Odd Animals

Here's a list of odd animals and animal-related tales. I think that's enough explanation. Please note not all items have pictures.


The Lyre Bird can replicate the calls and songs of other birds.


The cuttlefish has three hearts. Pictured here are cuttlefish 'interacting'.


King Henry III loved his dogs so much that when they had a litter he would personally carry them around in a basket for days after their birth.


While making a public appearance, Emperor Theophilus once encountered a widow who alleged his army had stolen her only prized possession: a horse! As a result and to escape any future embarrassments, Theophilus then began ride with four spare horses to give away to anyone with similar claims.


*** Dr, Patrick Gorham, while hunting for grouse, shot and killed the grouse, a rabbit that was leaping into the air behind it and an 11-lbs. salmon that had jumped out of the water. He killed all three with the same bullet!


*** Langwater, Mass. has a cemetery for prized cattle.


The Egyptian Goose is deadly. It hides a pair of spurs (one under each wing) that it uses to stab predators.


Leonbergers are all honorary citizens of Leonberg, Germany -- the birthplace of this breed of dog.


The toucan has a tongue that is fringed.


A stuffed parrot resides at Westminster Abbey. And on the subject of parrots, they are the only birds that yawn. (Let me know if you yawn after reading this... I did).


The dragonfly has 15,000 lenses per eye.


Male cuckoos outnumber females six-to-one. And YOU thought you had a tough time picking up the ladies!


*** King Mahaculi Maha Tissa, in an attempt to fulfill the Buddhist mandate of working for those less fortunate, for fourteen years snuck out of his home disguised as a commoner and plowed rice fields with oxen.


Aztec warriors would don the guise of various animals to strike fear into their enemies.


The masked crab has what looks like a mask in the form of a human face on it's back. Can you see it?


A giraffe can lick its own ears.


The opossum has the shortest gestation period on record: a mere eleven days.


The Praying Mantis is the only insect to have the articulation to move it's head like a human being. The mantis pictured here is not Zorak.


The Japanese holiday Boys' Day is celebrated in part by flying kites and such in the shape of carp, which is a symbol ruggedness.


*** Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette, the first Duke d'Epernon, would inexplicably faint at the sight of a young rabbit, but never at a rabbit fully grown.


The silkie chicken has fluffy white feathers and black skin.


*** Rhodesian copper smiths would smelt their copper in large anthills.


The rhino is the only mammal that doesn't blink for eye lubrication. Instead, it has muscles that allow it to pull the eyes back into the socket and swirl them around.


A freight wagon once operated in Zululand, South Africa and was pulled by a team of zebras.


and lastly:


The Doberman Pinscher was named for Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann, the town tax collector and dogcatcher of Apolda, Germany.



Got more?! Post them in the comments!


SOURCES:


Ripley's Believe It or Not! 15th Series; Oct, 1969


Wikipedia