Have you ever wondered what animals are thinking? More than we realize, actually. What’s up with these guys? Don’t miss the Sixteen Surprising Facts after the pics below.
Click on any image to enlarge it, or to begin slide show.
There are so many cleverer things I could have said!
The purrfect thinking place.
There is no “cogito, ergo sum” without “dubito, ergo cogito.”
What are we shooting today, boss?
I have eyes owlnly for you.
Our little cat Misha loves to play hide-and-seek (that’s her).
I didn’t say she was good at it.
But you still love me, right?
I’m ready for my close-up.
Humans aren’t the only ones who get creeped out.
“Going to get fixed?” But I’m not broke!
No more mopping around!
Ancient Lemur Rituals
I didn’t sign up for this.
All my yoga poses are the Rabbit Pose.
Lighten up, Dave. You’re always so serious!
Are we too late for the evolving ceremony?
Seriously? He is so busted!
“Wise?” What does that even mean?
No way? He really said that?
What if I lived my life on a grander scale?
Wipered out.
Whoa! What the…!
I feel as if I’ve accomplished so little.
Wait! When I said to come in costume, I thought you understood!
I’m smarter than I look. Really.
They went to the same orthodontist.
What if this is all there is?
I’m doing this on porpoise, you know.
If you can’t saying anything constructive, then shut up!
What the…? I should stick with mice!
Sometimes I can’t bear my life.
You can’t be serious!
16 Surprising Facts
- Cats imitate crying babies, called “solicitation purring,” in order to get food or petting, knowing that humans consider it more urgent than regular meowing.
- Dogs prefer to do their business facing north. They can detect Earth’s magnetic fields (magnetoreception). But why?
- Cows face north or south when they graze. Like dogs, they have magnetoreception. Think of it as GPS (Grazing Positioning System). But again, why?
- Koala fingerprints are indistinguishable from those of humans, and have sometimes been confused with human prints in break-in investigations.
- Crows are tricksters. A Swiss Zoologist observed a crow punking a more dominant raven by pretending there was cheese in an empty container, then sneaking away while the raven looked there, and raiding a container he knew to be full.
- Apish addicts. Tori, an Indonesian orangutan, throws tantrums when she doesn’t get her daily tobacco fix at the zoo! Vervet monkeys in St. Kitts crave fermented sugar cane, sometimes going on benders and stealing alcohol from local resorts.
- Rats make giggling sounds when they are tickled, and beg for more!
- Pony Mimes? Horses vocalize for humans, but primarily converse facially with one another, using their ears, nostrils, and eyes to express themselves.
- Operatic Mice. The Alston’s Singing Mouse of Central America communicates with others in sing-song conversations, using around 100 audible notes.
- Bottlenose dolphins are also chatterboxes, and have personal names for each other.
- Killer whales have regional dialects, but adapt them to the community they live in. Orcas housed with bottlenose dolphins have learned to speak Dolphin.
- Cows are folksy. They have BFFs, and show great distress when separated from them. They also like slow, gentle music, and produce more milk when it’s played.
- Alligators like manatees (reason unknown), and will usually politely move aside to let manatees swim past and ahead of them.
- Baby elephants suck their trunks for comfort and security, just as human babies suck their thumbs.
- Juvenile delinquent elephants. Young elephants sometimes join gangs, harassing older elephants and other animals. African park rangers have instituted “big brother” programs, pairing them with older elephants to teach them to be respectful.
- Octopuses have incredible memories, and strong preferences for certain humans. But they’re fickle among their own kind, never settling on a single mate. This is probably due to the fact that they have three hearts (true).
Fascinating
And then there’s my cat Freddie, When it strikes him to do it at 3 AM of any morning he gets on the back of the couch and sings like Pavarotti even hitting all the right high notes. There is no stopping him until he is done, Just don’t ask me why. In fact he got his name when I was watching the movie Bohemian Rhapsody and even though it was not the real Freddie Mercury he was able to sing quite a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody right along with Freddie so he became his namesake,
That’s hilarious, Rasma. You’re so lucky to have rock star cat!
Love the pic’s but the captions sure add to them. Perfect.
Thank you, Sue! I enjoy writing those.
I wish I could think of captions like that. They’re great. Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanks, and same to you, my friend!
Thanks for sharing these captivating animal images with intriguing facts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the captions or make the slide show work. I still loved the post though! 🙂
Hmm, sorry to hear about slide show/captions fail, Nancy. I have no idea why.
I probably should’ve done a restart of my computer.
I’m in the midst of trying to get a whole bunch of WordPress glitches fixed, Nancy, so this could well be on their end rather than yours.
Great animal facts! I like the elephant big brother program. 😁
Wow!!! That’s fascinating. Thanks Mitch.
My pleasure, Sally.
Very cool and wonderful indeed. I loved the bunny pose. It’s my preferred posture!
;>)
Amen for the animal kingdom. Fascinating stuff!
Funny and wonderful animal photos and interesting animal trivia. It was a very interesting post.
Glad you enjoyed it, Thomas.
Thank you for the fun memes and interesting facts, Mitch. Especially loved the cat and dolphin clip. Such a surprising interaction. The dolphin is choosing to interact with the cat, and the cat doesn’t scratch or bite!
Yep, they’re too cute!
Love the pictures Mitch!
I especially liked the kangaroo, the chipmunk asleep on the camera and many others.
God bless you and your family and have a nice weekend!
You too, Cora!
I do often wonder what animals are thinking.
I never knew we had so much in common with elephants! – sucking their trunks…💕💕
I know, kind of adorable, huh.
Loved them all, Mitch. Thanks for sharing. I haven’t been reading blogs lately as I was dealing with overwhelming numbers of e-mail, a very slow computer then the computer was gone for 3 weeks. I had another 4000 e-mails come in when I got it back, so I was overwhelmed again. But the computer, with much more storage space, is now very fast and I’m trying to keep up with e-mail. This was a perfect post to come back to on your blog. Thanks again. God bless.
Well, then, allow me to be your official welcome back greeter!
Why, thank you sir! 🙂
❤️
That was fascinating, Mitch! I’m not sure when I crossed the threshold … it’s certainly been a while … but I’d much rather spend my time with animals than people. They are infinitely gentler, kinder, rarely disagree, don’t lie, have no hidden agenda, never monopolize the conversation and are excellent listeners.
Maybe God gave us animals to soften the blow of having to live with each other, Nancy.
Thanks, Mitch, for all the amazing animal pics and the fun(ny) facts! I’m still smiling. 😊
My pleasure, Peggy.
I’ve fact-checked the dog “business” factoid in my own backyard. I’m not saying that it’s a total myth, but I am suggesting that neither of my dogs has a sense of direction.
;>)
Thanks for the wonderful post, Mitch. 💖
My pleasure, Sandy.
Very interesting, specially the cow GPS. 😂 Here’s another one: the buds of many orchids look like an insect. An unsuspecting flyer looking for a mate swoops down on the orchid thinking it’s a female and presto – his legs are now full of pollen which he will take to another orchid to pollinate it. The orchids further the deception by releasing pheromones which smell like female insects.
Smart flowers! ;>)
Crows are smart!
Delightful post. I love the animal photos & captions.
Great animal facts at the end. Enjoyed this very much
So glad you enjoyed it, Linda.
Charlee: “Oh yeah! Cats rule!”
Lulu: “And dogs?”
Charlee: “Do I really have to tell you the answer to that?”
;>)
Too funny. I especially like the cat “reaching up” to the dog, trying in vain to get its attention! 😂
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“Animals are angels in disguise, quietly blessing our lives.” I am working on a story for later in October about the very subject. Thank you for giving me a space to provide a tease!
Gladly, Ben.