Thursday, July 11, 2019

Just the Facts

Today's post is a humorous look at animal myths,such as the old cow tipping stories. Cows rarely sleep standing up and even if you happened to catch one asleep on its feet the only way it could be tipped is if its feet were bound and it would still take around five people to tip it. The second one to examine is the old porcupines can shoot their quills great distances,when in fact contact is the only way to end up quilled. It seems like that belief may have come from a cartoon? Speaking of cartoons the next myth has been featured in many cartoons and that belief is that possums sleep hanging from their tails. Though their tails are prehensile and useful for many other purposes they are not made to support the weight of the animal.
Slide 1 of 21: Everyone knows someone—or knows someone who knows someone—who's tipped over a cow. (Bonus points if said tipping tale involved a night of heavy drinking.) Thing is, all of those yarn-weavers are unwittingly peddling one of the greatest urban—err, rural—legends of all time. Fact: It's impossible for a human being to push over a dairy cow. The laws of physics will not allow it.But cow tipping isn't the only major animal myth that's been widely propagated over the years. Dogs only see in black-and-white? Owls can turn their heads a full 360 degrees? Elephant trunks are basically giant straws? Yeah, it's all totally bunk. Read on for the proof. And for more trivia that will totally upend your world, check out these 100 Mind-Blowing Facts We Bet You Didn't Know!
Slide 2 of 21: According to one widely reported study conducted at the University of British Columbia, it would take five people to produce enough energy to tip a cow off its feet—and that’s only if the cow’s legs stayed locked. Given that a) cows don’t sleep on their feet, and b) they don’t make a habit of just rolling over when people start shoving them, city slickers who believed they might one day have a chance to prove their brawn by bowling over a bovine can kiss that dream goodbye.Also, as Modern Farmer points out, there’s not a single video on YouTube (“the clearinghouse of human stupidity”) showing humans pushing over a cow. If that’s not nail-in-a-coffin proof, we don’t know what is. And if you’re just looking for an easy laugh, see these 50 Animal Puns That Are Seriously Amoosing.
Slide 4 of 21: The good news: try as they might, porcupines (whose Latin name literally translates to “quill pig”) wouldn’t be able to shoot their quills very respectable distances at the shooting range. The bad news: they can still release their approximately 30,000 pokey prickles. According to National Geographic, the quills just have to be touched in order to detach, so you should still give these critters a wide berth.
Slide 13 of 21: They might play dead, but possums (more formally known as opossums) don’t live up to other stereotypes about their habits. As detailed by the Opossum Society of the United States, the opossum has a prehensile tail, which is useful for many moves, including “grasping branches, balancing, and carrying nesting material.” But this little fella never uses its tail to hang upside down.
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