Topic

The animal kingdom's tricks

What the other animals are really up to: the pets in your house, the bodies built in ways that should not work, the tiny creatures with outsized talents, and the astonishing lengths life goes to just to stay alive.

what our pets are really doing

Cats and dogs

Nature

Why do cats always land on their feet?

Cats have an automatic righting reflex: their inner ear senses which way is down, and their flexible spine and…

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Nature

Why do cats knead?

Kneading is a leftover from kittenhood: nursing kittens push against their mother to get milk flowing, and the motion stays…

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Nature

Why do cats purr?

A cat purrs by rapidly twitching the muscles of its voice box, around 25 times a second, so the vocal folds snap together on…

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Nature

Why do dogs tilt their heads?

Nobody is certain. The most likely explanations are that tilting helps a dog locate a sound or see your face past its muzzle,…

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animal anatomy that shouldn't work, but does

Built weird

Nature

Why do wombats poop cubes?

The cube is shaped inside the intestine, not by the anus. In the last stretch of a wombat's very long gut, the wall has two…

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Nature

Why do flamingos stand on one leg?

Mostly because it takes almost no effort. A flamingo's leg bones lock into a passive gravitational stay that holds the body…

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Nature

Why do zebras have stripes?

The leading explanation is that stripes are anti-fly wear. Zebras live where biting flies carry deadly diseases, and their…

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Nature

Why don't woodpeckers get concussion?

They do not absorb the shock, and they do not need to. A 2022 study filmed woodpeckers and found the head and beak decelerate…

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small creatures with outsized tricks

Tiny marvels

Nature

How do fireflies glow?

A firefly glows through bioluminescence, a chemical reaction in its abdomen where a molecule called luciferin reacts with…

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Nature

Why do bees die when they sting you?

A worker honeybee's sting is not a smooth needle but a barbed harpoon. In thick, elastic mammal skin the backward-facing…

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Nature

Why don't spiders stick to their own webs?

Partly because not all the silk is sticky: an orb web's spokes and frame are dry threads the spider mostly walks on, and only…

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Nature

Why do moths fly into lights?

They are not actually attracted to it. A 2024 motion-capture study found flying insects tilt their back (dorsal side) toward…

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astonishing ways animals stay alive

Survival tricks

Nature

How do chameleons change colour?

Not by moving pigment around, and not mainly for camouflage. A chameleon changes colour by actively tuning a lattice of tiny…

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Nature

Why can wood frogs freeze solid and thaw alive?

Because the wood frog is freeze-tolerant: as ice starts to form, its liver dumps a flood of glucose that works like…

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Nature

Why do whales beach themselves?

There is rarely one answer. A single stranded whale is usually already sick, injured, old, or carrying parasites that…

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Nature

Why can't birds fly backwards?

A normal bird wing generates lift and thrust mainly on the downstroke and just recovers on the upstroke, so the push is…

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