Animal Myths Busted! Top 10 | Earth Unplugged

Welcome to Earth Unplugged! We make films about the incredible natural world, we investigate the conundrums, quirks and beautiful science of our amazing planet, delving into the BBC vaults and mixing it up with our own stuff to take a brand new look at Earth.

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[Oujouj]

Was 3# really necessary, people might've not known about the others, but nobody is going to legitimately believe that cats have 9 lives.

[CeilingNinja]

Another thought about the elephants' "fear" of mice is due to their empathy. They don't want to hurt them by stepping on them, so if they see them running around, it may look like they're startled, but it's more a "oh dear, almost stepped on you there" type reaction.

And yes, elephants are highly empathic - and that empathy transcends the species boundary (like humans, they care about other species.)

[EvanG]

According to the Mythbusters, elephants are afraid of mice.

[futuresonex]

I used to have a Beta, a.k.a. the 'Siamese Fighting Fish', that always remembered my face.   Even though he would simply ignore everyone else, whenever I would go up to his tank he would come to the side and watch me intently.  However, it was no mystery why he was so much more enthusiastic about visits from me personally.  I'm the one who always fed him.

He was also the only fish I've ever had that both visibly and audibly chewed his food. Whenever he took a bite you could both hear him and see him crunch on it a few times before going for another bite.  For a fish, he was a pretty entertaining pet, pretty to look at too!

[carymahony]

I knew most of this but still found it interesting. The ostrich out running the lion was amazing...

[pokepokefanfan]

-the elephant ARE scare of mice, the myth buster put this to the test and every time the elephant were ecare of the one single mouse they had, they would stop moving out of the blue and then they would walk around the mouse, they did this like 5 times, every time with the same result.

-the lemmings and the suicide myth was created beacues there was an old disney documentary were they showed a bunch of lemming jumping of a clif into the water and the narrator said they were comiting suicide, i heard disney throw them and let them drown just  make a incredible story, idk if this last part is true, but the documentary you can find it here on youtube.

-some guy taught a goldfish  to make a goal, he had a small football and  a goalposts, and the fish just hitted the ball with its tail.

[BullShitThat]

Wait... cats aren't immortally blessed with nine lives?!?

But then what happened to all those cats that 0_o

[SoshiUso]

Fun fact: cats only land on their feet if they're falling for 3-5 stories. If falling for 5+ stories, they spread their legs out instead. This not only increases drag and reduces their terminal velocity, but it also prevents them from breaking all of their legs on impact (several broken legs are worse for survival than several broken ribs).

Also, apparently the explanation for how they can turn themselves over in mid-air begins by assuming that cats are pairs of cylinders...

[ToxicFaithPHD]

i read somewhere that the terminal velocity of a cat is non fatal. you could drop one from low earth orbit and it wouldn't hit the ground hard enough to kill it. same with chicks, baby birds. it doesn't matter how high the nest is they can walk right out and survive the fall.

[ticoman]

Mythbusters said that elephant vs mouse myth is true.

[ganeswaranselvarajah]

Time for my country to start changung their science textbooks!

[Yuusou.]

Elephants are careful when they walk. They don't want to crush the mice or anything else, so they might keep their feet off the ground, if the feel something, that is unusual and not a ground.

About the Lemmings: The myth was INITIALLY not part in cartoons or videogames. In fact the Disney movie called White Wilderness (winning an Academy Award!) has stated, that lemmings commit suicide. This was believed to be true and therefore comics and a video game series took use of that knowledge which was later on proven wrong.

[rayrowley]

A duck's quack does echo but that begs the question, are there any sounds that don't? IE the echo reflection wave pattern would line up as to cancel itself out.

[lucarnauddunoyer]

For the last one: lemmings population fluctuations are due to predator population co variation with their prey population density (the lemmings) ... not migration ... there are several scientific papers (see papers from french scientist: Olivier Gilg) on that fact and it's well developed in the sciences text books ...

[MyRegularNameWasTaken]

Thank you, Disney, for making the world think that pirates talk with their own "Arr, belay that ye scallywag, I be sailin' on the high seas, matey" lingo, that lemmings commit mass suicide by following each other off cliffs, and for the countless other myths you've engraved into the minds of millions who were too lazy to check their facts.

[TaylorNMusic]

Why can some animals, such as dogs, predict when earthquakes and other natural disasters happen? It has been observed that the week before an earthquake happens the amount of dogs that run away and end up in shelters increases, or so I've heard.

[tinglydingle]

What about daddy long legs being the most poisonous animals on earth but not having large enough fangs to bite? I remember that one from the playground.

[turkialbalushi]

You forgot to mention that camels DO have fresh water reservoirs, just not in their hump!

[jellycow]

On an episode of mythbusters they concluded elephant are afraid of mice though :)

[cesrai]

so where do camels store water? in their stomach.