Throughout history and across cultures elephants have amazed and perplexed us, acquiring a plethora of meanings and purposes as our interactions have developed. They have been feared and hunted as wild animals, attacked and killed as dangerous pests, while also laboring for humans as vehicles, engineering devices, and weapons of war. Elephants have also been exploited for the luxury commodity of ivory.
The post Rethinking human-elephant relations in South Asia appeared first on OUPblog.
Arachnophobia, an irrational fear of spiders, affects millions of people around the world. This is not helped by popular culture portraying them as scary, deadly creatures who could creep up on you, and bite you, when you least expect it. They also do look pretty creepy... We've found the following ten facts about these misunderstood creatures.
The post 10 surprising facts about spiders appeared first on OUPblog.
Nature has a way of being cruel and being kind, here are a few fun facts where you can decide, if it is a trick or treat!
-Bats are the only mammals that can fly
-A flamingo can only eat when its head is upside down.
-If a kangaroo’s tail is lifted off the ground it is unable to hop. They use their tail for balance.
-A baby shark is ready to go fast when it is born, so that the mother shark doesn’t eat it.
-An owl can’t move its eyes, but it can turn its head 270 degrees.
-The cassowary is a beautiful bird and is predominately a vegetarian, but it can tear holes in flesh like Swiss cheese.
-The orca has no natural predator in the sea and they hunt in groups just like wolves do on land.
-Rhinos amble through the African Savanna and thickets of dense plants filled with ticks that attach to the rhinos and make them itch! The tick bird rides along while eating the tasty treat!
-The vampire squid is a creepy ocean creature that squirts glowing goo from its arms.
Find these facts and many more in Arbordale’s For Creative Minds sections! Take a look while you are eating your trick or treat loot!
1. Black bears are afraid of cats for unknown reason.
2. Shark is the only animal immune to all known diseases, including cancer.
3. If pursued by a crocodile, you should run in a zigzag motion, so you’ll be safe.
4. Chocolate and avocado is poisonous and deadly to parrots.
5. Beavers do not eat fish, they are vegetarian.
6. Hippo’s skin is so thick that most bullets can’t go through it.
7. The original English name of butterfly was flutterfly.
8. There are more dogs than people in Paris City.
9. Cow is the only mammal that pees backwards.
10. Lizards can communicate by doing push-ups.
11. Birds never sleep in their nests.
12. An octopus will eat its own arms if it gets really hungry.
13. Rabbit can die if they are too afraid of something.
14. Snails can sleep up to four years.
15. If you hold kangaroo’s tail, it can’t jump because kangaroo uses tail as balance.
16. More birds are killed from striking windows than any other direct cause of death annually.
17. If you make a camel angry, it will spit at you.
18. Ant always falls over on its right side when poisoned.
19. Mosquitoes prefer children than adults, blondest to brunettes, color blue to any other color.
20. Male fruit bats have the highest incidence of homosexuality among animals, not humans.
21. King crab is the only animal walks diagonally.
22. Lobster is too afraid of octopus, that the sight of one octopus can make a lobster freezes.
23. Yak produces pink colored milk.
24. The world record for frog jump is 33 feet (11 meters), achieved in May 1977.
25. Elephants sometimes remain standing after they are dead.
