An octopus has three hearts
One main heart pumps blood around the whole body, and two more hearts pump blood through the gills.
Weird animal facts
Octopus hearts, cube-shaped wombat poop, otters holding hands and rats that laugh. Every fact here comes from the question bank of Bullshit, our bluffing party game, and each one was checked before it went into the game.
The wombat, an Australian marsupial, poops in the shape of cubes
Wombats use their droppings to mark territory, and the cube shape may stop them from rolling away. Exactly how the gut makes cubes is still not fully understood.
Sea otters sometimes sleep while holding hands, so they don't drift apart
Sea otters rest together in groups called rafts. To avoid drifting out to sea they wrap themselves in kelp, and sometimes they hold hands.
A male gentoo penguin courts a female by offering her a pebble
Gentoo penguins build their nests from stones and guard them jealously. A carefully chosen pebble can win a male a female's favor.
Butterflies taste their food with their feet
A butterfly's taste receptors are on its feet and work only on contact. That is how it checks whether a leaf is right for its young before laying eggs on it.
A polar bear's fur isn't actually white, it's transparent
The outer hairs of a polar bear are clear and hollow. The fur looks white because it scatters light, and the skin underneath is black.
In seahorses, the one who gets pregnant and gives birth is the male
The female lays up to 1,500 eggs in the male's pouch. He carries them for 9 to 45 days, then pushes the babies out with muscle contractions.
Scorpions glow under ultraviolet light
Scorpions glow blue-green because of fluorescent substances in the outer layer of their shell.
Rats laugh when you tickle them
Rats make ultrasonic 50-kilohertz calls during play and when people tickle them. Researchers have compared these calls to the laughter of playing children.
Dolphins call each other with a unique whistle that works like a name
Every dolphin develops a signature whistle in its first year of life that identifies it. Dolphins copy another dolphin's whistle to address it personally.