, stupid sects of humanity.
I looks like you’re using sect to just mean a generic group of people, while the other dude is going by the dictionary definiton that implies religious or philosophical ideology as the basis for the group.
Yea, and the general one is completely fine. I said ‘sect’ and not ‘religion’ for a fucking reason.
You also told the other user to look it up in the dictionary, while not using the dictionary’s definition of the word yourself.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sect
Look. Look at definition 3. It IS in the dictionary.
Just because you think words have one meaning doesn’t mean all words have one meaning.
Also the first sentence of wikipedia:
A sect is a subgroup of religious, political, or philosophical belief system, typically emerging as an offshoot of a larger organization.
Where in any of those definitions does it describe a sect as a “manipulation machine”?
Holy fuck, did any of you damn children take any sociology classes?? This is fucking middleschool knowledge…
The religious part. Which you clearly already knew, since you pointed out that isn’t what you meant. 🤦♂️
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Most of them are smart enough to not enslave or murder their own species either.
Isn’t that pretty much all bees and ants do though?
Also most of them just live alone until it’s time to fuck, which is often an ambush, then maybe look after the baby for a bit.
that’s… what? other than like… tigers most animals have highly complicated social structures
even bees and ants have complicated social structures that “they’re enslaving eachother” is an incredibly reductive human-centric view of how a eusocial colony works.
And what do they do to qualify them as “eager”?
Uh, I don’t think that’s referring to the animal
