Category: Animals

Posted on

This Is Why Cats Can’t Get Enough of Cardboard Boxes

Cats and cardboard boxes go together like PB&J, right? Cats are drawn to those brown cubes like white on rice – or in this case, brown on cardboard. But why? Trying to decode cat behaviors may seem nearly impossible, especially when this obsession is universal in felines. But let’s explore anyway…

Cats crave security

Mark Freemen, DVM and an assistant professor at the VA-MD College of Veterinary Medicine told Readers Digest,

“Cats are, by nature, cryptic animals, meaning they prefer to have a safe hiding spot from which they can observe the world around them. Cats are both hunter and prey, so having a secure space from which they can monitor for threats from predators as well as for appealing prey is ideal.”

Pretty neat. We cat owners tend to humanize our kitties, making us forget they have their own instincts for survival.

Photo Credit: Pexels, FOX

Kitties want to be warm

Cats need to maintain a certain temperature to remain comfortable. Wired quotes a 2006 study by the National Research Council as saying that “the thermoneutral zone for a domestic cat is 86 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the range of temperatures in which cats are ‘comfortable’ and don’t have to generate extra heat to keep warm or expend metabolic energy on cooling.”

It would make sense that our furry felines find comfort within boxes. Corrugated cardboard is a type of insulator which can help regulate their inner temperature, ensuring the cat is comfortable. This can also help them preserve body heat when cold.

Cats may be searching for stimulation or an escape from anxiety

Have you found your cat loves to scratch, bite, and chew on cardboard? Some cats need to be stimulated more, and so find this activity fun. “You’ll often find them scratching, chewing, and otherwise mangling the cardboard, which is a great source of entertainment and pleasure for the cat,” said Freeman.

Photo Credit: Pexels, Peng Louis

But that’s not all! Felines have scent glands on their paws, so scratching leaves behind their signature mark – it’s part of how they mark their territory.

Cardboard can also be a great escape, particularly for cats that suffer from anxiety. “When a cat is over-stimulated, tired, or just in need of a break, a box gives them the ability to recharge until they’re ready to come out and play again,” Daniel Rotman, CEO of PrettyLitter, told RD.

 

Before you give your cat a box, make sure sure to remove any objects that may cause harm, such as staples in the seams. After that, let them enjoy their new space – and have a good time watching them.

The post This Is Why Cats Can’t Get Enough of Cardboard Boxes appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

8 Weird Facts About Animal Sex

Ahhhh, sex makes the world go ’round, doesn’t it? Without it, few species would survive. And while humanity’s getting pleasure from procreating is unusual, with many animals it gets way weirder than that.

Way. Weirder.

Below are 8 of the more bizarre ones we’ve come across.

8. Water bugs make quite a racket while in search of a partner.

Micronecta scholtzi are the loudest animal in the world relative to their size. They can reach nearly 100 decibels by rubbing their penis against their abdomen – a very loud, very penis-y mating call.

7. Turtle mating sounds make for good sound effects.

Filmmakers used the loud, distinct mating sounds of tortoises to create the velociraptor sounds in Jurassic Park.

6. Duck vaginas have defense mechanisms.

Duck penises are long and corkscrew-shaped, and can be used like a lasso to pull in females trying to escape unwanted advances.

Yeah. Terrifying.

In response, female ducks have evolved vaginas that twist in the opposite direction – what Discover magazine refers to as “organic chastity belts.”

5. Sharks can reproduce asexually.

A female zebra shark named Leonie has laid eggs both with and without male involvement, and she is not the only one – when the circumstances call for it, sharks are capable of asexual, virgin births.

4. Only 3% of bird species have penises.

Ostriches and ducks have them, but eagles and penguins do not. Also, when birds get erections, their penises fill with lymph fluid instead of blood.

Birds without penises transfer sperm via a cloacal kiss – meaning the male just kind of squirts sperm from his cloaca into the female’s cloaca without any sort of penetration.

3. Big cats love a good cologne.

Synthetic colognes have sex appeal to tigers and jaguars, who have shown signs of stimulation after being exposed to the scents. Forest rangers have even used Obsession for Men to lure tigers out of the wild!

2. Animals have reproduced in space.

Humans have never had sex in space (according to NASA), but we know animals have.

Rats, frogs, and even geckos have gotten it on – and procreated – in space.

1. Barnacles have adaptable penises.

Barnacles have penises that can stretch up to 8x the length of their bodies, and they can also adapt to their environment by altering their shape.

Those definitely qualify as weird in my book.

The post 8 Weird Facts About Animal Sex appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A Study Shows That Cat Owners Pass on Their Own Personalities to Their Cats

Sometimes, humans and their pets seem eerily similar to each other, and it’s not just in our imagination, according to a new study.

In a study published in Plos One, researchers surveyed over 3000 cat owners. They asked them a variety of questions about five broad personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Then they observed their cats’ behavior.

The researchers found that the traits that were dominant in owners were also observed in their cats.

For example, owners who rated higher in neuroticism had cats who exhibited behavior problems. Owners who rated themselves as more extroverted had cats who enjoyed being outside more.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Cats are notoriously independent animals. They’re not really into being told what to do or how to act. So, how do they end up picking up on so many of their humans’ traits?

It may be due to the tight bond that many humans and cats share.

“Many owners consider their pets as a family member, forming close social bonds with them,” explained Dr. Lauren Finka, co-author of the study. “It’s therefore very possible that pets could be affected by the way we interact with and manage them, and that both these factors are in turn influenced by our personality differences.”

Photo Credit: Pixabay

She added that “further research is needed to investigate the causal nature of this relationship – and to look at if, and how, owner personalities are directly influencing their cat’s behavior and welfare.”

Cool!

The post A Study Shows That Cat Owners Pass on Their Own Personalities to Their Cats appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

More Than One Million People Say They’re Going to Storm Area 51. Here Are 20+ Memes About It.

People are really gonna storm Area 51! Supposedly…hundreds of thousands are going to Nevada and just burn the whole fucking thing down.

Yeah, that’s right. How do I know? A Facebook event says so! 1.2 million people are ‘attending’ the September 20th showdown. And, get this… the U.S. Military has even had to come out and warn against it!

“Area 51 is an open training range for the US Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”

But aren’t those our assets? We pay for ALL of that.

Well, whatever, here are some fun memes. Don’t overthink any of this…

1. Nothing to see here…

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

2. Oh yeah… it’s gonna happen!

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

3. Here come the Men In Black…

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

4. Oh shit…

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

5. Fucking time traveler!

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

6. So… does that mean they won?

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

7. Good doggie!

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

8. lol

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

9. “NOTHING!”

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

10. The Simpsons fucking predicts the future!

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

11. I’m gonna go home now…

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

12. Well, who does REALLY know how?

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

13. Smoke weed every day…

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

14. We asked for it.

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

15. Run away!

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

16. He knows… he knows…

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

17. Let me tell ya about an area called 51…

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

18. He ready!

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

19. Ohhhhhhh shiiiiiiitttttt

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

20. She’s got a point!

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

21. Looks legit…

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

Well, those were certainly out of this world!

???

The post More Than One Million People Say They’re Going to Storm Area 51. Here Are 20+ Memes About It. appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

An 89-Year-Old Woman Generously Knits Blankets for Shelter Dogs

If you’re a dog lover like me, it often hurts our hearts that we can only save so many of the good girls and boys who need homes and humans to love them. People who volunteer for shelters have the biggest hearts of all – seeing and assuaging suffering every single day and knowing the entire time that there’s only so much they can do.

When an English dog shelter, Dogs Trust, put out a call a few years ago for knitted dog coats, 89-year-old Maisie Green answered with gusto.

“Nifty with needles or handy with a crochet hook? We’re calling all crafty types to contribute home-made dog coats for our Hope Project Christmas hampers,” said the Dogs Trust Facebook page.

She’s been bringing in home-knitted blankets and coats three times a year for the past three years – around a dozen each time (around 450 total) – and has no plans to stop.

“I love knitting and I love dogs, so this combines both wonderfully! It takes me three days to knit a blanket and one day to knit a doggy coat. It keeps me busy and often, I like to knit whilst watching television. I’m delighted to be helping the four-legged residents at the center in some way,” Green said.

The dogs are happy, Maisie is happy, and the shelter is happy, too.

“Maisie regularly brings along her knitted donations and we are so grateful for her support. With the chill of the winter months really starting to creep up on us, I know our dogs are very pleased to put the items to good use – and love feeling extra cosy!” said the rehoming manager at Dogs Trust.

A win, win, win – and a bunch of too-cute pictures to boot!

The post An 89-Year-Old Woman Generously Knits Blankets for Shelter Dogs appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

These Penguins Disobeyed Police and Returned to Invade a Sushi Shop Twice

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE THIS STORY.

Meet the cutest criminals in perhaps the whole world.

Two penguins in New Zealand disobeyed police and hid under a sushi stand.

On the one hand, penguins have NO business being in or near a sushi shop. But on the other hand, penguins mainly eat fish, so…

You can see how they’d be tempted.

The little blue penguins hid underneath a sushi stand, Sushi Bi, across from a railway station in Wellington. Police “temporarily detained” the pair before releasing them back into Wellington Harbor, according to Radio New Zealand.

These birds seemingly have no respect for police authority! Even though they’d been returned to the harbor, they snuck across busy lanes of traffic to get from the station to the sushi bar a second time. At that point, the Department of Conservation was called to remove them.

You know – escalate to a higher authority.

These penguins are apparently common in Wellington Harbor, and at this time of year, they pair up and look for a spot to lay their eggs.

These two penguins just happened to choose the sushi shop, which is a first.  They’ll likely try to attempt to return to the same site to nest over and over again, despite the every attempt to remove them.

“It’s a natural characteristic of the penguins – they will always return to where they possibly were nesting,” explained Mike Rumble, a volunteer with the DOC.

Jack Mace of the DOC says that people should keep their distance from the penguins because they can bite. They are cute, but not harmless.

If anyone wants to start a petition to let the penguins nest under the sushi shop, though, I’ll definitely sign it!

The post These Penguins Disobeyed Police and Returned to Invade a Sushi Shop Twice appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A Mailman Who Passes out Treats to Dogs Shared an Emotional Note About a Dog Who Passed Away

The prevailing myth is that dogs and mailmen aren’t the best of friends, but when it comes down to the individuals on the ground every day, that’s not always true.

Twitter user @amorningsting recently shared a status about how her father, a US postal worker, carried treats along his route and handed them out to the very good dogs he met along the way – including a big German shepherd named Gretchen. But one day, instead of the dog waiting at the door, the mailman found this note:

“Gretchen passed away yesterday. She asked me to ask you if you would share her treats that she never got to finish with the other dogs on your route. She always enjoyed seeing you come to the door and was always happy to get a snack from you. Thank you. The Cimino Family.”

His daughter shared it, and the internet can’t handle the feelings.

I want a new mailman, honestly.

Image Credit: Twitter

And I wish I could have gotten a good boop from Gretchen, too.

Image Credit: Twitter

It’s a happy-sad story. If you ask me, those are the very best kind.

The post A Mailman Who Passes out Treats to Dogs Shared an Emotional Note About a Dog Who Passed Away appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A Company Adopted Two Office Kittens to Boost Employee Morale and It Totally Succeeded

What better way to lift your spirits when you’re having an awful day at work than to play with a rambunctious kitten or two? Talk about a stress reliever!

I think that maybe all offices need to consider doing this.

The IT/finance department of a transportation company in Ohio “hired” two kittens to be a part of their team and, thankfully, the whole story is being documented on social media.

An employee of the company posted on Reddit about the two kitties and the story went viral.

Now Debit and Credit have an Instagram page with more than 23,000 followers so we can all watch them grow up before our eyes!

Enjoy these pics of the kittens who make every day in the office just a little bit better.

1. Get back to work!

2. Meet Credit

3. Meet Debit

View this post on Instagram

Hello, my name is Debit. ?? #ourofficekittens #debit

A post shared by Debit and Credit (@ourofficekittens) on

4. Break time

View this post on Instagram

Sleeping babies ? #ourofficekittens

A post shared by Debit and Credit (@ourofficekittens) on

5. All up in the packing supplies

6. Family portrait

7. Case of the Mondays

8. Double trouble

9. Inbox is full

10. Gotta file those reports

11. Snuggle struggle

12. Their very first photo

13. Sleeping on the job

14. Everything okay here?

15. Causing mischief

Be sure to follow Debit and Credit on Instagram to keep up with all their latest antics!

The post A Company Adopted Two Office Kittens to Boost Employee Morale and It Totally Succeeded appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

A Guy Accepted a Dare to Eat a Gecko and He Lost His Life

Bet you never thought you’d see that headline, right?

We all know that games of truth or dare can get out of hand on occasion, but the family of David Dowell – a husband and father of three – never expected his taking a Christmas party dare to eat a gecko might cost him his life.

The healthy 34-year-old ingested the animal on December 1, and by December 3, he was not feeling at all well.

“It was coming out both ends,” his sister Hannah told The Sydney Morning Herald. “He was really sick and the moment he started throwing up it was green. That’s when they rang the ambulance.”

View this post on Instagram

♡ Betty ♡ She’s like a little boa sometimes ? It was weigh day today and Betty is up at 52g, Penny has gone down to 66g and Archie is at 30g. ??• • I’m going away again and wont be home until friday, so there probably wont be any pictures. #leopardgecko #leopardgeckos #leopardgeckosofinstagram #leopardgeckolove #gecko #geckoleopard #geckoofinstagram #geckos #geckolove #geckoaddict #geckoaddiction #geckoadvise #geckofeeding #leopardgeckofeeding #bhfyp #bhfyp♥ #leopardgeckoshedding #geckoshedding #eublepharismacularius • Reptifam ?? @diego_the_leopardgecko @lillie_leopoard_gecko @leoo_ladies @leopardgecko.mm @tiny_the_leo @acid_the_gecko @mon.and.sienna @emile_et_une_patte @morethanagecko @sakr_the_gecko @reptiles_239

A post shared by Alma ♥ (@ginger.geckogeek) on

Brisbane doctors originally believed he had a simple stomach bug, or maybe a hangover, but the family insisted it must be more and begged them not to discharge him. Dowell was admitted and eventually diagnosed with a Salmonella infection – one that began to worsen significantly during his hospital stay.

Little known fact: even though Salmonella is typically acquired by the mishandling of food, according to the CDC reptiles can also transfer the microbe to humans.

“Contact with reptiles can be a source of human Salmonella infections. Reptiles can be carrying Salmonella bacteria but appear healthy and clean and show no signs of illness.”

In fact that’s why turtles under a certain size are banned from being sold as pets – little kids kept getting salmonella.

Though it’s not clear whether David Dowell actually ate the gecko or simply handled it (stories from the party state either as having happened), there was no doubt he was in serious trouble. His mother told the newspaper that “his testicles were swollen up to grapefruits and there was fluid leaking from them. The doctors said that was normal, it was just all all of the fluid in his stomach cavity.”

Salmonella causes illness in around 1.2 million people in the US every year, and while most cases clear up on their own within a week, around 23,000 people are hospitalized and 450 don’t recover.

View this post on Instagram

Salmonella infection (salmonellosis) is a common bacterial disease that affects the intestinal tract. Salmonella bacteria typically live in animal and human intestines and are shed through feaces. Humans become infected most frequently through contaminated water or food.⠀ ⠀ Typically, people with salmonella infection have no symptoms. Others develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps within eight to 72 hours. Most healthy people recover within a few days without specific treatment.⠀ ⠀ In some cases, the diarrhea associated with salmonella infection can be so dehydrating as to require prompt medical attention. Life-threatening complications also may develop if the infection spreads beyond your intestines. The risk of acquiring salmonella infection is higher when travelling to countries with poor sanitation.⠀ ⠀ #DoyenMedicals #MedicalEducation #Salmonella #HealthyLiving #healthylivingjourney

A post shared by Doyen Medical Services (@doyenmedicals) on

Sadly, Dowell found himself in the latter category. After spending time in a medically-induced coma, he passed away during emergency surgery 10 days after the incident with the gecko.

Though doctors never said for sure that it was the interaction that cost him his life, his partner, Allira, says “ingestion of a gecko” is what is listed on the “actual death certificate.”

The death of their loved one was sudden and unexpected, and the family is still reeling from the entire episode. Though they’ve opened an inquest into how things were handled at the hospital, they realize they may never have answers.

Allira does have some advice for anyone out there who thinks stunts like the one David pulled are all in good fun: “If you’re thinking of performing a similar stunt, don’t.”

Solid advice, if you ask me.

And one more reason to avoid the local wildlife whenever possible.

The post A Guy Accepted a Dare to Eat a Gecko and He Lost His Life appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Female Lionesses in Botswana Grew Long Manes and Started Acting like Males

Well, this is kinda cool.

Five lionesses in Botswana started behaving like male lions — long manes and all.

Male and female lions look and behave quite differently from each other. Male lions have big manes and they roar a lot. Female lions don’t have a mane and they’re not as vocal. The ladies also do the majority of the pride’s hunting.

Once in a while, though, lionesses start to act more like “one of the guys.”

OKC Zoo veterinary caretakers are working to solve a very curious case; Bridget, the Zoo’s 18-year-old African lioness,…

Posted by Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden on Monday, February 19, 2018

Researchers observed five lionesses at the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana exhibiting male behaviors, like growing long manes, marking their territory, mounting other females, and roaring.

These changes are likely due to increased levels of testosterone, scientists say.

“While some of the maned lionesses were observed mating, none of them became pregnant, suggesting they are infertile, a known consequence of high levels of androgens such as testosterone in females,” Katherine Alexander at Virginia Tech explained. “The behavioral changes suggest this is likely the case.”

This isn’t the only time that a lioness has undergone this change. An 18-year-old female called Bridget, born into captivity at the Oklahoma City Zoo, grew a “mini-mane.” In 2011, a captive lioness called Emma in South Africa grew a mane, too, and tests revealed high levels of testosterone due to an issue with her ovaries.

However, this phenomenon is most common in Botswana’s Okavanago Delta, where maned lionesses are a regularity, likely due to a genetic predisposition.

The post Female Lionesses in Botswana Grew Long Manes and Started Acting like Males appeared first on UberFacts.