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You know how when you cut a worm in half you’ll get two worms and how mice love cheese? If you said yes, then actually you don’t know much about these creatures. Cracked recently took a look at common animal myths that are actually totally bogus. How many of these did you still believe before you read the article?
Ever wondered about the origin of the Japanese Kirin or the waving Lucky Cat? If so, then this article by Matt Alt will amaze and astound with it’s short yet concise descriptions of 10 of the best known Japanese mythical creatures, some of which you may have seen but never thought you’d understand. This great article sheds light on creatures both strange and strangely familiar, and the accompanying illustrations are a delight! Follow the link, read on and be glad you’ve never spotted one of these critters in your backyard.
Link -via BoingBoing
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From a one-ton crocodile that may have killed 300 people to a leopard who munched on 250 different victims, this list of man-eating beasts is fascinating although a bit depressing.
Special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen created cinema monsters and other creatures for decades. In this video, you’ll find every one of them, presented in chronological order. See a list of them at the associated website. Link -via Boing Boing
Very busy artist Mike Bukowski has a project going in which he is illustrating each and every creature found in the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. In many cases, he has only a short description (or sometimes none at all) to work with, but they all seem to be at home in the nightmares those stories can induce. Picture is Deep One, from The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Some images are NSFW. Link -via Laughing Squid
Last Father’s Day, we brought you a list of the world’s greatest animal dads, but now it’s time to thank the ladies for all their hard work. These matronly critters show just how much a mother’s love can mean to the success of her little one.
After a 22 month long pregnancy followed by delivery of the world’s largest babies (around 250 pounds), elephants deserve to be on this list even if they immediately abandoned their babes. But they don’t just say “thanks for all the stretch marks,” and get on their merry way, elephant mothers continue raising their babies. Baby elephants are born blind and completely dependant on their mother and the rest of the herd. While the baby is growing, they are fortunate enough to have a great support system consisting of multiple full-time babysitters, called “allmothers.” While the allmothers take care of the precious little one, the mother will work to eat as much as she can so she can make the most possible milk for her bundle of joy.
Image by Googie man [Wikipedia]
We don’t tend to think of cold-blooded animals as the most caring parents, but alligators certainly break that mold. The female alligator creates nests of rotting organic matter that not only self-incubates, but also determine the sex of the babies. Nests that are constructed with leaves are warmer than those made with wet marsh, and thus, produce more males than cooler nests.
Once mama gator has planned the sex of her litter, she will guard her nest from threats, including other alligators, who love to munch on baby gator nests. When the eggs hatch, she will load them into her mouth and then carry them into the water where she will continue to care for them for the following year, assuming they decide to stay near home.
Image via Catholic 85 [Wikipedia]
Female orangutans have to wait eight years between births (the longest interbirth time of any great ape), so they make sure their time with each baby counts. Infant orangutans are completely dependent on their mother for their first two years of life. In fact, during the first four months of a baby’s life, it will never break physical contact with its mother, clinging to her belly the whole time. Each night, the mother will make a nest and she and her baby will cuddle in bed during the duration of its infancy.
Even as they mature, they continue to stick close to mother and even breastfeed until they are five years old –making them the species with the longest dependence period. The girls stay with their mothers longer than the boys, sticking around to learn necessary baby rearing skills.
Image via JohnBurke [Flickr]
In his manic studio, 43-year-old Ptolemy Elrington works full-time creating glorious animal sculptures from hubcaps of all kinds, though he especially likes those from BMW and Mercedes vehicles. These are all put together using scrap wire and cut with either craft knife or hacksaw. Link
Not all mythological creatures are as impressive as dragons or sasquatch; some are downright weak, not worth the publicity, or way too easy to explain. Take the Flatwoods Monster:
Another of these possibly alien types, the Flatwoods Monster appears to be someone’s hellish vision of a nun, mixed with alien effects budget of the final season of the original Star Treck. Standing 10 feet high, with bulging eyes, a heart shaped red face, and in a pleated green skirt, the Flatwoods Monster terrorized a group of preteens, who couldn’t decide if it had short stubby claw arms or not, when later asked. It reportedly made a shrill hissing noise, and glided around. You know what else has a shrill hiss, heart shaped face, glides, and could easily be misconstrued by terrified 12 year olds? A barn owl.
From the Upcoming 
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Have you met the sea pig yet? He’s a disgustingly fascinating creature that lives at the bottom of the sea and lives off of any rotting nastiness that falls to the ocean floor. Somehow he’s still kind of cute though.
This little sea piglet is one of 15 animals Web Ecoist chose as the top strangest animals. The list is certainly worth a look.
