Wombats
There’s a factoid that’s gotten a lot of attention lately, and no surprise – that wombats poop square poo is truly a weird phenomenon! The reasons for how and why this is so have been a mystery for years, but recently a couple of scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Australia’s University of Adelaide decided to do a more rigorous analysis. Turns out, wombat poo is extremely dry, since wombats, which live in arid climates, extract all moisture from their food. National Geographic reports that their intestines are also irregularly-shaped and stretchy, helping to sculpt dry scat into its unique cube-like shape. Find out the 10 things you need to know before you get an exotic pet.
Ducks
California is a hotspot for surfing, for both humans and ducks! Back in 2010, according to a story reported by The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, people started reporting that they’d spotted mallards everywhere from Santa Barbara to San Diego catching some waves, allowing their feathery bodies to be carried to shore. The reason: food, namely, sand crabs. It’s a behaviour scientists think they learned from watching native shorebirds such as sand scoters and black brants.
Manatees
Also known as sea cows, these plump, distant elephant relatives can weigh as much as 450 kilograms. They’re also vegetarian, which means that in order to have enough energy to swim around ocean shallows (like Florida), they have to eat 10 percent of their body weight every single day. That’s a whole lotta sea salad!